Why are old people so hopeless with technology?

[the_interloper]

There's a reason Dark Side Of The Moon occupied the top 100 albums for a record number of years.
$30 lunch bags of weed.
Do yourselves a favour kiddies. Roll a few 3 paperies and sit down and listen to The Dark Side Of The Moon.

Do the same with Mastodon currently, heavily influenced by PF/Yes/King Crimson etc but with a metallic edge. Their recent stuff is basically prog rock and good s**t.

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

I have two Seiko watches, nothing special and both battery operated and apart from changing the battery once in a while they are great. One of them is nearly 30 years old and the other one about 15 years old. I had a Citizen watch when I was at school (old fashioned one, not battery operated) but it doesn't work anymore (was good for about 10 years) and bought a Swatch when they were in fashion but it barely lasted a year.

 

[Scotland]

I'm only 32, yet in tests at school you weren't allowed to use notes or calculators because "you won't have one everywhere you go."

15 years later and I have a mini computer with the world's knowledge in my pocket every where I go.

It's actually kind of funny how quickly this came true for some people.

My Galaxy S7 has an octo-core 1.6 GHz CPU and 4GB of RAM. I think the fastest computer we ever had at home was maybe 1 GHz with 256 MB RAM and that cost a couple of grand and took up half the desk.

 

[Obese Arachnid]

I've a Seiko too, though it's a dog, a watchdog.


Number 37 your Parma is ready.

 

[The Unforgiven]

It's an attitude thing.

If older people choose to embrace technology, there's no reason why they can't be proficient at it. However, if they choose not to embrace it and it's not a required learning for their job, they will get left behind.

My mum is a bit of struggler with technology. She's retired now so she doesn't need to use technology. She's now down with the internet; paying bills, booking flights and, in more recent times, has gotten into using Ebay, Gumtree et al.

With most technologies, my mum needs it to be explained/introduced to her before she'll buy in to it. I got her a Chromecast and got her onto Netflix recently. I also got her listening to iHeartRadio recently as her favourite stations in Melbourne have discontinued.

My mum uses and embraces technology when it's introduced to her and she has a little guidance. However, her brother is a tech wizard and has taught me some stuff. He'd run rings around most millennials going around; not bad for a dude who's 66-years-old!

 

[Nugett]

I think it depends on the person. My pop brought his first reader when he was in his late 80's. From there he brough an iPad, with an account on kindle to download his books, rather than going to the library. He would quite often update his own Facebook profile with it. So with technology he had the philosophy that you either adapt or perish.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

I have two Seiko watches, nothing special and both battery operated and apart from changing the battery once in a while they are great. One of them is nearly 30 years old and the other one about 15 years old. I had a Citizen watch when I was at school (old fashioned one, not battery operated) but it doesn't work anymore (was good for about 10 years) and bought a Swatch when they were in fashion but it barely lasted a year.

My Seiko was purchased in 1973. No battery, it works from a self-winding mechanism. I don't wear it for months at a time (I have other watches) and as soon as I put it on it starts up again.

 

[Hoops]

This thread reminds me of this

 

[Billy ray]

I’m 42 and still havent used a computer or mobile phone or tablet. And refuse to do so.

 

[Gralin]

I’m 42 and still havent used a computer or mobile phone or tablet. And refuse to do so.

Still dictating to your PA to post on your behalf?

 

[Billy ray]

Still dictating to your PA to post on your behalf?

PA from 11- 3 weekdays.
Jeeves my butler outside these hours

 

[Xtreme]

mobile phone

My man!

Don't need a mobile phone, will not use one

I've gone through self serve a handful of times but will opt for a proper human cashier at the shops!

 

[Gralin]

PA from 11- 3 weekdays.
Jeeves my butler outside these hours

Your grammar and spelling does change outside those hours.

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

This thread reminds me of this

This should have more likes, very funny

 

[Firestarter]

PA from 11- 3 weekdays.
Jeeves my butler outside these hours

Pfft. Jeeves? Mine is called Giovanni.

 

[HBF]

Im forty.
When I went to school there was no computer.
I was driving before I used a mouse.

Really?
I'm in my mid 40's, and we used computers at high school. And a state school at that.

 

[HBF]

I take for granted the self serve section at supermarket and forget some go into a panic of not having a register open to goto and have someone do it for them.

I'll use the self checkout if i only have a few items, but prefer to go old school if i have a trolley full of stuff.

 

[footyfan1978]

I'll use the self checkout if i only have a few items, but prefer to go old school if i have a trolley full of stuff.

Fair enough if got trolley full of lots of stuff. But for shopping under 20 items, self serve every time.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

I'll use the self checkout if i only have a few items, but prefer to go old school if i have a trolley full of stuff.

The self checkout is really supposed to be for people with a few items who want to leave quickly. It really craps me off when I see someone with a full trolley occupying a self checkout for 20 minutes or more, slowly bagging their stuff and the pile in the trolley never seeming to get smaller.

 

[Firestarter]

The self checkout is really supposed to be for people with a few items who want to leave quickly. It really craps me off when I see someone with a full trolley occupying a self checkout for 20 minutes or more, slowly bagging their stuff and the pile in the trolley never seeming to get smaller.

It doesn't help when there are only two regularly manned checkouts so these guys have no other way. The heck are Coles doing...

 

[GotTheGoodes]

The self checkout is really supposed to be for people with a few items who want to leave quickly. It really craps me off when I see someone with a full trolley occupying a self checkout for 20 minutes or more, slowly bagging their stuff and the pile in the trolley never seeming to get smaller.

Sorry....

 

[Billy ray]

Im that guy too because there are only 2 checkouts open. Also shits me as i have nowhere to store my bags as i scan stuff

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Im that guy too because there are only 2 checkouts open. Also shits me as i have nowhere to store my bags as i scan stuff

So, sorry but you just wait in the queue for the main checkout. Complain to the management. But please consider other people.

 

[Scotland]

Really?
I'm in my mid 40's, and we used computers at high school. And a state school at that.

We had 2 computers in my year 4 classroom, so that would be 1993. I don't remember using computers at school from years 1-3 but we were pretty young so given the cost at the time it probably wasn't worth it. By year 6/7 we were doing 1 or 2 classes a week in a computer room (full of Apple Macintosh Classics) then through high school it was Windows PCs with network logons etc. I would've thought it was pretty common for schools to have computers from the early to mid 90s (perhaps even late 80s) which would fit your timeline. It was a state school so none of the stuff we had was cutting edge for the time either, and I'm pretty sure whenever new computers came in the old ones were handed down to the younger grades.

 

[Wojcinski]