Why you rubbin on your phone so much?

Computers and telephones have become a household staple in today’s society. Just about everyone has some sort of computer and telephone in their homes and when I say everyone that includes seniors as well. In accordance with the assumptions found by Baltes and Baltes, the differences between how people age definitely has a factor in what kinds of technology seniors are utilizing. When it comes to aging, there is normal aging where everything ages, body and mind, at a fairly uniform rate; then there’s optimal aging where aging is mostly physical and the mind is still firing on all cylinders; and then there’s pathological aging which is usually induced by some sort of disability or deficiency due to age. Every individual ages at a different rate, enabling some older individuals to adapt to this technological world more easily than others. Many of these elderly individuals have accepted the challenge and are now active members of the technological community. Due to these differences in aging and abilities, we see a fairly predictable trend in the kinds of gadgets these individuals are using. It was found that as of April 2012, about 53% of people over 65 years old use the internet, and 70% of them use it daily. It was also found that of these elderly individuals 69% of them have a cellphone and 48% of them have a desktop and with that desktop one in three seniors use Facebook. These trends are very believable to me because I have personally witnessed these trends in action.

My grandmother recently moved to an assisted living retirement community about two years ago. My father and I visit her on holidays and whenever we have a long weekend to spare. Whenever we visit her, I find that the most entertaining moments are meal times. We get to meet all of her friends and many of them surprise me. People often expect slow and fragile individuals when thinking of elderly people but due to these differences in aging you never know what you’ll get. Last time we visited, we met a women who was a high school principle for thirty years and she was quicker and brighter than many of my friends currently. Along with her friends, my grandma is fairly all there mentally as well but unfortunately she is still catching up with the technology. She’s had a desktop for as long as I can remember and she’s definitely utilizing it more than expected. One of the main things she uses her computer for is to look up birthdays on Facebook and then she designs a birthday card on a program she downloaded. My grandma’s technology expertise ends there though, she has a cellphone but barely knows how to use it. She has a very basic flip phone that has that weird blue screen and actual buttons. The first time she saw my IPhone she looked at it as though it wasn’t real. She asked to hold it, looks at it, hands it back and just says “I don’t like it.” She expressed that she likes her buttons and that a touch screen was too fancy for her.

I got a second look at the differences in gadgets used by seniors in varying stages of aging whenever my grandma volunteered me to help out a few of her neighbors. Due to the fact that I was the youngest person in the building, my grandma figured I could help a few of her friends and neighbors move some stuff around. While helping these folks, I would notice different things these people use and differences in how they lived. I remember one women had one of those dial wheel phones and no computer in sight, which I respect but I couldn’t legitimately live that way. On the other end of the spectrum, I helped move a box for a women who was reading the New York Times on her MacBook laptop. With regards to these experiences it’s interesting to see how some seniors are able to accept and adapt to the changing future while others are unable to adapt and move on to the rising trends.