Do you believe it when younger people tell you seniors are “out of the loop” when it comes to technology? What I believe that it really is, is that they have given names and labels to various parts of technology information, without sharing what those names mean. While we cheerfully explained things to them and told them what words meant, they arrogantly tell their elders that they will never comprehend the intricacies of technology. Oh, really? It may be true, if they continually use new words and phrases and refuse to tell us what they stand for. Here’s a couple of examples:
apps – (.app) APP is an abbreviation for application – in other words, it’s the title of whatever you are trying to use.
font – A font is a specific typeface of a certain size and style. – in other words, if you were using the typewriter, it would be the letters’ appearance as you type them.
search engine – Noun, A program for the retrieval of data, files, or documents from a database or network, especially the Internet. – Oh, my, it seems whomever wrote this definition didn’t understand how to make it simple. A search engine is just a blank bar on your monitor screen that lets you type in the name of whatever you seek to know more about. Google’s search engine looks like this:
You just type the name of whatever you want to know about in the rectangle below the word Google and then hit the Enter key on the keyboard. This brings up links that will give you choices of what you want to read about the topic. You use the mouse (see – another strange word, not explained) to click on the link (Here’s a link: Put the symbol that moves when you move the mouse over the blue words and click once on them using the left button on the mouse.
and then the information appears.
I watched my two sons try to help me make and print out a card that I need for work tomorrow. It has taken them hours. They are each using a different computer program to design the card and since their “programs” are not the same, they do not interact correctly together. See – that’s when I decided it’s not the older generation who cannot understand technology. It’s the younger ones who can’t explain it in simple enough terms. You can’t talk in a foreign language and expect others to understand you if they don’t know what the new words mean.
So elders should not be afraid of technology or believe the idea that older people cannot learn to use technology. We can use it just fine. We just need to find excellent, patient teachers who believe in us. We need to learn bits and pieces at a time, practice with the newly learned information and then we will understand technology just like we’ve understood other things in our decades of life.