Feature Story
crow’s feet: life as we age
Teaching Technology to an Older Person
My journey in helping an old friend enter the new millennium
By John Egelkrout
When I agreed to help my friend Emma assess the technology she had in her home and make recommendations, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
I entered her home and felt like I was entering a technology museum. I asked her about the different types of technology she had, and she took me around her house to show me what was there. She explained that many of the items she has had for a very long time, and some of it simply don’t work anymore.
On the inside I was thinking “Oh boy.” On the outside I said “Let’s take a look.”
She asked me where I wanted to start, so I told her maybe we could start with her music. Emma has always loved playing music, and since I hadn’t seen her in a while, I was curious about what technology she might be using.
Photo by Alan Rodriguez on Unsplash
She led me into her living room and there, as the centerpiece of her musical world, was a 20-year-old CD player perched on a stand with a stereo receiver that was about the same age. On a lower shelf was a cassette tape player, the kind that could play two different tapes or facilitate making copies of one tape onto another. It was a state of the art system a very long time ago.
I asked her how often she uses it, and she told me that she still uses it from time to time, but she doesn’t listen to music as often as she used to, and now that she is no longer able to buy CDs, she feels like her music library is stagnant.
Indeed.
I remembered that at one time she had an iPod, and I asked if she still used that at all. She informed me that she got tired of trying to figure out how iTunes worked and basically gave up. CDs were much easier to use.
She showed me a small collection of old Walkmans and Disc-mans she had in a closet. Also in the closet were two old iPods, a collection of cassette tapes, and a small number of old vinyl albums. On the floor of the closet was an old boombox that hadn’t been used in years.
After a brief pause, I asked if she knew anything about streaming services, such as Apple Music. She indicated that she did, but she had no intention of using any kind of subscription service.
“Why should I have to pay to listen to music I already own?” she asked sternly.
That was hard to argue with, but I did go on to explain that is where music is at in 2024. I told her that a subscription-based service gave her access to millions of songs and that if she added up the money she has spent on CDs and MP3s over the years, the subscription services really weren’t a bad deal.
She remained unconvinced. I went on to explain that unless she was willing to subscribe, what she has now is what she will always have. CDs aren’t going to make a comeback, and neither are iPods.
She looked a little disappointed and said she would think about it.
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Emma’s stereo (Author’s photo)
Emma’s old technology. Author’s photo
From there we moved on to her cell phone. She said she has been having trouble using her phones because they were old and didn’t have much memory. Her use of the plural “phones” caught my attention, so I asked which phones she had and what they were doing that was causing the problems.
She showed me her iPhone 6s and a Samsung that was in a threadbare case. Since I am not familiar with the Samsung models, I focused on the iPhone 6s. I used to have an iPhone 6s, so I knew what I was looking at. The 6s came out in 2015, so the phone I was looking at was roughly 8 years old. I admit to being somewhat relieved that she didn’t have a flip phone.
She did have a smart phone, though with its age, it isn’t as smart as it once was. I can relate to that.
I asked why she also had the Samsung, and she explained to me that she bought it for her mother about the same time she bought the iPhone. My hunch about the age of the Samsung was correct. It was also a very old phone.
She explained to me that her main problem with the iPhone was there was no more room for her to store her pictures, and that the battery doesn’t last as long as she would like after charging it. These are common problem with old phones.
“Do you ever upload your photos to your Google Drive?” I asked.
She said she did not want to upload anything to the cloud because other people might have access to it, and she didn’t trust the cloud. I took a semi-deep breath and began to explain to her that unless she had some other place to store her photos, she would not be able to take any more pictures. The only other option for her was to delete some of the photos she currently has stored on her phone to make room for newer ones.
“I am planning to get the new iPhone 16 when it comes out, but it is pretty expensive,” she told me.
I went on to explain that she really didn’t need to buy the newest model when it came out, and that there are a number of new, but slightly older models she could buy for much less. She wasn’t interested. She was going to wait.
The next item on our list was her computer. I noticed a Chromebook lying on a table in her living room and asked if that was her computer. She said it was, and I asked her how she liked using a Chromebook. She told me her son bought it for her, but she didn’t like it because it had so little memory for storage.
That statement told me she really had no understanding of how a Chromebook works. I explained to her that Chromebooks are designed to be used with Google Drive, which is where most of the files are to be stored. I told her that a Chromebook doesn’t store the files on a hard drive inside the computer the way a traditional laptop does.
I asked if she had her Google Drive set up, and she said she wasn’t sure. After fumbling with the Chromebook for a short time we determined she did have a Google Drive that her son set up, but she had never actually used it to store anything.
I attempted to explain the benefits of using the Google Drive to store her files, but she once again brought up her distrust of the cloud. I already knew where this conversation was going to go. She also said she refuses to pay for storage too. I knew this conversation had run its course.
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She then led me to her basement, explaining she had a lot of old technology she wasn’t sure what to do with. I knew I was about to enter a time warp when she said that, and I was right.
The room where she kept her old technology looked remarkably like a museum. On one table were a number of 3 1/2 inch floppy disks with their contents labeled. There was not, however, any computer in the house with a disk drive where these would be inserted. On another table were four old printers, two old routers, and an assortment of old cables and chargers orphaned long ago from whatever device they were used with. There was an old fax machine and several DVD players.
None of what I saw had any practical use, so I told her I would look into where these things could be recycled. I also jokingly told her no one uses Windows 95 anymore. I’m not entirely sure she got the joke though. In many ways, she seems stuck in about 1996 or thereabouts, as though no technological advancements have been made since then.
When our meeting came to a close, I told her we should revisit all of this and see what improvements we could make. I told her if she wants to make her life a little easier, she will need to give serious thought to embracing the cloud, streaming music and videos, and online banking.
I have some work to do.
John Egelkrout is a sanity-curious former teacher who writes about politics, social issues, memoirs, and a variety of other topics.