Not that this applies to all old people, of course, and I know a lot of old people who are very sharp indeed. But there’s a stereotype - which has a much basis IME - that on average older people tend to be less tech savvy or up on recent developments in general, and are more likely to fall for various scams and the like.
Question is if young and middle-aged people, from their present vantage point, can see themselves one day fitting that stereotype when they get old, or if they just can’t visualize it. (I assume that intellectually people accept that it could happen.)
[I remember hearing a certain rocker being interviewed on some radio show - possibly Stern - talking about his younger days when he worked as a roofer. They fell to talking about how free roof repair estimates are generally cons which prey on old people. The guy said that his father had himself been a con artist when he was younger, and would tell him about various scams he was pulling, but now he would call his father up and would be told “I have to get home for the free roof repair estimate”.]
I intend to be crotchety and difficult rather than gullible, but yes, I can visualize it. I hope not, and I have had a lot of practice cursing out the thickly accented clown who claims to work for the Windows company and tells me my PC is generating errors. But if I was old enough, and lonely enough, maybe I will fall for it when it is roof repair.
I’ve always been very street smart (I’m pretty sure I’m responsible for getting a shady dental practice shut down). So I don’t think I’ll be a likely target for scams.
But yeah, I’m fairly convinced I’ll be that crazy old guy you see talking to himself at the grocery store.
God, I have such a fear that my husband will be that old guy. Both of his parents were extremely affected by dementia. His Mom was an Alzheimer patient the last months of her life. It was just awful. My own Daddy died unexpectedly, at 86, he was as sharp as a tack. Still working. So my own prospects are good (I hope).
I have a feeling I will be the caretaker of a dementia patient. He’s older than me and with his family history it’s not looking good. Boy, I dread it.
Regarding Tech saviness, I have noticed that I have already noticed that I am falling far behind.
I used to be on the cutting edge.
My partents got a computer in '82,
I was programming gravity simulations by 1987
Sending out emails and read usenet around 1990
got a cable modem to surf the web in 1998
and am working in a STEM field analyzing “Big Data”
But I don’t own a smart phone, or use my phone to take pictures.
I’m not on social media.
Never texted, tweeted or intagrammed, nor used an emoji outside of those included on the straight dope.
So as far as the current generation is concerned, I’m a Luddite fossil.
Pretty much. I would almost argue though that everyone is befuddled and getting scammed and duped at any age, though. A Tinder girl bamboozled our car from us two weeks ago. So I’m 28 and I had my car stolen right under my nose. I don’t trust much anymore. I think it might even be overconfidence to think one is above being tricked out of something. (At any age.)
It’s hard to picture, but sure it could happen. It is pretty common and I suspect most befuddled old people didn’t really expect to become one when they were younger. It’s also one of those things that gradually happens, right? I’m only in my 30s and shiny new things are already starting to lose their appeal, at least somewhat. I can easily see how enough years of “I’m content with how things are” can turn into being totally out of touch from missing too many changes.
Having children in your 30s will make you look at the ‘shiny new things’. Of course my kids are way more tech-y than me. My youngest has grown up with a screen in her face. She knows how to do things with electronic devices that boggle my mind. Her hand-writing is terrible and she can’t boil an egg or hem a skirt, but by-golly she can filter and edit your profile pic to make you look like a movie star. She does all her college work on her laptop. Her iPhone is never out of her hand. All her music is on an iPod. Her car is a smart-car. She’s never even been inside of a bank, to her the bank is the closest ATM.
If the shit hits the fan I am not sure she would know how to be.
No kids here or plans to have any, but I understand what you mean.
It’s interesting to look at other peoples’ tech skills. My husband and I both work from home as supervisors overseeing a moderately sized department. Everyone works from home. He and I and our boss are by far the most tech savvy, with everyone else having little to no knowledge of computers or how anything works, and the age range of our team is early 20s to late 50s or early 60s. I’ve found that even the ones that can do basic browsing around online or social media stuff still get kind of lost when we try to get them to find files or connect to other networks.
I think in most cases people are falling for scams that didn’t exist when they were younger.
There are whole classes of scams done over the phone now. I’m not going to say there were no telephone based scams in the past, but they’re significantly more prevalent now that people all over the world can fake caller id numbers and call people up. Lots of old people haven’t adjusted to the fact that the telephone is no longer a trusted communications method. Sure, some callers used to not be who they said they were, but it was much harder to keep a phone scam going when you had to have an actual telephone line leading to a real physical location.
I’m a GIS programmer, and my Mom is still sharp as a tack at 89yo. I hope to be OK.
Oh, I have gladly let things pass me by (I’m looking at you Facebook, Twitter etal). But do so by choice (I don’t have kids, so it’s not a problem).
My hearing sucks (hearing aids help some), and I find myself avoiding larger groups of people. In that respect, some folks may think I don’t understand, or remember, when in fact, I just never heard what they said. That’s frustrating. If someone would discover a cure for tinnitus, my life would definitely change. But, I’m in a good profession for people with hearing lose. When programming, I just wish everyone would shut the hell up
Nope. I live in a remote cabin in Northern Canada that relies on wood for heat. Wood heat is a harsh mistress, if you forget about it you’ll freeze to death pretty fast in the winters up here. So I figure once my memory starts to go, I’ll end up as a corpsicle in no time flat.
