January, 2021. For readers outside of Ireland this is the month of the third lockdown to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. Over the course of a few days an email exchange with a neighbour went like this:
Her: “Can I phone you at some point today or tomorrow for help with the constant email reminders from Google, I have no idea if they are relevant to me.” Me: “Can you forward me the email from Google since I don’t use Gmail myself so not sure how to help?” Her: “Many thanks for your help. Need an interpretation of the forwarded email. I only use google email and Chrome. Do I need to respond in some way?”
The email from Google had the subject line: Reminder: Choose how your information is used and shared for Gmail, Google Chat, and Google Meet before January 25th, 2021. We established that she only uses Gmail and doesn’t use smart features or personalisation referred to in the email. I directed her to try and confirm her current settings in Gmail since it was unlikely that she used the smart features and just needed to be able to send and receive emails.
It got a bit trickier a day or two later when she was trying to address ‘security alert’ messages. I should say that this neighbour has two smart devices as well as a laptop and knows how to use them for her needs. I believe the message referred to something along the lines of ‘your account has been used <elsewhere>, if this was you you may wish to change your password…’ The most likely reason was that she was working both her smart devices but the location mentioned was elsewhere in Ireland. Of course she can be forgiven for panicking and getting into a bit of a knot changing passwords and the like.
Under normal circumstances I would pop to my neighbour’s house and figure out how to resolve these issues in-person. She is quite savvy in her use of technology and only occasionally needs help. Her age is irrelevant and this ties in with my recent study findings about the so-called age-based digital divide. This experience however, has knocked her confidence to the point where she said the following over a couple of emails:
“Had a wakeful night Google wouldn’t get out of my head even when I woke up after a short sleep. I have just spent an hour trying to sort out a security alert, got myself in a big hole, changing IDs, passwords and I don’t know what else. I’m ready to go into hysterics but have to get on with other pressing tasks. Any suggestions on what I can do to sort the mess out? In desperation and embarrassment.“
A couple of telephone exchanges helped assure that she’s not stupid (her term not mine). She changed her Gmail password in her device settings and all seems well for now.
February 2021. Recently, SOLAS published a consultation paper “to gather views on the development of a 10-year Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy (ALND) Strategy for Ireland.” Regular readers may know that digital literacy (or literacies) amongst older adults is a research topic I am interested in so this consultation paper was timely. I made a submission based on my research paper topic and look forward to seeing the strategy emerge in the months ahead.
This month I am preparing my PhD research proposal, a daunting task, but a manageable one owing to the structured two years just gone with five modules culminating in five research papers, so plenty of practice. This week my supervisor commented on a sentence I wrote about the significance of my research focus area. I had nailed the social significance but needed to work on the research significance, filling the gap, you might say. I had cited a number of academic references so thought I was on the right track. The supervisor’s question stopped me in my tracks: “Do any (references) relate to Ireland? If not, then the following statement has more significance.” Good question. I checked, and no, none of the references did relate to Ireland. I thought I should do a more thorough search since it’s easy to overlook certain keywords that might result in useful references being returned. Using my favourite database, Scopus, I conducted the following search: TITLE-ABS-KEY ( “Ireland” AND “older adults” AND “tech*” ). Number 4 in the short list looked interesting:
Pirhonen, J., Lolich, L., Tuominen, K., Jolanki, O., & Timonen, V. (2020). “These devices have not been made for older people’s needs”– Older adults’ perceptions of digital technologies in Finland and Ireland. Technology in Society, 62, 101287.
This research was undertaken in 2018 and involved interviews, focus groups and workshops (a data collection luxury of pre-pandemic times). If interested, you can read it for yourself since it was published with open access available here. This quote from a workshop participant summed up why I am undertaking my research:
Among the Irish participants, too, there was a strong sense of a generational gulf: young people were portrayed as technologically competent and as an important source of assistance with technology, as warm experts’. In fact, in response to a question about what would make technology use easier, one participant exclaimed “get yourself a granddaughter!”
Until next time, Sandra
References:
Caprani, N., Doyle, J., O’Grady, M., Gurrin, C., O’Connor, N. E., Caulfield, B., & O’Hare, G. M. (2012). Technology use in everyday life: implications for designing for older users. Retrieved from http://doras.dcu.ie/17097/
Olsson, T., & Viscovi, D. (2018). Warm experts for elderly users: who are they and what do they do?. Human technology, 14(3), 324-342.
Pirhonen, J., Lolich, L., Tuominen, K., Jolanki, O., & Timonen, V. (2020). “These devices have not been made for older people’s needs”– Older adults’ perceptions of digital technologies in Finland and Ireland. Technology in Society, 62, 101287.
Featured image courtesy of Pixabay
Sandra Flynn 