#TechSavvySeniors #OldAgeTechAdvancements #DigitalNativesVsDigitalImmigrants
👵🏼🧓🏽 Saying that in 50 years, old people will be much better at tech than young people, instead of the other way around, is the next generation of ‘Kids nowadays can’t even drive a stick shift.’
In today’s rapidly advancing technological landscape, it is easy to assume that younger generations will always be more tech-savvy than their elders. However, recent trends and studies suggest that this stereotype may soon be a thing of the past. As older adults increasingly embrace technology and digital tools, it is becoming clear that they have the potential to surpass younger generations in technological proficiency. Let’s explore this phenomenon further and discuss why the future of tech might belong to seniors.
🔍 The Rise of Tech-Savvy Seniors
– According to a study by Pew Research Center, older adults are embracing technology at record rates. In fact, 73% of adults ages 65 and older now use the internet, a significant increase from previous years.
– Seniors are not just using technology for basic tasks like sending emails or browsing the web. Many are now actively engaging with social media, streaming services, and even smart home devices.
– The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the adoption of technology among older adults, as many have turned to virtual communication tools to stay connected with loved ones.
📈 Advantages of Older Adults in Tech
1. Experience and Wisdom
– Older adults bring a wealth of life experience and wisdom to the table, which can give them a unique perspective when it comes to utilizing technology.
– Their years of experience in problem-solving and decision-making can make them adept at troubleshooting tech issues and adapting to new digital tools.
2. Motivation and Desire to Learn
– Many seniors view technology as a way to stay connected with family and friends, access information, and enhance their quality of life.
– This motivation and desire to learn can drive older adults to actively seek out new tech skills and knowledge, leading to a higher level of proficiency.
3. Time and Resources
– Older adults may have more free time and financial resources to dedicate to learning and mastering technology.
– With retirement providing more flexibility in their schedules, seniors can devote time to exploring new tech trends and innovations.
🚀 The Future of Tech belongs to Seniors
As older adults continue to embrace technology and hone their digital skills, it is clear that they have the potential to become the new tech leaders of tomorrow. With their experience, wisdom, motivation, and resources, seniors are well-positioned to excel in the ever-evolving tech landscape. It is time to challenge the stereotypes and recognize the valuable contributions that older adults can make to the tech world.
In conclusion, the future of tech may indeed belong to seniors. With their growing proficiency and enthusiasm for technology, older adults are poised to surpass younger generations in the realm of digital innovation. It is essential to embrace and support this trend, as it promises to bring new perspectives and opportunities to the tech industry. Let’s celebrate the tech-savvy seniors who are leading the way towards a more inclusive and diverse digital future.
My four year old fixed the WiFi by himself the other day. He’s gonna run rings around all of us if he doesn’t electrocute himself first
I hope so, because today, the kids are hopeless outside of their applications.
I think “using tech” in 50 years will be based on how well you can articulate an ask.
It depends on your definition of “better at tech.”
I’d equate it more closely to the fact that most millennials and Gen z can’t fix basic things wrong with their cars, rather than driving stick.
Technology is becoming exponentially user friendly—to the point that an infant can understand it. If this continues, the average user won’t need to be “good” at tech because everything will be super simple.
Currently, some teenagers don’t know how to save a file in different formats, or how to navigate to find something they saved. They’ve grown up with technology that automatically saves to the cloud and simply use the search bar to find wherever it magically went.
Apply that mentality to 50 years in the future with personalized AI that can predict exactly what you want. Every generation builds on the last. If I was sent back to the 1600s, I wouldn’t be able to explain how an iPhone works.
My 80 year old uncle used to have and run a computer that required DOS coding to start up and operate. Now he needs my 50 year old cousin to help him install an app on an iPad.
So maybe it will be similar where as we get older we don’t understand how to navigate a social media platform but we do know how to manage files.
I see this all the time. People can drive anything, every one is just talking about lack of experience if you put a vehicle in front of a kid as the only mode of transportation they will learn that shit in a day.
In 50 years old people will be dead
“No matter how many times I show him, my zoomer grandfather can’t figure out how to work the biolation tank.”
People who have lived through tech evolution their whole lives will likely be better at future tech than today’s old people who were thrust into tech late in life
For kids and adults alike nowadays, being dependent on technology is WAY different than being better at it.
Are all drivers mechanics?
95% of people in my country drive stick shift.
You’re going to have to do some definitions if you want to play that game.
Saying you can’t use a stick shift is like saying you can’t start your car with a crank in the front: why would you want or need to learn either of those things now?
I mean, technically, old people are already “better at tech” than young people? I
Mean, how many young people can manually configure and debug the jumpers and configuration scripts for their network cards? Develop color film? Use a Cap’n Crunch whistle to get free long distance phone calls? Write an autoexec or .bash_profile login script?
And again, why would they want or need to. Even those of us old enough to remember how?
…no. That would be saying in 50 years kids won’t even be able to operate VR helmets or AR, when something different has come along.
It comes down to the person in the end. Curiosity + opportunity to learn = new skill.
Any random kid born in the 80s isn’t going to have the same proficiency with a computer or VCR. Just because you grow up with tech doesn’t mean everyone understands it. The person has to have the desire to want to know how something works and the chance to learn about that, be it through use or teaching or experimentation. This goes for both adults and kids.
My oldest wanted to drive my Challenger (6 speed manual) to prom one year. Kept stalling it in front of his friends and date. Embarrassed the shit out him. Never asked to drive it again.
Driving stick shift takes 40m to learn. Anyone who has any sense of pride wrapped up in their ability or inability to drive stick is an absolute idiot
I do think that this generation isn’t learning about computer architecture but unless your job requires that it’s irrelevant anyway.
Wrong cause we’re seeing dropping iq’s.
Kids these days are in fact dumber.
Over the years I’ve worked in my industry, I’ve become very adept at all kinds of now obsolete technology
They will be able to USE it. I don’t think that’s the same thing as being good at it. Both older generations and younger generations right now have a similar problem in that they don’t understand HOW it works. Millennials will be a generation that had to teach their parents AND their kids how technology works.
My fear of the future is: “Kids now days don’t know how to use their brain anymore.”
Yeah, I don’t know. As part of GenX I literally grew up with tech and the internet. From the Atari 2600 game system, to the Apple II at home, and later the first Mac, etc. Then the switch to touchtone and then cordless phones, to cellular and the internet. So I feel pretty tech savvy, having lived with computers and electronics all my life. That said, it feels like (for example) each version of iOS that comes out becomes less intuitive to me. Swipe down, swipe up, swipe left, widget this, widget that. I can see how adding layers of functionality and complexity can still befuddle aging brains (especially with the diminishing eyesight and hearing of advancing age). Friends and family used to always come to be for advice on workarounds. But more often these days I’m seeing things that I’m having trouble resolving.
Maybe, but ive noticed that my generation was fixing the home pc as teens, and we are still fixing our parents pc’s and now even our kids pc’s.
Kids today can use tech in ways I can’t imagine but when it comes to fixing it I’m still charging well over a hundred dollars an hour and I feel like I could double it without driving down my demand too much.
Too many people got offended, or just immediately reacted to that one post.
How many more of these response posts will there be? Lol. There’s a shower thought in there somewhere
Me asking an undergrad to gps the next sample location.
them: “I don’t know how to do that”
My experience is that young adults don’t actually know how to use tech. They can’t reconnect printers.
Things either work, or they don’t.
I mean yeah my grandfather could fix his cars engine, I don’t have the slightest clue.
Kids these days can’t even root a phone.
Almost everyone in my country drives what your people call a “stick shift”.
It’s the standard.
In 50 years, the tech will have taken us over.
Yeah. My kids are teaching themselves to code – son learns html at school and teaches himself c and c++ at night.
My daughter mods the sims.
Both of them got their own laptops about age 5 and are quite technically literate. They go to a school where they have to take a laptop to school every every day and lessons consist of a lecture by the teacher after which they do work on their laptops.
Sorta. Or like how kids today don’t know how to [redo an electrical outlet/replace a toilet/build a deck/etc]. Except the ones who need/want to just watch some videos and then teach themselves to, and do a better job than their drunk grandpa (who was a car salesman or professor or something, and only did carpentry on weekends because he was a cheapskate) would have 60 years earlier. Because ‘nobody in this family pays for (or does) professional skilled labor, dammit!’
That’s not a fair comparison. Driving manual or automatic is a very minor thing to learn and kit actually a generational thing
A better comparison is how previous generations were more likely to learn to fix the cars of their time. Now cars have so many electrical and computer parts that they can’t be repaired the same
Just as technology that many of us grew up with did not ship perfect to our specifications and we had to learnt o make it work, now all of the work is automated in backgrohnd and access to anything outside of the new standard is a lot more walled off. The skill isn’t required to use the computer
Still not a perfect comparison but a bit fairer. If a young person simple can’t access the equipment needed to fix newer cars, they won’t learn to fix them. And if they can’t access the functions outside of their walled gardens, they won’t learn to fix computers either
Old people: “You kids today can’t even make TikToks!”
Kids: (outside building a house) “Ok zoomer”
There is techno fools and techno sages in every generarion.
Stop to put each generation against each others. Both hâve nice people, Both hâve jerks