Ok, I seem to be way too involved in this thread. I guess I've been on a couple different sides of the issue, as I spent a couple years doing sales for CompUSA. My husband I built a computer for my grandma. I did the hardware, he did the software. My aunt, who lives local to her, did the maintenance. Grandma hated it. She liked getting emailed pics, but she hated the spam, she hated the malware onslaughts, she hated the constant fiddling with minutiae to figure out tiny little things that had never before been important. So she got rid of it.
Ian's aunts and uncles bought a computer from him for his grandfather. Very similar experience.
Most of the retired elderly people who bought computers from me for personal use were doing so because of pressure from family members. And many of them then ended up feeling increasingly dependent on their family members for help learning and maintaining the thing. When one's independence is threatened by health problems or the increasing frailty that can come with aging, the last thing one wants is yet another reason to have to ask for help. And why bother? I remember a conversation a while back among a bunch of computer users about the irrelevance of penmanship. For people who have lived a good long while without computers, it's hard to imagine that a household PC is anything but irrelevant.
I have had great difficulty setting up cell phones. Until recently, cell phones were not a major part of my life. I got one when I started undergrad because I was commuting 40 minutes each way in an old and not terribly reliable vehicle and my parents were nervous. My mother decided that that meant I would be available whenever she decided to call. My colleagues called me at random times. I never once needed to use it for an emergency. I got a flat once, so I changed it. I ran out of gas once, so I went to the nearest station and got a gallon of gas. My muffler hanger broke once, so I rigged it up with some wire and went on my way. My car overheated once, so I took a look at it, saw that a stray plastic bag has gotten sucked up against the radiator, removed it, and went on my way. The cell phone was never remotely relevant. It became quite the irritation. And I never could figure out how to set it up. The controls were counterintuitive. Scrolling through multiple letters per key was irritating. Remembering the series of menus to get to what one needed was difficult. It was a constant nagging irritation, trying to figure out this device that I owned for the sake of other people. Keeping it charged was a constant annoyance. And every time I had some minor delay, everyone expected me to magically use the cell phone to fix it, instead of y'know, using a jack or a gallon of gas or a bit of wire, or just pulling some debris off my radiator. Suddenly I was somehow irresponsible for not calling someone else every time my day had a hiccup.
There is no doubt in my mind that if I really wanted to, I COULD figure out how to use a basic cell phone. But I never have. I've made calls and I've even built up a small contacts lists in some of the phones I've had. But until recently, whenever I had a phone, it was mostly to suit other people, so that my communication mode was convenient for them. And the format of a basic phone is not simple. Computers generally require one to be able to readily conceptualize very concrete processes and how to manipulate them using the secret language of matching the right keys--which are frequently not labelled and which, in the case of cell phones--change fucntion constantly. Basic cell phones require the same sort of skills, only more so. The whole cable box/programming the VCR/Cable box issue is a similar cognitive challenge. You can't just do what you want to do, you have to figure out which buttons scroll which way and how to find the right menu to get to the right menu to get to the right menu. It is not simple. It may seem simply if you are highly motivated, if you enjoy it, if your minds natively works that way, etc. If you are not that motivated, if you find dealing with the inherent inefficiencies irritating and intrusive, if your mind doesn't work that way, then, well, yeah, your cell phone might go unprogrammed for months or years.
Personally, I still harbor a bit of a grudge against the whole cell phone concept. It's much easier for me to get enthused about a smartphone because I can do stuff with it other than be at people's beck and call or beg for help. It gives me a lot more resources when on the go for overcoming an obstacle. And I threw out my alarm clock, my paper running log and meds log, and my copies of the bunch of legal texts. I haven't tossed my maps, because redundancy is good there, but I never use 'em anymore. And the interface is easier to use. No menus to scroll through, no guessing games. It makes sense to me.
But, it makes sense to me because Apple has me well-trained to how they set up their interfaces. If I didn't have that background, well, yeah, I still wouldn't have a fully functional cellphone. I got it together and figured out how to get the most of my smartphone when I had a business plan that required me to do so, and I found a hardware/software solution that made sense.
I don't know much about cognitive processes or neuropsychology, but I do know that different people learn in different ways. I learn best by listening to lectures while taking notes, by taking stuff apart and putting it back together, by analogizing concepts to other areas where I have some familiarity, by reading descriptions of processes, thinking of an application in which I am interested, and thinking through how to adapt the process to my project. . This works well for a lot of things. I taught myself auto maintenance and repairs, some basic carpentry and repair skills, I learned the law, and I learned ADR processes and I learned a lot of history. I learned some quantitative analysis and I learned some advanced theoretical biology. I've learned a lot of comparative theology. I learned to shoot and I learned some basic reloading. Like all these allegedly computer-impaired old people, I'm pretty substantially not dumb and I'm no slouch when it comes to learning new things. BUT, I have never successfully learned a new language and I've never successfully become highly proficient in anything computer related.
To me, learning software feels like the old joke about flying. See, if your car stops working, well, there you are. If your plane stops working, well, there you AIN'T. The first time I changed my oil, it took almost an hour--figuring out what supplies I needed, figuring out the best way to get to the filter and plug, figuring out that it's a good idea to not drop the plug in the drain pan, y'know, stuff like that. I knew exactly what I needed to do, I had some basic instructions on how to do it, I had some ideas of how I might need to adapt them to my car, and I could put my hands on all the parts, learn how they felt, feel how tight the filter needs to be, see how it works. Ditto when I replaced my radiator, a broken door handle, built some shelves, put in a garden, etc.
But with Excel, for example, I don't know what I'm trying to do, and if I screw it up, I don't know how to get back to where I was. I end up in a screen that looks different and I don't know how I got there. I can't see the margins, and that makes it hard to stay within them, and I can't see the steps or even the potential steps, and that makes it hard to follow them. I guess I'm a visual/kinesthetic learner. I have to write it out, or fiddle with it, or find some way to categorize it and mentally picture it. When I think of history or politics or philosophy, I think in shapes, often Venn Diagrams, or timelines, or flowcharts. I can't seem to see the edges when it comes to computers, and when I do get the shape of what I want to do in my head, I tend to lose track of that shape when I try to impose the keyboard onto it and figure out how to get them to work together. Maybe if I took some classes and worked hard at it, I could find a way to make it click for me and stop experiencing a constant low-level stress as I end up getting outside my concept of what I'm doing and can't figure out how to use it properly, why I might want or need to, or how it is constructed. I have only a very shaky concept of how computers work at all.
It's not that I can't grasp technologies, it's that my intellectual framework was developed in an entirely different framework, and one that was, except for a foray into bio, almost entirely focused on the verbal. The only "math" class I took in undergrad was Intro to Symbolic Logic. I probably have had a lot less formal computer training than most people my age, but I've had to learn how to use quite a few bits of technology to get through school and in several different jobs. On a cultural level, I am very comfortable with technology. On a cognitive level, I am not at all comfortable with it.
If someone does not have the cultural framework for being at ease with technology, it seems to me that he may easily grasp the concepts, but if he, like me, does not have the native learning style or cognitive framework for assimilating that particularized body of knowledge and skill, then yeah, he'd probably have a combination of major difficulty figuring out how to learn a series of concepts and processes that are substantially different from verbal and most analog technology frameworks. Absent occupational requirements, it makes perfect sense that figuring out a cell phone, DVD player, or PC would seem an insurmountable barrier.
It's not necessarily lack of ability in older people--it's lack of need, lack of motivation, and lack of familiarity with the methods and concepts and processes used. Younger people using smartphones or other highly user-friendly devices are similarly not necessarily lacking in ability or intelligence--I'm no slouch there myself--but may be comfortable with technology and yet not have the skill or background to become truly tech savvy without extensive training.
