This tweet stood out to me this morning.
"My dad is now living with me and it has been a real eye opener as to how hard the modern world has become for the elderly. He is a highly intelligent man, fully switched on and yet he's seemingly faced with tech roadblocks with everything he tries to do. How anyone living alone with no help or family copes is beyond me. It's almost as if 'they' want you to just give up." — Millie71966 (@Michelle71966)
In addition to my consultancy and online events work, I work part-time at my local library in the Adult Services department. Part of my time is spent at our reference desk, and the remainder of my time I support our patrons, many of which are senior citizens, with using technology. I teach online and in-person classes, plus provide 1 to 1 support for those who make appointments with our department.
Over the last three years, this has become a fascinating aspect of my work. I’m now more aware of the needs of those who are less experienced and confident with tech. I see first hand how many companies and institutions do not take into account the generational and physical needs of their users, and it boggles my mind.
The aforementioned tweet resonated with me based on this recent set of experiences, so I read the replies with great interest.
Here are a few among the hundreds that stood out to me. Bold emphasis from me.
“There will be pundits who frame this as ‘technology progresses faster than people’ but there’s nothing progressive about it. When large swathes of people (the elderly) are excluded from participation in society because of technology, the proper word is REGRESSIVE.”
“We keep calling it ‘progress,’ but if basic services become inaccessible to the people who need them most, we’ve failed at inclusive design.”
“To exist in the world shouldn’t mean you have to deal with apps and AI. Digital exclusion is elder abuse.”
“It’s blatant discrimination against the elderly on a massive scale. And people don’t care bc they are computer literate and think it won’t happen to them. What happens when they have stroke or dementia?”
“Technology should be the servant and enabler, not the master.”
“This is the reality for millions. If you don’t have family nearby to bypass these ‘tech roadblocks’ for you, you are essentially locked out of modern society.”
“Much modern tech is poorly designed and only usable by those used to its shortcomings. It’s 2026 and by now we should be designing human-centric systems to focus on our needs, not forcing us to make up for its failings.”
“It is not so much the tech, but the move to AI in order to maximise profits by employing as few people on minimum wage as possible. Try to get a computer chatbot to recognise a situation which can be solved in one minute by a human, but is not on the list of help questions?”
“I find that if you don’t have an iPhone (smart phone) then you can hardly function in North American society anymore. And I get the feeling it was designed to be this way. You can’t even get a haircut appointment without a smartphone and an app.”
“The worst part is the loss of independence. Brilliant, proud people having to ask their kids for help just to check a bank statement or order a prescription is heartbreaking.”
“Watching your parents get older changes your perspective. You realize technology isn’t always becoming more user friendly, it’s often just becoming more familiar to everyone except the people who need simplicity the most.”
“Honestly—there are like 58 steps to do anything anymore. For regular adults its beyond irritating and for the aged its just cruel.”
“Totally agree. My mum’s the same – sharp as a tack but gets completely defeated by ‘reset your password’ loops or apps that assume everyone has a smartphone glued to their hand. It’s exhausting for them and heartbreaking to watch. We need simpler options for basic stuff.”
“I have thought this so often as I watch the elderly struggle with basic tasks. I try to teach my parents new tech as much as I can, but it’s horrible that society as a whole moves onto new platforms without giving a thought to how it will affect the elderly.”
“My parents, both in there mid 90s, live with me, they find the modern world too complex to navigate.”
“So true. I was just thinking the same myself. My mom is 87. No sooner is she competent at using her iPhone the systems change.”
“One of my dad’s doctors started requiring an app to check into appointments. He’s never touched a smartphone.”
“I’m managing 7 separate health portals for an elderly loved one. Seven.”
“Similar comment to my wife tonight. I’m 68 and am technically competent but today i had to upload 3 different files from my Google after downloading them from hospital app to get a doctors appointment and prescription. I also had to add the email for pharmacy. Stop the madness.”
“Just call the pharmacy to get info on prescriptions. The automated menu will make you tear your hair out. It keeps asking you to repeat your birthday & finally you push the numbers because it can’t handle your voice. My Dad, now passed would get disgusted by this.”
“It can be challenging with medical (access apps, upload info/scans to make appts). Mobility: Uber as option can be hard: you need manual dexterity, awareness of drivers sending you messages…. what younger people take for granted can be very challenging for seniors.”
“I tried to gain access to my own and help my 87-year-old dad set up online access to his own IRS account. It was impossible. You have to take a video of the front and back of your driver’s license and confirm it with a selfie video.”
“My over 90 year old mother is required to have 2 factor authentication on her email. Not allowed to bypass or stat signed in. She’s given up.”
“I’m oldish, my new debit card came, now contactless, which I’m keen to have. I have to use a pin before I can use it ‘contactlessly’ & I can find the pin on my online banking. Log in for the pin…to find I need to add a mobile number. I don’t have a mobile 🙄”
“Yesterday I received my voter registration from my council. For the first time, there is no simple form, but instructions of how to proceed online. I am ok, but I wonder how many seniors might be disenfranchised.”
“Their brains often aren’t wired that way, and they are terrified. My 91 year old Mum calls me in tears because someone sent her an email and she doesn’t understand it. It’s just the tax office advising of a code change ‘do nothing, don’t worry, delete it.’”
“Yep. My dad doesn’t have an email address and apparently that meant he couldn’t buy a car. My brother had to provide HIS email address. Dad was paying in full and they stopped the transaction over an email!”
“My mom’s 80, same issues. She is also inundated with scam calls, texts and emails. It appears they allowed a huge organized scam industry to develop to fleece our elderly. And they appear to be doing little to change that.”
“My Mum, 88, got scammed through her laptop last Dec. She managed to block access to her savings, but is still scared to even open the screen now. She feels her world is shrinking.”
“I’m going through something similar with my mother. She’s got a lot of friends her age and older, and it seems like a lot of them simply aren’t having many of their needs met because of it. Routinely out of prescription medications because the process is so hostile. Not receiving their meager benefit payments because of some paperwork glitch that they can’t figure out. Power getting disconnected, no phone or internet for intermittent periods. Bank account empty because of getting scammed the 13th time. Getting gouged on prices for EVERYTHING because they have a tough time sorting through all the options. All relatively intelligent people who are in retirement and are merely having a tough time managing all this shit. I think of all the people in even more challenging situations and how they must be handling all of this. And the sad fact is that they often aren’t.”
“My mom, 94, called one of those walk-in hair cut places. She called for an appointment. They answered the phone and told her she couldn’t make an appt over the phone. She had to use their app to make the appt. Over the phone they told her they couldn’t help her on the phone. 🤬”
“It’s everywhere. I can’t go to my local theatre because you have to download and use their app, no exceptions. Can’t go to a lot of restaurants because you have to scan a QR code to see a menu and/or order. Businesses are relying on tech only and don’t care.”
“I can’t even get a UPS package from my complex’s mail box unless I create an Amazon account. I don’t use Amazon, why tf would I make an account with them.”
“I refuse to go to sporting events now. I will not get an app for a ticket. A children’s museum wants me to use Apple wallet for my membership ID. No thank you.”
“I resent coupons, especially digital coupons. I see a big sign with a great price and find out it’s for digital coupons. To me that is obvious discrimination against the handicapped.”
“My next door neighbor was on a fixed income and didnt have a smartphone so he missed out on the really great deals at Safeway. I guarantee he needed those extra deals more than most people did.”
“The removal of the landline seems to mean that I have to change everything to bt or do without the phone that is currently landline. I kept it only because I can hear on it; the mobile is a bit difficult to hear.”
“Apps and messages designed for mobile phones are really difficult for declining eyesight and poor hand coordination. Too many passwords or number codes are hard to remember and move around on the phone. And increasing deafness cannot hear vocal messages or enjoy zoom calls.”
“I can’t count how many elderly people I have helped with tech issues. One of the main issues they face is switching screens on an iPhone. The inability to do so can stop them dead in their tracks when they are trying to access applications or sites that require text codes, which must be entered on a different screen. Many explain that they have no idea how to use their phone, and the customer service representatives at the place where they purchased the phone do not have the time to show them how to properly navigate even the simplest features. They are on their own unless they have someone to help.”
“I’m 65 and smart TVs make me cry. I miss the days when there were only 5 channels.”
“It’s a big divide with the over 65s. Those who know tech know it well, as they learned it when it mostly command line & not user-friendly. But it’s also the generation where you might have never used it if you didn’t work in an office.”
“I’m (61yr old tech moron) My 88yr old neighbor’s tech advisor. On the one hand, he has challenges trying to pay some bills and do online shopping. On the other hand, he’s blissfully unaware of the stupidity of the Internet, computers, phones, (anti)social media etc.”
“Stop with the generalization. It isn’t hard for the ‘elderly’, it is hard for ‘some older people’. I’m 81 and I have absolutely no problem with ‘the modern world’. See – I even know how to respond to stupid tweets.”
These themes will serve as a framework for future posts. I’ll try and address some of the challenges mentioned. Note: Quotes were transcribed from screenshots of the thread using Claude. Handles and spellings are reproduced as shown, including original punctuation and typos.
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