An elderly man refused to be taken by bus because he did not have a smartphone and could not show his COVID Pass.
An elderly people who was lockdown in their homes due to the COVID-19 outbreak broke down and cried because she could not use smartphones to buy food online in supermarkets.
A 94-year-old woman was carried to the bank just to complete her face recognition and activate her health insurance card.
There is a documentary in Taiwan called “Go Grandriders” which documents a group of elderly people with an average age of 80 who travel around Taiwan together on motorbikes. This trip, which is very easy for young people, but is exceptionally arduous for this group of elderly people. So why do they do it? They mentioned that when they were young, they worked hard for their families and society, and when they are old they think they can finally live for themselves, while the fast-moving technological age has forgotten them.
How should we define elder people? The World Health Organisation defines older people as those over 60 years of age, while some developed Western countries consider 65 years to be the cut-off point.[1]According to the United Nations’ World Population Prospects report, the proportion of the world’s population aged 65 or over was 4.97% in 1960, 6.89% in 2000, increasing to 9% in 2019 and expected to rise to 15.3% in 2050. Population ageing is likely to become one of the most important social trends of the 21st century.
The 49th Statistical Report on the Development Status of the Internet in China released by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) states that as of December 2021, China’s Internet users aged 60 or older had reached 119 million, and the Internet penetration rate had reached 43.2%. [2]Although this value is constantly growing, news of the elderly being shut out of technology continues to come out all the time.
In order to investigate this suspicion, I distributed a questionnaire with the aim of finding out how seniors now use smartphones. The contents of the questionnaire include：
- Are you over the age of 65?
- Do you currently use a mobile phone?
- Do you use a smartphone or a regular mobile phone?
- If you use a regular mobile phone, are you planning to switch to a smartphone?
- If you use a smartphone, do you use the internet on your mobile phone?
- If you use a smartphone, do you use social networking tools such as WeChat?
- If you use a smartphone, do you use mobile payments?
- If you use a smartphone, do you use mobile navigation?
- If you use a smartphone, do you use mobile banking?
- If you use a smartphone, do you order food from your mobile phone?
- If you use your smartphone, do you know how to use QR codes on your smartphone to travel on public transport or the metro?
Questionnaire link：https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdKQPr1_cyBbd6X_T2xI1ArDiQUEhi6oECu0ytGXaxeqqDCPg/viewform?usp=sf_link
In response to these questions, 10 seniors said they had not had access to a smartphone and 2 of them had plans to switch to a smartphone. Of the 36 seniors who use smartphones, 13 are fully proficient in using them. The remaining 23 seniors only use them to make phone calls.
Has the age of technology abandoned the elderly, or has the elderly abandoned the age of technology? As early as 1991, scientists introduced the concept of Gerontechnology, a word that combines the words “geron” (Greek for “old man”) and “technology”. “The ISG defines Gerontechnology as follows.[3]
“Gerontechnology: designing technology and environment for independent living and social participation of older persons in good health, comfort and safety.”
This shows that technological designers are already designing convenient scientific services or products for the elderly, but there are still many cases where technological developments cause problems for the elderly. The main reason is that there is still a lack of social awareness of the concerns of the elderly. This is a good explanation for our inability to serve the elderly despite having many convenient technological products.
It is often said that there are three stages in a person’s life: about to grow old, in the process of growing old, and already old. All human beings will follow the natural pattern of aging, No one can accurately predict the future direction of technology. Will we be the ones left behind when we grow old? Improving people’s attention to the elderly in the age of technology, so that technology can also become their well-being. This is the change I want to see.
[1]United Nations, 2021, World Population Prospects
[2]China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), 2021, The 49th Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China
[3]Xu Yeliang, 2014, Opportunities and challenges of “Gerontechnology”, p84