You’re brave insinuating elderly people are less tech savvy. The woke brigade throw a fit. You only have to look at the first page of this thread.
Yes it is to degree. Just look at even the 20 olds and 30 olds getting confused over windows 8 and now windows 11. And the backlash Microsoft is getting over the centrist start menu and start menu that looks different like.
Out side of the way brain works for anyone ages 18 and over but also people are creators of habit on top of that. And unless some one as lot of exposure growing up they will struggle in the future. Even computer experts and computer geeks would struggle if a time machine sent them to a future in like a star trek like future be very alien like to them.
This is more a psychology than tech problem. And one of the biggest advice I read about learning new operating systems is not looking for similarities. If you know windows 7 inside and out and switch to say android or Mac OS you not going to be looking for device manager messing with loading drivers there and messing with windows registry or thinking the multitasking of windows is the same as windows.
Where people get frustrated and confuse is when the way to do things changes like some one use old dial phone than switch to a keypad phone.
There are old people that grew up and only knowing how to use those old dial phones and struggle with keypad phones that alone cell phones.
Old dial phones.
And yet there are young people that would struggle if you give them dial phones.
Well kids and teens and very much so kids brain are more wired to learn and as people get over the age 18 they struggle and very much so if the information is the same over the years because new experience is drawn from past experience.
So this is important that formation is different than the sane over the years. That is why Mac users and people having different operating system are freaking out less than windows crowd over windows. And heaven forbid if Microsoft brings out windows 12 in 8 years from now with a top panel and dock or some some thing similar to mentro.
As for old people and people that just seem to struggle not really sure what the answer is as even vehicles and TVs are more computer like and are changing.
This not some thing Microsoft or Apple can fix as this more a psychology problem. But not just old people I see many younger people struggle with computers and tech.
I think in 5 years from now windows, Mac OS, iOS, iPadOS, Android and Linux will look very different and be really alien like in 10 years out from now and in 15 years from now the concept of computing may be very alien.
In much the same way unless you a AAA hard core gamer, computer enthusiast or tinker no one really buys a desktop tower these days for the home.
And in 10 or 15 years from now the same could be for laptop computers. Every thing may be done on a foldable smartphones that goes from small smartphones to tablet.
There probably be large cloud like interface where the software stays in the cloud and you connect to it and use it. There probably be more AI like imports where you fill out a template and AI does the work. And note taking and typing may be of past with advance AI that listen and types for you.
And reddit, yahoo answers and wikipedia may be of past where you talk to computer and ask a question and computer can answer it. As AI would have billions of books scan into the AI software and know the answer to question.
This technology is very basic today but probably get way more advance in the future. As a boomer I’m shocked how good Apple and Google photo recognition is getting over the years. The way computing may be done in the future may be very different.
With technology and computer advancements I'm not sure what Microsoft or Apple can do but many people will be lost even computer experts and computer geeks.
