For the better part, advanced technologies have changed people in many beneficial ways. Nevertheless, an older generation is more than a little bemused with the likes of mobile telephone and/or the Internet. How advanced technology could help older people The question is: how in fact do we get the elderly to adopt consumer electronics?

For the better part, advanced technologies have changed people in many beneficial ways. Nevertheless, an older generation is more than a little bemused with the likes of mobile telephone and/or the Internet. How advanced technology could help older people The question is: how in fact do we get the elderly to adopt consumer electronics?

Today, the digital revolution has changed almost every aspect of modern life—creating channels for communication, access to information, management of health care, and social connection some previous generations couldn hold in their wildest dreams. Unfortunately, however, these chances remain prohibitively out of reach for many older people — separated from a new and better life by an inhospitable digital divide based on unfamiliarity, anxiety and ineffective support. Bridging this gulf will require the right understanding of actual advances, and how they can benefit older users, as well as a strategy that is nuanced enough in approach.

Technology can have enormous and deeply personal benefits for older people. The rise of communication technology — specifically, video calling applications — has the potential to fundamentally change what it means to be separated from family members by distance, enabling anyone, anywhere in the world, to hold a face-to-face interaction with virtually no cost whatsoever. Virtual home visiting addresses at least one of the most anguishing features of ageing in dispersed families: for elderly people who cannot be transported to visit their loved ones, this solution provides a means by which they can talk as well as see the people they love best.topucle The people’s capabilities are stunted by any physical limitation or geographical isolation from family members and relatives. Numerous studies show that regular meaningful social connection is one of the strongest predictors of physical health and psychological wellbeing in later life, thus communication technology is not only a convenience but actually a genuine high stakes health intervention.

Health is another area technology can change the game for older users. Wearable health monitoring devices tag vital signs, notice irregularities, and signal users and healthcare providers to developing issues ahead of them becoming emergencies — an invaluable option for individuals coping with chronic conditions or distressing medical circumstances while also living autonomously alone vs having family at the ready. Telehealth platforms allow older patients to connect with health professionals from home, eliminating the physical and logistical strain of going to medical facilities — especially critical for those in rural areas where there is little access to healthcare infrastructure and few modes of transport, often making it impossible or dangerous for them to get care. These are medication management applications that offer the reminders and dosages needed to mitigate the risk of medication errors, for which elderly people who struggle with cognitive function are particularly susceptible.

Internet-enabled access to information, entertainment, and lifelong learning through connected platforms additionally contribute to positive aspects of life for digitally active seniors. Equipment means that online educational resources, digital libraries, streaming entertainment — and the almost unimaginable breadth of information made available through search engines all become possible for someone who acquires even rudimentary digital literacy — vastly expanding the intellectual and cultural life open to those whose limbs may have limited their access to what the world has to offer.

Adoption of consumer electronics by older people is best promoted using techniques that target the specific stopping points for uptake — which are primarily fear, anxiety and lack of support. This is a process in which family members are neglected and theirs is one of the key roles. Teaching fellow millennials (who probably had to do it anyway!) through low-key, non-patronising and practical demonstrations of what a device can do has been among the highest success factors in getting older relatives online. The trick is to link technology to activities and needs that the senior person already cares about — a grandparent who would enjoy seeing pictures of grandchildren on a regular basis is a very motivated senior for learning how to use a smartphone.

Community-based digital literacy initiatives — such as those offered by libraries, community centres and other social institutions that older people already know and trust in their communities — provide a structured learning experience, ideally in a socially supported environment for a greater outcome of situational self-sufficiency that transcends the isolation idiotisation aspect of more solitary computational learning. They work best when they use older instructors or those particularly attuned to the unique fears and learning speeds of the older learner, and when they focus on immediately relevant job skills as opposed to broad technical training.

The way we design technology is also a major reason for the digital divide. Consumer electronics, in particular, have been designed over the years for digital natives — older manufacturers and software developers design interfaces, font sizes, instruction manual ordering and support systems that largely presume users resident in the culture to which they are selling end up with a product much more than many who might be classified as seniors. The findings show that greater investment on features like larger text options, simplified interface modes, clearer instructional materials and more accessible technical support in order to reduce entry barriers which are preventing older adoption. Regulatory pressure to encourage such design standards as well as commercial incentives for producers who show a clear benefit in improving accessibility for the elderly are also instruments that governments have thus far failed to exploit.

To sum it up, newer technology has meaningful and tangible benefits for older people in the areas of communication, health care access and information retrieval and social connection that have a strong potential to enhance both quality of life as well as independence. For these advantages to be realized, there must be joint action of families, communities, education systems, technology companies and governments alike all creating an environment in which older people are truly supported, equipped and encouraged to engage with the digital society that their younger peers reside comfortably in.