Microblog post: "Family won't move our group chat to signal. Had to leave. Here comes the guilt trip ๐Ÿ˜’". Screenshot of a iMessage conversation with a contact named Mom: "Please come back to the group chat. We are making thanksgiving plans and we need your input." - "As I said in the group chat, you shouldn't be using iMessage. Signal is better Opsec. Once everyone starts taking that seriously you know where to find me." - "Gam Gam is 92. She barely knows how to use the phone she has." - "She needs to adapt"
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[โ€“] 16 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

You're speaking like someone who doesn't have elderly relatives...

The brain's ability to adapt decreases with age, to the point where it becomes very difficult to teach an elderly person anything new, and eventually even for them to remember or be shown how to do the things they've done for years but have now forgotten. It's very frustrating for everyone involved, and expecting them to adapt is expecting them to do something they simply can not do.

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  • [โ€“] 17 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Okay, how does this explain the Boomers and up who seem to only be capable of using Facebook?

    Like, if it's about adaptation, they had email and SMS long before Meta started their "clean" version of MySpace that has gotten so much worse than what it replaced.

    I'm stuck with a yearly Christmas card from a lot of older relatives because they can't manage to step back an use services they did use before the big tech algorithmic fuckery took over.

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  • [โ€“] 7 points 5 months ago

    They sunk their time and effort into something that offered intuitive ease of use and photos they wanted beyond occasional messages. To just sit on an iPad and tap it like a rat hitting the feeder bar in a laboratory takes very little additional effort to learn. Scroll until you dopamine centers light up, tap for more, tap all red notifications. It's easier than using email or WhatsApp or Signal because they're using it like a steam of consciousness.

    If you ask Granny on FB to fine a direct message from a month ago, it's possible that's too challenging a task because it's not right there.

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  • [โ€“] 4 points 5 months ago*

    There's dementia and then there's a lifetime of intellectual laziness and incuriousness. My great grandfather and his brother lived into their 90s and coped with the changing world just fine. My grandparents are getting up there and they're still sharp-witted and active and aren't afraid of new technology. Many people aren't lucky and lose their faculties through no fault of their own but complacency is like giving up on your future.

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