After
watching this video, it rather sums up how some elder people are with today's
technology. Those people grew up with slim to none technology when they
were growing up. Now step in their shoes for a day.. Put away your iPhone
and iPad and go one day with the "old school" technology.
Meaning use a landline home phone with an address book if you need to
make a call to someone. Do you think you could last a day without text
messaging or browsing the Internet? I can somewhat commend the elderly
for how they were brought up in the technology era. They stick to the
face-to-face communication, while people growing up need their iPhone to
communicate.
When
conducting the interviews, many answers where very similar. I interviewed
my mother (aged 58), father (aged 55), and basketball coach (aged 37). I
asked each of them which time period they would rather live in now: Age 20
(past) or present day. It was unanimous all three chose present day.
When asked why they chose that answer.. They liked how much easier technology
makes their life compared to back then.
Mother
(Aged 58): Works as a school secretary in a small catholic elementary
school. She tries keep up with the times, in the sense of technology.
She is trying to understand how to use a laptop. She is very
proficient at typing on a desktop but when it comes to running a few programs
she is unaware. She can text and make calls on a cell phone as well as
work voicemail.
Father
(Aged 55): Works as a coal miner. Not to be rude about my own
father, but this man is technological illiterate. I love him to death but
he struggles with technology. He can barely work a cell phone, let alone
even try to work a computer. That is where his children who are updated
on technology help him out. My father has worked in the steel mill and
coal mill for the majority of his adult life. He is big on face-to-face
communication and I stand right by him.
Basketball
Coach (Aged 37): Works as a basketball coach at my high school. He
is relatively young, compared to my parents. So this man has and uses an
iPhone. He can work with computers and phones. He can run
television sets and correct problems with them. Maybe it is because he is
closer to the technology era than both of my parents.
So what does this graph
mean??
** "While using technology can get us over some really big
hurdles and make our lives better with more efficiency and more time
savings; not everyone can grasp it or build it into their lifestyle of habit. So
what to do about this? How can we help those technically challenged benefit
from the wonderful world of technology?
1. Keep it simple. (If your mom can’t understand it, it’s too
complicated.)
2. Keep it in front of them. (You must offer it to them multiple
times, give them opportunities.)
3. Keep showing the benefits. (If they see others using it, they
will feel more comfortable.)
4. Keep the residual effect. (Keep them coming back. create
something of value that is used more than once. use it once and forget how to
use it. use it daily and it becomes a part of us.)"
These are only a
few things that we can do to help the older generation with technology.
YouTube: Did You Hear A Click? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRBcP6MmE8g
**Rasmussen, M. (2012).
Technology fast, people slow. VVI. June 28, 2012, retrieved from http://vvicrew.com/technology-fast-people-slow/
It is interesting to see that all three people you interviewed would rather live in the present. Even though I love the present day I would like to experience life before all the computers and everything. People seemed to be more connected when the source of communication was writing letters and only having one phone in the home. With all the technology and ways to stay in touch with people, I don't think our generation appreciates things as much.
ReplyDeleteI thought that you made a great argument in your blog about how technology needs to take into account for people that are older. Our society is so concerned with "the next big thing" and we never take into account that there are people who cannot use a cellphone or even get on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteI, too, think that it's absolutely fascinating that everyone you interviewed would rather live in this world that is bursting with technology. I feel that if I was a member of my parent's generation I would NOT want to live in this era. It seems so backwards to what I've heard. My father hates modern technology. He puts up with it because he has to, but I often hear him grunting and groaning about how it all seems terribly superfluous. We got along fine before, why couldn't things have just stayed the same?
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the people you interviewed would rather spend their lives in "our world" rather than the one they lived. Although I can see some advantages to living in our world, such as the easy access to information and new ways to accomplish tasks. Personally I would rather live in a world without such an influx of technology, granted it would be much more time consuming to complete things but in my opinion thats half the fun of taking on a problem.
ReplyDelete