Constant technology changes throw seniors a curve, and add to caregivers' load

[erronis]

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-constant-technology-seniors-caregivers.html

This past Christmas, I helped my parents choose a water filter. The latest "smart" models all came with a smartphone app that promised to monitor filter life, track water quality, and automatically request service. Yet my father, age 75, and mother, 67, were quick to reject them in favor of a nondigital model.

"Every time it updates or I forget how to use it, we'll have to call you," my dad said.

As an only child living 8,000 miles (12,875 kilometers) away, I didn't need convincing. My parents are aging in place and don't need traditional caregiving--they cook, drive, and manage their home just fine. Instead, I provide what I call technology caregiving: helping them with their digital activities of daily living, from online banking to booking theater tickets.

But as the tech industry shifts toward artificial intelligence agents and generative user interfaces--promising to make devices smarter than ever--I am bracing for this invisible workload to become heavier, not lighter. In addition to being a technology caregiver, I'm a computer scientist who studies human-computer interaction.

. . .

I see this daily with seniors having to deal with new phone screen layouts, etc. but especially with dealing with the AI bots at the end of every customer support phone call or web interaction.

[slightlv]

1. I did the same for my Mom for years before she died.

The hardest was keeping her system "clean"... I installed a group of programs I'd used for years which had given me a clean, trouble-free computer. But one thing I realized early on... the system of programs only work when you enable them and leave the settings as I set them (something Mom had problems with). She lost so many smart phones, I told my sis I think she was doing it on purpose because she couldn't use them correctly. My husband, at 74, insists on one of the dumb flip phones. I can't help him much with it, but as long as he can hear the "ring" and answer or place a call, that's all he needs to do on it, anyway. A smartphone would only get him into trouble with scams, etc. He's at the point where he basically believes all the scams and "offers" are in earnest. More than once I've had to pull our fat out of the fire... and one time I couldn't, because he had given our entire checking and savings account money to "FBI" scammers. That was a few months I really don't ever want to live through again. But beyond the technology going beyond our reach, it's the stuff that should have been over once we reached 65 and retired that gets me. Things like having to choose a healthcare provider because you got tricked into going on MA instead of straight Medicare. Or dealing with all the changing costs and fees and deductibles, even in MA, now that trump got his "big beautiful bill." Things like this I consider to be designed exquisite torture to all seniors. It's geared to be a losing proposition. Not everyone has kids or grandkids to help them thru all the decisions and paperwork. And it seems like the older you get and the less resilient your brain, the more authoritarian governments (Bush and trump) make you use it beyond your capability. For the second time today I'll say... Yeah, but who ever said life is fair? (sigh)

[applegrove]

4. My mom and dad got roped into a time share scam meeting

when they were in their 70s. Fortunately my Dad got wise during the speel and they left much to the consternation of the scammers. My parents didn't use the cell phone they had. They never used the internet. My dad used a computer to write letters to his friends but he printed them off and sent them by mail. My mom used an electric typewriter until 2007 when they moved into a seniors' residence. My dad was addicted to politics like I am but never got on a discussion board. I asked him once if he wanted me to teach him he said "I'd so enjoy that, but no".

My thoughts are with those of you who do this for your parents. You keep/kept them active by doing so. Nothing is more important than keeping them engaged.

[luv2fly]

2. In my work I meet with many families

We often joke that every family needs a 15 year old around nowadays to help with technology. It's not really a joke though, many older (and not so older) folks need reliable, trustworthy assistance in this area.

[erronis]

9. Yeah, we needed the 15 year olds to program the VCR also. Only problem is that young people can scammed also

I've read that they may actually be less aware of malicious actors - witness the influencers on social platforms.

[usonian]

3. I am a retired techie senior, and every functional device I get is dumb as a brick.

The propane company put a cellular gizmo on the tank, but it's a short walk to read the gauge. My 2018 SUV is off the internet.

Of course, the computer gadgets are high tech, kind of by definition.

The propane company warned against phone scams.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=21092458

I don't pay by phone. I print out the invoice (because they stopped sending them, only a pdf in the email) and pay it by check.

Every account I set up is another way for my personal information to be stolen. Not IF, but WHEN.

Complexity makes it easier, not harder, to hack and steal information, because complex systems can never be completely tested and hardened. *

* Only one piece of software is, and it's the OpenBSD operating system, which only a few even know about.

[jfz9580m]

8. My dad a military vet

Told me that the military back in the day had some stuff they do on paper as it is harder to use maliciously. This is in India.
He objected long back to an automated weapons system saying that it is never a good idea to have no human in the loop.

I am trying to make peace with a minimal set of things that are not bad science nor parasitic even if they are in no way pleasurable and remain an unwanted drag on my resources.

I will do it in bad grace and grudgingly. I am suspicious of excessive virtue -I am already vegan, childfree, rarely shop for much but food and try to be an honest citizen scientist. I have no love of Si Valley nor computers and will contribute petulantly and with poor grace in the vanishingly rare cases I do..

These drumbeats of WW3 are terrifying so one has to yet again glumly fall in line..
I will shoot for the lowest level of tech I can get away with using.

[Nasruddin]

5. If you can't beat 'em

... join 'em

[jfz9580m]

6. Constantly uneven ground

I guess good science can fix it but only if at a small scale at least, every part of it works both as good earth science as Paul Ehrlich, Chris Ketcham or Rees would see it and good human social psychology as the human in my home embattled by this would see this.

I am the only scientist in my neighborhood and I know the people in this part of the grid well.

A sort of parasitic local greed and a shitshow is not viable any further.

[LisaM]

7. My mother has been in a rehab center (she is 90).

They don't have phones in the rooms! She has a cell phone but has trouble answering it. My sisters was complaining about it because as she pointed out, it's full of seniors and it's an added burden for them and their families.

I also don't think having a cell phone should be a requirement for anything but alas.

[yorkster]

10. As an older boomer I am fairly often up

against some little tech problem, which I can sometimes solve by um, googling it.
Same scenario for my husband. We sometimes prob. solve jointly and are bloody grateful that we still have each other.
But in my case anyway, I often feel that we are on the hairy edge of some cyber disaster, getting hacked, all info stolen,etc.
We're not total luddites, but the pace of change is a bit overwhelming. And AI is no longer looming, more like evetywhere. Question everything, I guess.

Ah well, on we go, for now anyway...


Thanks for this post, erronis.

[mike_c]

11. I am having the same problem

The thing is, I'm neither a Luddite nor technologically illiterate. I've been a coder for forty years, a former Unix systems operator, and an electronic tinkerer. Nonetheless I find myself increasingly left behind by processes, interfaces, and institutions others find normal. I didn't buy a smart phone until about two years ago and I still find most of its functions inscrutable. I simply dislike the damned thing and resent having a phone in my pocket. I grew up in a world where being away from my phone meant blissful privacy. I wouldn't have it at all if not for the difficulty of navigating modern life without one. For example, 95% of communications with my doctors is via text. I don't text, but they do. Mostly, when I want to text I put a stamp on it and drop my text into a mail box.

I've installed software for decades, and can write installation wrappers on my own, but app stores frustrate me. I can create user interfaces, but find Windows and Android opaque and obfuscatory. Much of the problem seems cultural rather than technological.

Edit: I also haven't owned a TV for 35 years and maybe that's where some of the acculturation occurs. I don't know.

[erronis]

12. Your history sounds much like mine altho I've had cell phones since they first came out.

Unfortunately the user interface for all cell phones changes with the manufacturer, the vendor, the version of the UI, and themes that can be applied willy-nilly. I try to help seniors with Apple and a huge variety of Android phones. Just finding the needed apps is frustrating.

There are desktop/laptop interfaces via the web for doing texting. I much prefer them since I like a keyboard, not thumb presses. I can use my Google Voice phone# on my laptop by entering: https://voice.google.com/. It handles calls, texts, voice messages pretty well.

[mike_c]

13. yes, just FINDING solutions is a pain in the butt

Nothing ever comes with a manual anymore, either. The notion that consumer software is intuitive enough to "just work" without documentation is insulting, IMO.

Anyway, I find myself becoming more and more crotchety about devices, UIs, and technological expectations. It's ironic that in my last decade of teaching, I knew way more than my students about hardware, software, and programming, but their apparently instinctive reliance upon menus and UIs made me a dinosaur and them "power users." I remember once not too long ago when I was showing a colleague and his grad student how to perform a particular data analysis, the student got flustered and his prof had to explain: "That's a command line interface."

[erronis]

14. The dreaded CLI! And things like vi/vim. Woe is me!

I have to admit that trying to remember 50-100 common linux/DOS commands and their thousands of parameters is scary.

I simple GUI for the top 80% use cases helps, but trying to hide the CLI totally in complicated apps is degrading.