practicum 6

One big issue i have seen over the forums for senior citizens relates to the constant release of new software and the usability. For us we see new software as easy to figure out, however people older than the "computer age" such as senior citizens, or even people my parents age, will have trouble adapting away from what they have already learned how to use. Companies as apple pride themselves on useability, however my grandmother got an Ipad, and gave it away because she couldn't figure out how to use the thing. We are talking about possibly the most simple peice of technology, literally you just touch what you want to do on the screen and it opens, yet somehow senior citizens remain to be baffled by what is being released. It takes them outside of their comfort zone. Senior citizens like what they know, their house, their family, however the use of computers has become to widespread for them to just not try, however whatever software they first learned how to use will be what they are most comfortable. I am fairly positive that after the Ipad fiasco, my grandmother still uses windows 97. Which at this point is significantly outdated. Sometmes technology just flies above senior citizens heads because when they were growing up this kind of technology was purely conceptual, now there are plenty of computers on the market that are supposed to make it easy for seniors to use, however the concept of portable computers, or touch screen tablets is something that will remain out of the grasp of senior citizens. However as years go on, senior citizens who understand how to use computers will grow as a population because of years of exposure, whereas the current group labeled as "senior citizens" have not had exposure to computers much of their lives.