There is lots of talk about something called a “digital divide”. It is a reference to the economy, to poverty, and to how lack of access to technology, particularly the internet, is creating a new level of poverty in our country. It’s real and it matters, but it may not be the only digital divide that is impacting our current economic climate.
I am referring to a digital divide between younger and older users of technology. By older, I don’t mean really old people, but rather those who are active, employed and vital, but just not young. A group perhaps better known as “baby boomers:.
I spend all day working at a computer, connected by the internet, and engaged across a lot of different digital platforms. I am not a bleeding edge early adopter, but I do try to keep up. It is getting harder and harder.
I just spent a couple of hours trying to set up an RSS feed for podcasts to a tablet computer. I’m not sure what RSS stands for, but one of the “S’s” stands for “studpid”.
Apps, widgets, Google + accounts, Facebook settings… They are all too complicated and consequently a huge demographic is leaving them on the shelf.
There is no need for this to be so difficult. Unlike an economic digital divide, baby boomers have the resources to buy new technology, but they are not going to do it if using it is so complicated that something like a high end tablet computer is nothing more than an e-reader.
It is still too easy to click on the television or pick up the New York Times.
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