IS THIS THING ON? SENIORS GET TECH HELP
Retiree offers support at Delray center every Monday
Forget Facebook, Skype, Twitter or Instagram. Lillian Kramer, 88, just wants to see pictures of her greatgrandchildren on her new iPhone, a gift from her son.
“I love it, but I don’t know how to work it,” Kramer said. “It’s driving me crazy.”
Kramer was sitting at a card table in the Weisman Delray Senior Center lobby, waiting for her rescuer: “Techno Larry” Orbach, a volunteer who assists the tech-unsavvy with their computer problems every Monday.
Orbach, 64, a retired business owner, juggles a barrage of phone, camera, laptop and cloud questions each week at a little table in the Weisman center lobby.
One senior wants him to download Uber, the ride-hailing app; another believes her computer has been hacked, while a third’s phone has locked up and she can’t remember the password.
“It’s like an emergency room,” Orbach joked.
Orbach’s table has become a popular destination for the senior center’s clients, who desperately want to embrace the 21st-century’s new devices to connect with their children and grandchildren but often perceive it as filled with barriers.
A 2017 Pew Research Center study confirms older adults’ enthusiasm for telecommunications but discomfort with the unfamiliar.
Smartphone ownership for senior citizens rose from 18 percent in 2013 to 42 percent in 2017. But even though a
growing number are engaging with the devices, older adults lag behind their millennial great-grandchildren, ages 18 to 24; in that group, 98 percent have smartphones, according to Nielsen.
Among the elder generation, 67 percent say they go online, up from 14 percent in 2000, according to Pew. And a growing number are buying tablets; 56 percent of seniors with a college degree own the devices, up from 31 percent in 2013.
Still, a lack of confidence appears to be impeding lots of seniors from a full embrace of their phones and computers. Only 26 percent of older Internet users say they feel they can fully accomplish what they need to do online, citing disability or dependence on others for assistance as pitfalls.
Once they engage, they remain committed: 70 percent of senior-citizen Facebook users say they log in every day.
Sherry Picker, a social worker at Boca Ratonbased Paradise Home Health Care, said many older adults fear new technology because of its unfamiliar buttons and perceived lack of security.
She teaches seniors at Century Village and other retirement communities how to use websites to research useful information, such as a medical procedure or online dating and shopping. She said they especially love TED Talks, lively lectures on contemporary subjects.
“Their kids are buying them an iPhone and they don’t know how to use it,” Picker said. “It’s rewarding for them when they can open YouTube and watch Frank Sinatra perform at Madison Square Garden.”
Orbach also has found seniors’ online needs are relatively straightforward, such as how to open a document, download a book on their Kindle, connect their hearing aid to their smartphone or send a text.
“I know how to text but I don’t know how to send it,” one senior complained to Orbach.
“Press send,” he replied. Other times, Orbach can’t help, like when one senior brought him a Vivitar miniature camera that she didn’t know how to turn on.
“I’m stumped,” he said. (It just needed new AAA batteries; a photographer helped troubleshoot that one.)
Diane Fane, who declined to give her age, asked Orbach how to load audio of her singing on to her laptop.
She said she and her husband, Sheldon, 92, have embraced their iPhones and iPads for making their lives easier.
They use the phone’s alarms to remind them when they have to leave the house.
They use its calendars to keep track of doctors’ appointments. And they love an app called Grocery iQ, which maintains their food shopping list.
“It’s the most helpful thing I’ve ever had,” she said. “I can’t imagine living in today’s complicated world without it.”
Orbach said the gratitude he receives keeps him coming back to help every Monday.
“People are really appreciative,” Orbach said. “They know the benefits outweigh the aggravations of learning.”