Don't tell me you can't cope

I suppose I shouldn't, but I do get very annoyed whenever I hear about another 'old person' who puts up with ever-increasing inconvenience, and is feeling ever more out of touch and disadvantaged, because they 'can't understand how computers work' and 'all that modern technology'. 

A lot of the so-called 'modern technology' they refer to (such as smartphones) has been around for over a decade, and some things (like email and internet shopping) for two decades. There has been a lot of time - a generation - in which to embrace this stuff and move forward with it.

The news report that has set me off on my high horse is about a lady who is aged seventy. 

For goodness sake. That's senior, but not nowadays in the 'aged and infirm' category. Or at sixty-eight, I'd better be packing up shop right now, and accepting all the frailty and incapacity that I'm clearly not acknowledging. 

I don't mind getting extra consideration (and perks) in my daily life for being an obvious oldie - it's a compensation for not being young and beautiful - but I don't want to be treated as if my mental faculties have declined to terminal levels. More especially, I don't want to be mollycoddled, and let off the hook, unless I'm genuinely unable to do whatever the task is. 

To be clear: I'm not up to fighting in a war, yomping across enemy terrain with a sixty-pound backpack. Nor digging trenches at home. But I am perfectly prepared to cope with all the changes that must come with dramatic climate change in the next twenty or thirty years. I expect plenty of upheaval, and many new things will have to be made part of day-to-day living. Well, like them or not, I am not going to bleat that 'all this is beyond me' and cop out. 

So when somebody just a year or two older than me pleads that they 'can't work a computer', and yet seems just as mentally alert and agile as myself, then I suspect that they have purely emotional reasons for clinging to the ways of fifty years ago. Or simply can't be arsed.

After all, if you can use a cooker, or a washing machine, or the TV remote control, or tune a radio, or operate any household gadget or device that uses electricity, then you can turn on a tablet and tap the screen. You don't have to know anything about computing science. Nor programming. 

It's much, much more important to know what a computing device can do for you, and how to access what you want safety and securely. And how to avoid getting hit with a scam. Zillions of people have been doing this for years. It's not new. It's certainly not difficult. I always trot out the example of my Dad, who, back in 2006 (when he was aged eighty-six) quickly set himself up on a bog-standard Dell desktop PC and keyboard, so that he could send emails, write his autobiography when Mum was ill, look up things on Wikipedia, and do online shopping with Tesco. OK, I helped him order the PC from Dell, and I set it up for him, but then he took over. At eighty-six, with arthritic fingers and wrists. That's why I want to say pah! and phooey! to anyone my age who tells me, in 2020, that 'all this modern technology is a mystery to them', and they don't want any of it. Or tell me 'it's so unfair that old people have been sidelined in this way.' What? Get real. The world has moved on.  

I feel even more irritated by younger people who affect ignorance or disdain for modern electronics. I think that's a very dangerous way to be. One day their life, or that of someone they care about, will depend of their knowing what this or that emergency device is, and how to call for help in times of flood or fire. They mustn't opt out as if it's all unnecessary, the junk and clutter of a world going in the wrong direction. The world has indeed been, in many ways, going in the wrong direction. But a lot of people are now hauling at the steering wheel that turns the rudder of the little boat called Planet Earth, and slowly - though too slowly now to avoid at least some irrecoverable changes and much distress - we will be saved from shipwreck. And those electronic devices will help us coordinate all the effort required. Nobody must opt out, and pretend that they can stand aside. There is a moral onus on us all to be connected with each other, to keep up to date, and be aware of what is happening.  

Of course, there are some special cases. I naturally exempt from my annoyance all those who have a genuine medical problem that prevents them getting to grips with the tech. And I exempt the very poor, who can't afford it - although if they can't, there's a compelling case for governments to provide them with basic equipment entirely for free. And in the rich Western World, nobody should be without good, functioning devices, either new, or pre-used and properly refurbished. I understand that the worldwide market for second-hand smartphones, strong at the moment, is likely to explode during the next ten years. 

Bear in mind that I'm no techno-warrior at the forefront of some movement. I'm just an average old biddy who uses her smartphone and laptop for a lot of things, most them serious and practical. I like to know what's going on, and I like to keep bang up to date. I keep alert for trends. I don't live my life as a young person would - my personal priorities are different. I want things they don't want, and no longer crave what they think vital. For the sake of having high, undamaged self-esteem and serene peace of mind, I stay away from the judgemental social media frenzy they feel is so necessary. Indeed, I scorn all frivolous, irresponsible and destructive uses of the Internet. But otherwise I use tech as intensively as anyone younger, and it's integrated into my daily life. 

I'm not a special case. And if I can do it, Miss Sixty-Eight of Mid Sussex, why can't Mrs Seventy Years Old of Dunstable, Bedfordshire? (That wasn't where the lady in the news report actually lived, but I'm willing to be considerate to her, and not reveal her true abode. Dunstable will do. I'm certain that there are plenty of 'old' ladies and gents in Dunstable who live as they did in 1970 - or 1990 - and refuse to change their habits and outlook. In fact they must be everywhere. Come the day of the Glorious Revolution - that is, when 5G arrives locally - they had all better fill their Thermos flasks and take cover in their coal cellars.) 

Please don't tell me that it's 'human nature' to resist change and cling to old ways, and that I'm silly to think otherwise. I agree that's a common failing. But if it were a fundamental trait of human beings, then nothing new would ever get invented. And yet so many things have been. And life has improved as a result. Some things, like better guns and bombs, were mistakes. Other things, like better ships and cars and aeroplanes have had a profound impact, generally good, but with some bad side-effects. But it's surely unarguable that advances in medical science - and the machines and electronic equipment that support those advances - have been an entirely Good Thing. 

I'd say that Mrs Seventy Years Old could be trained to use a hospital monitoring device. She might even want to learn how, if she could feel useful that way. And then enter the results in the patient record, using - yes - a screen and keyboard. Well, if she could manage that at the hospital, why not at home?

Rant over.