Hmm, maybe the generation that moan about millennials not learning 20th century skills should have spent time learning 21st century skills for themselves.
Should’ve spent time learning these skills instead of moaning about Millennials, Labour and Foreigners 🙂
Tough. Learn how to use technology, you’ve had 20+ years to figure it out, and if you refuse, that’s on you.
My 94 year old granny does online banking and reads the newspaper on her iPad. She has a paper notebook where she writes down instructions from family members on how to do certain things. I’m not an Apple fan myself, but I can’t deny that they’ve made it so easy and intuitive for anyone to pick up. There’s also so many free digital skills classes, in libraries, banks and community centres across the country.
I’m pretty sure there are classes that cater to older generation learning technology.
I’m sorry but you’ve had almost 30 years to learn. If you can’t use the Internet by now it’s down to your own stubbornness.
40% of over-75s moaning because they don’t want to do something that the other 60% do with no problem.
It’s not descrimination if you’ve had over 2 decades to start to pick and learn to use the technology with little to no restrictions but have stubbornly refused.
The internet has been a thing since, what, the late 90s? Computers were reasonably widespread for a decade before that and smartphones since I was in my teens in the 00s.
Boomers have had literal decades to catch up, but instead they expect younger generations to work around them. I’m quite sick of their entitlement, to be honest.
It’s not happened over night though, has it? How do you reach pensioner age without tech skills in this day and age is beyond me because since the 90s is only become a bigger part of life.
Those damn kids and their phones. How dare they move on with the technology we refused to learn about
my grandma was in her late 80s and managed to use her laptop to play very basic games on it quite well. theres a lack of willing to learn and thats it
Technically it isn’t discrimination, everyone is being treated the same and assumed to have the same access regardless and this is the problem
They’ve still got the Daily Hail and Express to keep them up to date.
One day you’ll be old and moaning about how you don’t understand the new technology which society is forcing you to use.
Young people were frozen out of home ownership, stable jobs and a functioning economy.
Sucks, doesn’t it?
What I’ve noticed is that some benefits are digital only while others are phone only – whichever is most inconvenient for their expected claimant base
Adapt or perish.
We’d still have horse and carts instead of automobiles if we catered to every Luddite.
‘”I have banked with Barclays for more than 60 years but now find I can no longer use the services for which I pay £20 each month because I don’t trust online banking and won’t do it,” she says’
It’s not discrimination to not cater to a stubborn twat. Come the fuck on.
Jean Peters was about 40 when the internet was invented, sorry but it’s time to catch up. Literally had half her life to learn it.
>“I have banked with Barclays for more than 60 years but now find I can no longer use the services for which I pay £20 each month because I don’t trust online banking and won’t do it,” she says.
£20 a *month* for banking services?!!!! I have a premium savings account and credit card that don’t cost that much – and it’s getting to the point where it isn’t worth it
One notable digitisation that annoys me is the removal of parking payment machines in favour of using the RingGo app.
A carpark near me (on a nature reserve) has no signal to buy a ticket, so noone uses the carpark and instead they churn up the kerbs and footpaths down the road.
The fact is that most adults alive today have saw technology at least enter the workplace before they retired, or have lived their lives with technology being a daily part of it. It’s been a different experience for each generation and we have all had to adapt in some way, however shunning technology completely is not the answer. Not everything needs to be replaced by technology and options should be available for people who cannot afford access to technology; however, technology is here to stay and services are going to be much more tech-based than they have been in the past. If you do not like that then tough. It might be hard to learn but not everything in life is easy. If older people want to sit there and complain that young people lack basic life skills then do not be surprised when young people do the same in reverse.
The digitalisation would have been better if not for the absolutely lousy Internet speeds anywhere in this country, even inside city centres. It takes a while to load anything at all – and you probably drop like mad if you need to take a video call on your phone.
I moved here from Singapore and the contrast is crazy. Let me drop the coins and move on – I agree with the boomers, and I’m a millennial myself.
It’s not even older people, I’ve had to show people in their 20s and 30s how to use the .gov websites for things like passport, driving licence and car tax.
Some people just get overwhelmed and give up, fear of getting it wrong prevents them from attempting.
We probably should be teaching these skills in secondary school…
I do agree that people should make some effort to keep up with technologies but sometimes I think things have gone slightly too far.
For example my university has forced two-factor authentication on the online portal and email. At least once a week I need to authenticate my login via my phone. If I lose my phone I have no way to access my university email, submit assignments or access online learning resources. To my knowledge there is no way around this.
Online systems and security are important but there needs to be viable, accessible backups
I won’t lie, some of this is older people’s own fault at this point. At work some of the people around 50 couldn’t even access their emails for work. That was genuinly insane to me – how have these people never before accessed emails on a computer before? Computers aren’t exactly a new invention.
Retired people have far more time to learn new skills than working people. It’s ridiculous to call it “discrimination” when there is nothing to stop them learning how to use ridiculously user-friendly software like banking apps. They could ask the bank for help, take a course on basic computer skills (many libraries and non-profit organisations offer them for free), Google the instructions or just learn by trial and error like the rest of us do.
It’s not discrimination, it’s intellectual laziness and a sense of entitlement to having the world adapt to them instead of the other way around.
They’ve had almost 40 years to get on learning how to use a computer, 30 to learn how to use the Internet and over 20 for mobile phones.
They just didn’t want to. My 90 year old granddad has it all figured out. They’ve literally got no excuse.
“I don’t trust online banking and won’t do it”
That sounds like your problem love.
I don’t care
Cry harder and get some skills… bootstraps and all
I was with her until I don’t use online banking because I don’t trust it.
Not knowing how to use the very intuitive modern tech is one thing, just straight ignorance is another and it’s therefore her choice to travel miles to the only branch available.
Doesn’t surprise me. I started working in tech support in 2001 and the amount of people who would think it was clever to say “I’m soooo computer illiterate!” and then do some stupid little laugh, was ridiculous. Going back earlier, another workplace almost had a riot when people were asked to look up information on a computer instead of using a massive, untidy, really difficult to maintain library of legislation. ‘Looking up information on a computer’ involved typing 2-3 words or a reference number, and hitting enter.
These people have spent the last 20-25 years resolutely refusing to have anything to do with new technology. No wonder it moved on without them. Meanwhile my elderly mother quite happily uses her iPad and smartphone because her attitude over that time was “Ooh, computers are fun, can I have a go?”
It’s not discrimination.
You can learn.
You choose not to.
That’s nobody’s problem but your own.
The world doesn’t give a shit that you can’t use home banking.
You had two decades to learn.
The quicker this generation dies off, the better
It’s been a common option to bank entirely by internet for nigh on 20 years now, and computers in general have been household items for 20 more.
I’ve honestly got little sympathy for nana for being so stubborn in learning how to bank with a computer or phone, plenty of old dears manage it, those who don’t are being left behind by their own choice, nobody else’s. I genuinely don’t get the mention in the article of strong authentication where they ask for a password, that’s not even a technical issue, you created a password and then you forgot it, user error plain and simple. Write them down after you make them and you’re bulletproof.
If someone genuinely has a reason for not being able to access services due to a protected characteristic, that is discrimination.
I don’t think age is even a valid excuse here because old age does not equate to inability to learn.
If they had some intellectual impairment as a side effect of their age (dementia or something) then maybe, but it would have to be something that would stop them from learning instead of slowing it down (people with dyslexia aren’t exempted from reading, the blind still have to sign contracts somehow, we just have to provide them with additional tools and support). If they’re unable to learn full stop, then at that point they’re probably in need of social care…
Computers have been around for decades and have been commonplace for almost as long, the willfully ignorant can lay in their beds.
From most of the old people I interact with, they just don’t trust it. I’m pretty tech savy and in my mid 40’s. I speak to old people all day about online set ices my company has and is pushing customers, but the overriding issue is trust, they would rather speak to a person than a machine as they see it.
Specially as the vast majority of people getting scammed these days are the old, I think at times it scares folks. Being dicks about it ain’t gonna help. My mother was learning how to adapt to the modern world when dementia struck and it frustrated her to no end and to a lesser extent me, having to show her how to use Facebook and such over and over again. I made it as simple as possible but she just could not grasp it.
The vast majority of people here who are bitching will be bitching when they are in their 80s and they can’t grasp some new gadget. It’s the way of the world.
Playing dumb after 20+ years of the internet being mainstream is a massive self-own, if they are able-bodied with properly prescribed glasses where needed.
After being IT support to my parents for all of this time, I guarantee that most times when they ask ‘What do I do now?’ The answer is ‘read the fucking screen and press a button that corresponds with the answer, just like on an ATM’
My dad uses Facebook and other forums a lot and has done for a good 10-15 years now and still one finger types whilst looking at the keyboard
It’s honestly just odd
There is definitely something to be said for the accessibility argument, small font sizes, audio prompts too fast etc. These can be worked around with tools but they take a little time to learn.
But the woman they interviewed in the article isn’t complaining about any of that, she’s just too stubborn to use the online banking service. She’s also probably said this many times and enjoys saying it to see what people’s reactions are.
Our IT infrastructure in this country is CRIMINAL! How can ENTIRE VILLAGES have zero WiFi connection let alone 5g?!
42 comments
Hmm, maybe the generation that moan about millennials not learning 20th century skills should have spent time learning 21st century skills for themselves.
Should’ve spent time learning these skills instead of moaning about Millennials, Labour and Foreigners 🙂
Tough. Learn how to use technology, you’ve had 20+ years to figure it out, and if you refuse, that’s on you.
My 94 year old granny does online banking and reads the newspaper on her iPad. She has a paper notebook where she writes down instructions from family members on how to do certain things. I’m not an Apple fan myself, but I can’t deny that they’ve made it so easy and intuitive for anyone to pick up. There’s also so many free digital skills classes, in libraries, banks and community centres across the country.
I’m pretty sure there are classes that cater to older generation learning technology.
I’m sorry but you’ve had almost 30 years to learn. If you can’t use the Internet by now it’s down to your own stubbornness.
40% of over-75s moaning because they don’t want to do something that the other 60% do with no problem.
It’s not descrimination if you’ve had over 2 decades to start to pick and learn to use the technology with little to no restrictions but have stubbornly refused.
The internet has been a thing since, what, the late 90s? Computers were reasonably widespread for a decade before that and smartphones since I was in my teens in the 00s.
Boomers have had literal decades to catch up, but instead they expect younger generations to work around them. I’m quite sick of their entitlement, to be honest.
It’s not happened over night though, has it? How do you reach pensioner age without tech skills in this day and age is beyond me because since the 90s is only become a bigger part of life.
Those damn kids and their phones. How dare they move on with the technology we refused to learn about
my grandma was in her late 80s and managed to use her laptop to play very basic games on it quite well. theres a lack of willing to learn and thats it
Technically it isn’t discrimination, everyone is being treated the same and assumed to have the same access regardless and this is the problem
They’ve still got the Daily Hail and Express to keep them up to date.
One day you’ll be old and moaning about how you don’t understand the new technology which society is forcing you to use.
Young people were frozen out of home ownership, stable jobs and a functioning economy.
Sucks, doesn’t it?
What I’ve noticed is that some benefits are digital only while others are phone only – whichever is most inconvenient for their expected claimant base
Adapt or perish.
We’d still have horse and carts instead of automobiles if we catered to every Luddite.
‘”I have banked with Barclays for more than 60 years but now find I can no longer use the services for which I pay £20 each month because I don’t trust online banking and won’t do it,” she says’
It’s not discrimination to not cater to a stubborn twat. Come the fuck on.
Jean Peters was about 40 when the internet was invented, sorry but it’s time to catch up. Literally had half her life to learn it.
>“I have banked with Barclays for more than 60 years but now find I can no longer use the services for which I pay £20 each month because I don’t trust online banking and won’t do it,” she says.
£20 a *month* for banking services?!!!! I have a premium savings account and credit card that don’t cost that much – and it’s getting to the point where it isn’t worth it
One notable digitisation that annoys me is the removal of parking payment machines in favour of using the RingGo app.
A carpark near me (on a nature reserve) has no signal to buy a ticket, so noone uses the carpark and instead they churn up the kerbs and footpaths down the road.
The fact is that most adults alive today have saw technology at least enter the workplace before they retired, or have lived their lives with technology being a daily part of it. It’s been a different experience for each generation and we have all had to adapt in some way, however shunning technology completely is not the answer. Not everything needs to be replaced by technology and options should be available for people who cannot afford access to technology; however, technology is here to stay and services are going to be much more tech-based than they have been in the past. If you do not like that then tough. It might be hard to learn but not everything in life is easy. If older people want to sit there and complain that young people lack basic life skills then do not be surprised when young people do the same in reverse.
The digitalisation would have been better if not for the absolutely lousy Internet speeds anywhere in this country, even inside city centres. It takes a while to load anything at all – and you probably drop like mad if you need to take a video call on your phone.
I moved here from Singapore and the contrast is crazy. Let me drop the coins and move on – I agree with the boomers, and I’m a millennial myself.
It’s not even older people, I’ve had to show people in their 20s and 30s how to use the .gov websites for things like passport, driving licence and car tax.
Some people just get overwhelmed and give up, fear of getting it wrong prevents them from attempting.
We probably should be teaching these skills in secondary school…
I do agree that people should make some effort to keep up with technologies but sometimes I think things have gone slightly too far.
For example my university has forced two-factor authentication on the online portal and email. At least once a week I need to authenticate my login via my phone. If I lose my phone I have no way to access my university email, submit assignments or access online learning resources. To my knowledge there is no way around this.
Online systems and security are important but there needs to be viable, accessible backups
I won’t lie, some of this is older people’s own fault at this point. At work some of the people around 50 couldn’t even access their emails for work. That was genuinly insane to me – how have these people never before accessed emails on a computer before? Computers aren’t exactly a new invention.
Retired people have far more time to learn new skills than working people. It’s ridiculous to call it “discrimination” when there is nothing to stop them learning how to use ridiculously user-friendly software like banking apps. They could ask the bank for help, take a course on basic computer skills (many libraries and non-profit organisations offer them for free), Google the instructions or just learn by trial and error like the rest of us do.
It’s not discrimination, it’s intellectual laziness and a sense of entitlement to having the world adapt to them instead of the other way around.
They’ve had almost 40 years to get on learning how to use a computer, 30 to learn how to use the Internet and over 20 for mobile phones.
They just didn’t want to. My 90 year old granddad has it all figured out. They’ve literally got no excuse.
“I don’t trust online banking and won’t do it”
That sounds like your problem love.
I don’t care
Cry harder and get some skills… bootstraps and all
I was with her until I don’t use online banking because I don’t trust it.
Not knowing how to use the very intuitive modern tech is one thing, just straight ignorance is another and it’s therefore her choice to travel miles to the only branch available.
Doesn’t surprise me. I started working in tech support in 2001 and the amount of people who would think it was clever to say “I’m soooo computer illiterate!” and then do some stupid little laugh, was ridiculous. Going back earlier, another workplace almost had a riot when people were asked to look up information on a computer instead of using a massive, untidy, really difficult to maintain library of legislation. ‘Looking up information on a computer’ involved typing 2-3 words or a reference number, and hitting enter.
These people have spent the last 20-25 years resolutely refusing to have anything to do with new technology. No wonder it moved on without them. Meanwhile my elderly mother quite happily uses her iPad and smartphone because her attitude over that time was “Ooh, computers are fun, can I have a go?”
It’s not discrimination.
You can learn.
You choose not to.
That’s nobody’s problem but your own.
The world doesn’t give a shit that you can’t use home banking.
You had two decades to learn.
The quicker this generation dies off, the better
It’s been a common option to bank entirely by internet for nigh on 20 years now, and computers in general have been household items for 20 more.
I’ve honestly got little sympathy for nana for being so stubborn in learning how to bank with a computer or phone, plenty of old dears manage it, those who don’t are being left behind by their own choice, nobody else’s. I genuinely don’t get the mention in the article of strong authentication where they ask for a password, that’s not even a technical issue, you created a password and then you forgot it, user error plain and simple. Write them down after you make them and you’re bulletproof.
If someone genuinely has a reason for not being able to access services due to a protected characteristic, that is discrimination.
I don’t think age is even a valid excuse here because old age does not equate to inability to learn.
If they had some intellectual impairment as a side effect of their age (dementia or something) then maybe, but it would have to be something that would stop them from learning instead of slowing it down (people with dyslexia aren’t exempted from reading, the blind still have to sign contracts somehow, we just have to provide them with additional tools and support). If they’re unable to learn full stop, then at that point they’re probably in need of social care…
Computers have been around for decades and have been commonplace for almost as long, the willfully ignorant can lay in their beds.
From most of the old people I interact with, they just don’t trust it. I’m pretty tech savy and in my mid 40’s. I speak to old people all day about online set ices my company has and is pushing customers, but the overriding issue is trust, they would rather speak to a person than a machine as they see it.
Specially as the vast majority of people getting scammed these days are the old, I think at times it scares folks. Being dicks about it ain’t gonna help. My mother was learning how to adapt to the modern world when dementia struck and it frustrated her to no end and to a lesser extent me, having to show her how to use Facebook and such over and over again. I made it as simple as possible but she just could not grasp it.
The vast majority of people here who are bitching will be bitching when they are in their 80s and they can’t grasp some new gadget. It’s the way of the world.
Playing dumb after 20+ years of the internet being mainstream is a massive self-own, if they are able-bodied with properly prescribed glasses where needed.
After being IT support to my parents for all of this time, I guarantee that most times when they ask ‘What do I do now?’ The answer is ‘read the fucking screen and press a button that corresponds with the answer, just like on an ATM’
My dad uses Facebook and other forums a lot and has done for a good 10-15 years now and still one finger types whilst looking at the keyboard
It’s honestly just odd
There is definitely something to be said for the accessibility argument, small font sizes, audio prompts too fast etc. These can be worked around with tools but they take a little time to learn.
But the woman they interviewed in the article isn’t complaining about any of that, she’s just too stubborn to use the online banking service. She’s also probably said this many times and enjoys saying it to see what people’s reactions are.
Our IT infrastructure in this country is CRIMINAL! How can ENTIRE VILLAGES have zero WiFi connection let alone 5g?!