(ThyBlackMan.com) Before I began writing, I was a computer instructor at a resource center. Handling the morning classes, most of my students were senior citizens who wanted to remain in contact with their children.
Mind you, this was when Samsung and Apple were starting to eat into BlackBerry’s hold over smartphones and they could’ve very well used mobile phones to stay in contact.
From the stories told to me, a lot of them got emails from their children but took too long to respond. My main goal was to teach them how to type and how to navigate Windows to do what they needed or wanted.
I also taught them how to use their smartphone and the functions that would make it easier for them to use. Again, this was the late 2000s and early 2010s, voice-to-text wasn’t an exact science at the time.
The Speed of Technology Now
“Seniors” can be a general because there are younger seniors who adapted to technology when they were younger and never just dropped it. Then you have seniors who were already up there in age when all this technology came out.
I worked with the older end and those tend to be the ones who feel like they’ve been left behind in my experience. Everything is moving at faster than post-WWII speeds now with smartphones and PCs being able to do a lot more in a shorter period of time.
It’s like if five or ten years after the Ford Model T came out in 1908, seat belts in cars were introduced. Seat belts weren’t introduced until 1949 and weren’t mandatory until 1966.
Black Seniors and Technology
Older seniors in Black communities didn’t have the education with PCs that my generation was getting in elementary school.
Those in the generations prior—Boomers and Gen Xers—were in that wave of people who basically programmed software and manufactured hardware. At that time, PCs and the internet started as things adults used for work and recreation and later it became a home for my generation and the next.
The generation left out? Those who would’ve been the parents of Boomers and in some cases Gen Xers. When I started teaching, it was a lot of “My son is working in Chicago and I want to know how to check my email.”
Teaching them just that would’ve helped but they would’ve been back to learn how to type so they could respond faster. It always bothered me when those who came before us are forgotten even when what they experienced and learned early on are a template for what younger generations will experience.
The opportunity to help them and experience teaching was something that was important to me and seeing them catch on and improve made it worth the low pay. It doesn’t hurt that this was a particularly chill job with great people.
Keep Seniors Connected
I can see where the idea that investing in educating senior citizens in technology is pointless has a foundation. The main thing is that in U.S, education has the end goal of producing more talent and laborers for different sectors and industries within the workforce.
After a certain age, work starts to dry up since companies want younger workers who will be around a while. Eventually, we age out of the workforce entirely.
Then what happens to them? We give them their social security and whatever retirement—which is like pulling teeth—and forget them. Their kids haven’t forgotten them obviously but now they’re in the workforce and some have kids of their own.
The internet and technology connect everyone regardless of where they are and their familiarity with technology. When teaching, I worked with people from my generation who could use the hell out of Facebook but struggled with Googling and typing.
Of course, social media is meant to be easy to use.
Resources and Technology Education for Black Seniors
Making technology not as scary, letting seniors know that they won’t break anything, and teaching them basic safety online and with their information can go a long way.
Education needs a degree of entertainment and excitement to keep people engaged. Make it flexible and fun and less of a grind. Going through the U.S school system and joining the workforce, the grind is instilled.
The most valuable resource will be the instructors themselves. Trained, self-trained, volunteers, employed by the city will help not only seniors but kids if they teach at public libraries. It’s how I developed my love for tech and the internet.
When education and resources are not only available but accessible, it becomes the job of the person to learn. In my experience, senior citizens want to learn and remain connected.
The younger seniors now are better connected than my students were and it’s important to keep it that way. In doing that, we can avoid things like “You just look at that phone and stay on that internet” or “You’re out of touch” because everyone has some degree of technological illiteracy.
Having a foundation in that era’s technology gives people a leg up as things develop—and tech develops fast these days. Knowledge and the ability to use it is what keeps people from being left behind.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.
