Breaking the age-old stereotype of old age
While waiting in the lounge for my flight home this week I met a totally fabulous couple who wanted to chat, let’s call them Norm and Sue. They were on their way home, both in their late 60s, retired, lovely, and chatty, just the distraction you need after a long few days working.
Conversation turned to what I was doing in Auckland and what I do for a living. This is not always an easy conversation as many people just glaze over when I talk about making technology better for people with disabilities and access needs.
But for Norm and Sue (both aged 68 ish), my helping organisations make technology easier to use really kicked off the questions and the conversation started flowing, for almost two hours.
I don’t entirely remember how we got onto to it, but we talked about speech input and how they could use Siri to write text messages while they were driving, ask Siri about the weather and get Siri to read out their emails. Sue wanted to set up Siri right there and then.
Then we started talking about golf and how much Norm loves it, but was sad as an 86-year-old friend couldn’t play anymore as he was losing his sight. I mentioned that blind golf is a ‘thing.’ Norm was a bit sceptical until we used Siri to search for the tech enabled golf balls. Norm was impressed by who makes the balls for blind golf and was keen to tell his mate
Then we moved to AI and how scary it was. Sue sounded more than a little bit nervous. But I showed her how to ask ChatGPT to give her the basics of Blind Golf using speech input. She was sold and started downloading the app right there and then.
Then she suggested that I send her the ChatGPT output about blind golf via airdrop to share with Norm’s friend. She touched my phone to hers and when she saw “the wave” she went onto accept the transfer.
Then we started talking about caravans. We talked about how a friend of my father’s sold his house, bought a high-end caravan, installed satellite internet and ran his business from the caravan as he and his wife travelled New Zealand fishing and enjoying the good life.
Norm decided that Sue, who is a retired nurse, could make a few dollars to fund their travels by doing telehealth work. Imagine waking up in paradise, walking the beach and then doing a few hours online helping people, before settling in to watch the sunset from wherever you are parked up for the night.
This conversation made my heart sing. Here are two lovely, friendly, ‘older’ adults embracing technology and wanting to learn more about how it can work for them. And I got to show them a few things that might help.
The conversation also made my brain itch. It challenged all the stereotypes we are being told. Older adults are technophobes, they can’t possibly embrace new technology. It seems that Norm and Sue are not only keen to embrace technology, but also to share that knowledge with friends.
The point here is this – please please please don’t believe that ‘older’ adults are technophobes. Maybe take some time to share your knowledge in a way that means something to them. Don’t tell people they should, show them how they can. Don’t tell people they must, show them how tech can support them.