Today's Women of Age

I grew up with land-line rotary phones, manual typewriters and remoteless black and white TVs with five channels. So early in my career when computers came along they seemed miraculous. Like some sort of hoodoo voodoo! In short order my husband and I had one of the early chunky Apple computers in our home office complete with a sketchy dial-up modem. And since that time computers have been an integral part of my life and every job I’ve had. 

When my parents retired to Florida my mother got a basic PC and she learned enough to do things like email and play mahjong, but my dad refused to learn it saying he had enough stuff to do. I loved being able to email my mother partly because at that time long-distance phone calls cost extra–a lot extra–and it meant that we could be in touch every day. Some years after she died Dad eventually got himself a tablet (I’m not sure who encouraged him because he wouldn’t have known what a tablet was) but despite lessons he got frustrated and it was quickly abandoned. 

I chalked it up to the fact that perhaps he had waited too long to learn computer technology. To him it was like learning a foreign language and nothing made sense, but he didn’t give it time to make sense. Sadly I think he would have enjoyed using one.

But Shelly* who is my age has the worst tech phobia I’ve ever encountered. Even basic computer tasks decades later still confound her. (She doesn’t own a computer, but tries to use one at her local library.) Even her smart phone (a gift) baffles her and she confessed she still doesn’t know how to access her voicemail after a year. Sadly, this lack of tech skills has prevented her from both getting and keeping jobs in the past.

At this point I think she’s at a place of learned helplessness. She knows her lack of computer and tech acumen is causing problems in her life, hindrances, but has given up trying to learn or change that. She resorts to the kindness of family and friends to help when she’s really stuck or muddles along. 

But here’s the bigger problem—these days more and more activities and functions are moving online or using apps. Shelly is trying to apply for senior housing, but every place tells her to “apply online” which is turning into a road block for her. Even establishments like restaurants, hair salons and doctors’ offices prefer that you schedule appointments online. And because she has so little awareness of the vastness of the online world she often overpays for items not realizing she has comparison shopping at her fingertips.

I’m not sure what the answer is for Shelly because she’s not going to change. I expect she will just keep muddling along and relying on people to help her out from time to time.

I have my own technology hurdle right now—we just bought an electric car with a thousand bells and whistles and I am learning to drive it. There are aspects that are just not intuitive and as someone whose been driving for over 50 years it’s a pain in the butt recalibrating how I drive and navigate, but I’m doing it. I know in time it will be second nature if I persevere. And I plan on persevering.

But I will admit I am not jumping on the AI bandwagon just yet. My husband says I could use it to aid my writing and my question is why? I like to do my own creating, noodling and editing. I neither want or need AI to “help” me. So AI is getting the garlic-and-cross treatment for now, at least on the writing front, but I have experimented with it for photos for my Etsy store.

As we age it behooves us to keep abreast of technology. Not that we have to embrace every new trend, but to understand how they may affect our lives. For example because there is so much AI-generated content these days, it is easy to be duped or swayed by a photo or video thinking it features a real person or a true narrative when it doesn’t.

So I’m trying to keep up with technology even though I am no a techno-nerd and I think that’s a good thing! How about you?