Discrimination against older women

that reduces the percentage of the population

Sorry, it doesn't reduce the population, it reduces the percentage of the population with technological skills!

Oreo I don’t drive. There are far too many cars on the road already and I have never really wanted to drive.

If I had learned early in my teens I think my life would have been dramatically different because of the independence and convenience it bestows.
But imagine the “C-Armageddon” if all adults took to the road there just isn’t the room on our island😱

But with IT, there is no substitute for being shown how to do the basics by a calm competent person early on as many people are still afraid that they’ll either “break the internet or inadvertently start world war 3”

Some people just are not very good at “showing how” just because “they know how” .

My problem is 'memory'. It's embarrassing. I write things down now or just take the plunge and ask for a repeat to what someone has just said. I've been to the doctor about it and he gave me some tests which to my surprise I passed with flying colours! BUT something is definitely missing - or not working properly

ferry23

Bill Gates (Microsoft) is 70 this year. The late Steve Jobs (Apple) would also have been 70 this year. Hardly spring chickens.

Alan Sugar introduced the Amstrad home computer around 1984 following hard on the footsteps of the Commodore - around 1982.

iPhones have been round since 2007 and the Blackberry was introduced in the late 90's.

That's 40 years + since affordable home computers came onto the market and 20 years + since the introduction of smart phones or at least phones that had internet capabilities.

That's ample time for people to learn how to use them.

It's one think to be discriminated againt because you can't do something - another thing entirely because you won't.

Alan Sugar introduced the Amstrad home computer around 1984 following hard on the footsteps of the Commodore - around 1982.

The Amstrad took 20 minutes to load up the tape.

The first computer I encountered was a DEUCE in 1965!

I did assessment tests to become a computer programmer in 1965. I failed. Precision and ADHD do not make good work fellows.

M0nica

I did assessment tests to become a computer programmer in 1965. I failed. Precision and ADHD do not make good work fellows.

I did a course learning COBOL.

Perhaps my mind works differently from a computer but I didn't enjoy it one bit.

Allira

M0nica

I did assessment tests to become a computer programmer in 1965. I failed. Precision and ADHD do not make good work fellows.

I did a course learning COBOL.

Perhaps my mind works differently from a computer but I didn't enjoy it one bit.

And - if I don't enjoy doing something 60 years later, my logic tells me that I don't necessarily have to embrace it.

When home computers were becoming more commonplace in the 1990s I enrolled for a free basic course. I had been using a computer at work but it was an old fashioned one which did not use a mouse. I am by no means tech-savvy and I was far from being the youngest in the class but the pace at which we were able to progress was painfully slow and was dictated by the slowest. I was put up into the intermediate class only to find that we just covered the same ground again.

I don't think it is entirely an age thing although growing up with computers at home and at school must help.

Magenta8

When home computers were becoming more commonplace in the 1990s I enrolled for a free basic course. I had been using a computer at work but it was an old fashioned one which did not use a mouse. I am by no means tech-savvy and I was far from being the youngest in the class but the pace at which we were able to progress was painfully slow and was dictated by the slowest. I was put up into the intermediate class only to find that we just covered the same ground again.

I don't think it is entirely an age thing although growing up with computers at home and at school must help.

Agree. Growing up with computers must help.

Our first home computer was purchased in 1991, intuitive, much easier than our current laptops. Both of us, in our 80s do everything necessary on laptops.

Banking, bids, my husband's business, investing, paying out, purchasing for delivery, finding items to purchase - research.

I think this is the big differencebetween then and now. In the 1970s-90s, whenever a new bit of technology was introduced, or new software, you went on a course to learn how to use it.

We were fairly early technology adapters. DH got a Sinclair ZX80- in 1980. It came as a kit of parts for self assembly, we had our first home computer in 1984. I started using computers at work in 1979 and by the early 1980s I was writing computer specifications - from the user angle, not the technology, but always accompanied by suitable courses.

Once I took early retirement in the late 1990s, all the courses stopped, I di pay for a couple, but even that isn't possible these days. You have to rely on You tube videos, which are OK up to a point, but no good if you get stuck over one operation or aspect.

Yes, I worked for the Civil Service and was sent on courses.

Remember the Millennium Bug?
Was it a storm in a teacup or was it averted by diligent programmers?

Allira

Good heavens!

Please could your surgery have a chat with our Practice Manager?

And my practice manager too. My GP surgery just ignore anything typed in the box!

ferry23

Bill Gates (Microsoft) is 70 this year. The late Steve Jobs (Apple) would also have been 70 this year. Hardly spring chickens.

Alan Sugar introduced the Amstrad home computer around 1984 following hard on the footsteps of the Commodore - around 1982.

iPhones have been round since 2007 and the Blackberry was introduced in the late 90's.

That's 40 years + since affordable home computers came onto the market and 20 years + since the introduction of smart phones or at least phones that had internet capabilities.

That's ample time for people to learn how to use them.

It's one think to be discriminated againt because you can't do something - another thing entirely because you won't.

My neighbour got quite irritated with 2 families in our road because neither household had an email address or access to the Internet. (We were organising complaints to the council) One had been a stay at home mum and wife to a poorly husband, the other had had no contact with computers through work, and no kids.
Of course they could've gone on a course at the library and then bought a computer. But for the expense and energy, what good would it have been to them?
Learning about technology in your 60s ain't easy with no-one to help you practise.

Allira

Yes, I worked for the Civil Service and was sent on courses.

Remember the Millennium Bug?
Was it a storm in a teacup or was it averted by diligent programmers?

Many thousands of us worked nonstop for many weeks to prevent crucial systems from failing. Some systems did fail, but mainly smaller, older systems that no one had bothered to test because the owner didn't think it was worth it, and none that were likely to cause a major problem as far as I can remember.