It is pretty clear that unless you have grown up with technology, computers, and the latest in hand held devices, you are most likely behind in the tech savvy arena. The baby boomers and even generation X find themselves with a much steeper learning curve than that of the current generation growing up immersed in technology. When the current generation looks at their parents and grandparents, and can’t help but wonder why they still don’t know what an inbox is or why they don’t just go shopping online for those hard to find antiques. For the current generation, it’s that same feeling you get being stuck in line at the grocery store behind someone writing out a check, by hand, on paper. After all, the internet has been around for a very long time, why haven’t they taken the 2 minutes it takes to learn how to turn on a computer and figure out how to send me an email? It’s not that hard right? Well, the answer is more complicated than you might think. There are multiple psychological, philosophical, and physical underpinnings that affect the learning process in older adults that preclude them from quick technological adoption, confidence, and expertise.

Technological confidence is the primary contributor to the hesitancy found in older adults when approaching new and unknown technologies. A study performed in 1994 by Dyck & Smyther examined the relationship between the older generations and anxiety caused through unknown computer interaction. This translates directly to hesitancy in experimentation with the unknown technological medium, in this case, the personal computer. Older adults are very cautions with their decisions and clicks. They tend to examine each decision and think about the consequences of each mouse click or key stroke. Younger generations, on the other hand, tend to act quickly and if a mistake is made, they simply go back or undo the mistake. It has been seen that through an increase in exposure at a younger age reduces the anxiety felt with performing simple actions on a computer and their repercussions.

Older adults also have a much longer period of adoption taking the computer, and internet websites as an authoritative and reliable resource.  While younger generations tend to place as much or more faith in the internet as they do in newspapers and television, older generations have been found to rely heavily on older media mediums as authority sources. I would surmise that younger generations place more faith in the internet due to their understanding of the community, ratings, reviews, and opinions that all combine to contribute a meaningful, newsworthy, or authoritative site. With mediums such as TV and Newspapers, the tone, wording, and news itself is all set within a brick and mortar medium that cannot be easily or quickly refuted by other means of contestation. Because older adults have less faith in the internet as a source of authority, and it is viewed as a non-material, easily pliable, resource, confidence takes much longer to garner.

Time has been a factor in both achieving a higher degree of faith and also within the basic learning process of navigating through computer and internet operations. A study in 1998 by Mead and Fisk examined the type of learning method alongside adoption rate and time to technological proficiency. Mead and Fisk presented two types of learning methodologies, “Concept” and “Action”. Concept training was simply a factual representation of what needed to be done to accomplish specific goals. Action training was a hands-on guided experience that was procedural in nature. The study revealed that the older adults were much more responsive to the action methodology and the retention rate of technological knowhow was also much higher. The study concluded that older adults can be taught to easily navigate new technologies; however they require more time and a hands-on approach and additional explanation into the basic fundamentals of both computer hardware and software. Younger generations inherently know the relationship between the hardware and software interaction while many older adults needed hands-on guidance explaining the correlation between a mouse and keyboard and the related repercussions.

To explain the necessary correlation between hardware and software and also online special correlations, there were several studies that examined the difference in cognitive abilities between older adults and the younger generation. A 1995 study by Westerman, Davies, Glendon, Stammers, and Matthews examined the relationship of virtual spatial memory and recognition within a computer medium. The study approached the tests from two angles. 1) How fast can the test groups locate and retrieve data? and 2) How accurate is the data they were asked to retrieve? The study found that both the older and younger test groups were equal with regards to accuracy; however the older test group was much slower with the locating and retrieval process. The cognitive abilities of the older adults “such as reasoning speed, spatial ability, and memory, were also predictive or response latencies” (Jacko and Sears). The cognitive shortcomings of the older generation can be directly related to a lack of experience within the technological medium. What is interesting is that even after significant experience, the older generation still moves through internet and computer processes slower than the younger generations. Older generations tend to use less efficient means of navigational routes and are less likely to remember previous actions and specific searches.

It is clear that older generations are slower to adopt and once they have fostered a technological adoption, are slower and less efficient than younger generations. The real question is, will the young generations of today fall into the pitfalls of current older adults. Will I, as a 26 year old technically savvy, iPhone wielding, web designing individual find myself being confused and as slow to adopt the latest and greatest as my parents and grandparents do today? It is painful enough to watch my father peck at the computer keyboard but to think of myself in that same situation is downright scary! The reality of the situation is, that although I find myself as keeping up with current means of technological evolution, there is a constant adoption of more advanced and efficient interfaces that will challenge my own cognitive abilities. Computer interfaces are constantly changing, web browsing mechanisms are becoming more visual, social and semantic, and the hardware technologies changing virtual interaction are constantly advancing. If the younger generation reaches a comfort level with their own productivity and begins to adopt slower than the generation below them it is clear that the same situation could continue to occur. The other situation that would undoubtedly promote another separation of technological power would be the advent of a new technology platform that becomes as widely adopted as computers have today. After all, computers will definitely not stay within the same technological configuration as they are now as they are still in their infancy. The cognitive abilities of the current young generation are being welded into place and pending the arrival of a new global technology with dissimilar spatial organization and process organization to what we know now, we will be as lost as our grandparents are today!