Why do older people have to dislike change.

The older I get, the more willing I am to embrace change. This is because I now look back over nearly 80 years of life and so much change has happened and I have lived and adapted to it without problem.

I am also a member of the '60s generation, who threw their toys out of the pram with a vengeance, so I feel I have no right to oppose any change younger generations want to ring in.

Technology is ' fluid, moving with generations.

I have just this morning watched the funeral of a very dear friend online, this to me is technology at its best.
Unable to attend due to circumstances and distance, I felt part of the proceedings and had witnessed my friends last journey, all be it virtually.

However still feel that certain technology requires backup, so still print off tickets insurance details etc .

Why is change being limited to considering technology. that really is a small part of anyone's life.

The big changes have been in the composition of society, the importance of education, to have any chances in life, the immense opportunities now open to women, the huge changes in work, all the new professions that exist, the changes in health care etc etc.

Technology is a mere bagatelle.

Hmm. My paternal grandma, born in 1892 (so 22 when WW1 began (and in which her fiancé was killed in short order) never used a washing-machine even though she did the church laundry for her RC parish; she did it in her kitchen sink – she had started work at age 12 in a laundry, paid only enough to get her to work and back and make a small contribution to her parents.

She also never quite got the hang of a telephone, partly because until her widowhood and onset of dementia, she had never needed one. My dad hoped she would get the idea that she could call him any time if she was in a fix. She never did.

Grandma was "uneducated" in the formal sense but not in common sense, which I sometimes think modern 'education' forgets about. She could cope with huge amounts of privation and 'make do' where more modern people can't.

My stories about Grandma have made enough impression on DD3 that she has adopted Grandma's maiden name as part of her identity.

If we don't adapt to using technology, pretty soon we will be unable to even park our car and go shopping.

Our local town car parks only accept payment by app or phone.

I think I give up too easily and panic myself into believing J can't do something. I'm 70 and technology does worry me and I don't have family that can give me a hand with new things that you have to download apps for.
Having said that, I am going to put my doubts aside today and try and register my new Tom Tom and then my Google. Going to grasp the nettle and have a go!

I find it a little sad that a site for people who obviously all belong to "the older generation" bothers to publish this kind of generalisation.

Not all "old people" dislike change, just because it is change. Most of us have good, well-considered reasons for not liking the changes we dislike, or not using some technological option.

I have used computers since the early 1980s and am usually happy to do so, and a mobile phone since the early 1990s.

I admit that my use of Facebook is strictly limited and that I do not use twitter, instagram or snapchat at all, as I find it perfectly possible to keep up with family, friends and the news without any of these platforms.

Nor do I have my entire Internet access on my smartphone for the good and sufficient reason that my eyesight no longer really makes using such a small screen enjoyable.

I don’t like the idea of ticket offices closing and having to use machines. I did not have good eyesight before getting cataract surgery and avoided them completely as there was always someone behind you who was in a hurry. Also sometimes when there are groups of rowdy teenagers on station platforms in summer I think it’s important to have staff on hand. Have seen police having to get involved more than once

I agree. Just being elderly is no excuse for not moving with the times (speaking as the person who spent half an hour on the phone last night trying to explain to my dad where the home button is on his iPad. Frustration does not begin to cover it.) Mum would exclaim proudly that she’d never touched a computer in her life, then be very frustrated when she was in hospital and didn’t know how to use a mobile phone or a tablet.

When our ticket office is closed and the platform machines don't work, or you just don't have time to use them (bus connections not being good), we just get on the train anyway. There's always someone to take your fare at the other end. It has never been elevated into an actual problem.

I would like things to be both ways - equal numbers of human checkout operators/ticket sellers and automated ones.

Having said that, I also love technology. I can remember learning to programme a BBC B computer using a cassette tape recorder (!) as part of training to be a teacher in the early 1980s and the excitement about changing from using DOS commands to Windows systems.

It seems to me that this is the best time to date, to learn how to use computer tech. It's so much easier - you don't need to understand, just know what buttons to click.

Froglady

I think I give up too easily and panic myself into believing J can't do something. I'm 70 and technology does worry me and I don't have family that can give me a hand with new things that you have to download apps for.
Having said that, I am going to put my doubts aside today and try and register my new Tom Tom and then my Google. Going to grasp the nettle and have a go!

ARGH!!

I like change too, I'm 71. Although I don't like ULEZ expansion and I don't like cashless society. Which are the two most annoying changes being peddled at present.

Froglady
Forgive me if this comes across as teaching your grandmother how to suck eggs but do you use YouTube for info.
Just incase you don’t, here is an example of how to load an App.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYZzxpFMytg

I did a 6 week computer course when I retired. That's as far as I need. I don't want a mobile phone. I don't need one .I don't have a smart TV, I don't need that either. I refuse to have something I don't need. It's nothing to do with my age.

I agree. Partially a mindset.

We don't spend just to waste money on things we don't need. We have what we need, what we have will see us out.

No need of a mobile, smart telly - our landline and computers works well as do our not-smart tellys. Not age related - just practical.

Also no need or worktop space for Ninja cookers, air fryers, choppers -- We've lovely gas and induction hobs, we cook well, need nothing 'new'.

Some people may just like to spend - we look to downsize quantity.

I am very comfortable online on my computer. However I am currently trying to buy to return rail tickets to London, plus tube/bus travel for tomorrow using our Senior Travel cards. I have been working on it for the past hour and have just started again for the 4th time.

I have changes sites twice and I still do not have tickets. The main problem being that we do not know what train we will be returning on and I have only just found a site that tells me that although I have to commit to a specific return train on the the online form, I do not have to travel on that train.

I will let you know when I succeed.

Quite right …..saying you’re too old to learn means you’re dead already in my book. I have two grandkids and they keep me up to date and on my toes ….as do my own middle aged kids. I love new tech…. we all do in my family . My mum was 93 at her death and had just bought the latest I-phone 6 at the time…..she was keen to understand all it could do . And paying her bills on it was sublime ( her words) .Bright as a button two weeks before she died of c-dif in hospital.
Tired of learning -tired of life to paraphrase and. Johnson

Mr.Johnson

Right I have my tickets and have printed out the email I have been sent - all 5 pages of it BUT, no part of it is the ticket I will be travelling on tomorrow. That I have to collect from a ticket machine at the station tomorrow morning using the booking reference on one page of the five page email.

Since if I hadn't bought my ticket online, I would have bought the ticket at the ticket machine or ticket office, just what have I gained by buying a ticket online in advance?

All I have done is spent an hour this afternoon doing something that will have to be done tomorrow anyway.

There are times, when however comfortable I may be with the technology, the delivery leads a lot to be desired.

I had to open a new Netflix account yesterday for reasons won’t go into and it said scan barcode ….I didn’t have a scanner so I looked at my son , who said “ then download one mum, you’re 73 not 100, just do it”….. so I did with him hovering and then I scanned the thing on tv and if bleeped and then I followed really easy instructions. Simples. Now have my Netflix account ( I don’t watch tv rubbish ) then son says “ now go upstairs and sort your bedroom tv out” so I did …and I d discovered I can do near everything if someone pushes me just a little!

I used to work as a cover supervisor in a school. For quite a while I covered a lot of computer tech lessons when the regular teacher was long term sick. Most of the kids knew far more than I do as I'm mostly self taught with a bit of help from my own grown up kids so if I was asked a question I couldn't answer I got one of the more capable students to help the one struggling. Most of the time that worked OK. As a cover supervisor you are not supposed to 'Teach' just supervise the students as they do the cover work supplied by the absent teacher and when teachers are off long term they should have a specialist supply teacher, but often there wasn't one available. At the end of the day the kids expect you to know everything even though you don't have a clue! I was once asked what a machine was in a resistant materials classroom. When I said I didn't know the student said "Well you're a s**t teacher then!"
Meanwhile some of the regular teachers asked me to help them with IT issues as I knew more than them, so although I consider myself incompetent with technology, they thought I was the person to go to for help!
There are things though that I really don't want to learn to do for myself so I use incompetence as an excuse to ask someone to help me. Fortunately I have plenty knowledgeable friends who are willing to help most of the time!
I am concerned about the trend for parking machines to need a smart phone as many older people don't have one - some can't afford one. I have one but have had times when I struggled to register with one. Also before I had one I got a ticket while at the other end of the street trying to pay over the phone and the system couldn't understand my voice giving my car registration! I went through three appeals to get the ticket cancelled and only won as the ticket was issued between the two text messages, one registering my credit card and the one telling me my registration number was invalid so I could prove I was trying to pay! Local authorities and car park administrators do need to make allowances for these things and be inclusive!

Everyone reading this must be able to use the internet???

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Just keep pressing and guessing as they say on Catchphrase. You can’t delete permanently. Well you can but it isn’t easy. The computer will show a pop up saying Are you sure? I don’t know how I would manage without some type of computer.

SueDonim, repeat prescriptions for my allergies - Yes, the doctor's 'new' system was slow and unreliable. I started using Pharmacy2U when it began - the GP was suspicious at first - but it's been great. No more pharmacy visits and queues, everything's delivered.