Older people are seen as out of date, left behind by the rapid changes in technology. Why are you not on Facebook?, the next generation asks. Why haven’t you got an IPad, tablet or smartphone? Don’t know how to use a smartphone? Just let a 10 year-old show you how, they say. Haven’t you bought the App which shows you how to find your way around? And so on. It seems smartphones have become an obsession, a safety blanket which younger people cannot live without. Train carriages are full of isolated travellers obsessively consulting their screens or wearing earplugs and listening to music. A book reader on a train or bus is a rare sight, and conversation with strangers is not encouraged. On the street, walkers consulting smartphones are a hazard to the public and to themselves.
Do we retirees need to join the crowd? Certainly, having a computer and access to information through the internet is useful and a valuable means of overcoming isolation and loneliness. Being able to keep in contact with friends and family via email and Skype is a great advance on writing letters. But do we really need to check every few minutes whether or not we are ‘liked’ by a few hundred Facebook ‘friends’? And having to always consult an App to know where we are going, seems to take the excitement out of travel. However, there is one aspect of owning a smartphone which really worries me. Users think that they are only connected to the machine, but the machine is also connected to various mysterious organisations and businesses with the ability to manipulate and influence the user, mostly without their being aware. I want to be able to think for myself, make my own decisions and learn from my mistakes and have genuine friends, so I won’t be getting a smartphone any time soon.
Renaissance not Retirement 