Technology and we as Seniors

Technology and I are not good friends. I can operate a laptop, an iphone, and ipad. I managed to get a google home set up. We have a smart TV, an alarm and camera monitoring home system and a few other smart devices. However they are working but to their minimum ability, except the Iphone which I am reasonably good with. The rest is dumbfounding and the technological terminology constantly confounds. I am a qualified accountant and have seen many changes over the years with office technology. I came from manual systems, using my hands and my head. We moved through the ages of computers taking up a whole room with special heating and flooring, to now working on a small laptop from home or anywhere for that matter. I have had to embrace a multitude of software changes, system differences. inadequate programs, obnoxious educators with no patience and much more. I am pretty proud of how I have coped over the years. I cannot say the same for current times. I have to admit I am tired of having to google every product I buy to find out how it works. If I could avoid them I would but that is becoming increasingly difficult.

Of course there are positives to this world we live in. The Internet has provided us all with accessible information at our fingertips. Not always good information but readily available and a multitude of differing options. It now assists to entertain us on a daily basis. It corrects us, calculates and deciphers for us. We now have technology sending us reminders for everything, appointments, duties, when to sleep, when to exercise, when to weigh in and how when and why to eat. We can order in, order out, and return without question. Social media keeps us in contact, helps us travel the world from an armchair. gives us recipes, pet care information, restaurant information, gossip, gossip and more gossip. The list is endless and sometimes hilarious but also sometimes frightening.

I really don’t want people to think I am negative to the changes. I am not as I believe change is good and it primarily improves us as humans. Change is inevitable and I want to embrace it but I am tired and confused. I sometimes think back and laugh as I have worked since I was 14 yrs old with the expectation that retirement would eventually come and my life would be simple once again. No decision making, less worrying, less brainwork. Now I know life will never be that simple again.

How has technology affected your life?

I would love to know how other seniors have coped throughout their lives.