A recent survey by MRBI for the Information Society Commission identified the older age group as one of the groups in Ireland which has been slowest to adapt to using new technology. As the older sector extends across the community - rich and poor, rural and urban, highly and less-educated - this must be a matter of major concern. In Ireland we already have almost three-quarters of a million over-55s.
Not only will the numbers increase in coming years, but this age group will be an increasingly large share of the population. It is hard to understand why our IT industry, which has been so advanced in other areas, has lagged behind in identifying and targeting the older market both for sales and for recruits in a labour-hungry market.
In the United States, where one in three Internet Users is a senior citizen, the Internet has been described as an elixir for older people. It helps to overcome isolation and loneliness, boredom, the sense of helplessness which comes from lack of a social role and the decline in mental skills as others do the thinking for you.
The Information Society Commission survey identified a number of reasons for the Irish older generation's fear of the computer. A substantial proportion of the sample felt it was for the new generation. They confessed to feeling threatened by gadgets, and some felt they were too old to learn.
A closer look suggests that perhaps older people are wise to hold back until the industry demonstrates some meaningful commitment to their particular needs as a market segment.
Like the tobacco industry, the technology industry has concentrated its marketing effort on the younger generation. It's not surprising that older people often see IT as focused on the needs of youth. The downside is that the enormous potential of the older market is largely ignored.
The suggestion that older people are alienated from IT because they feel threatened by gadgets calls for interpretation as, after all, it was our older people who developed much of the infrastructure for our current economic success.
Again, it's a matter of marketing approach. In the current issue of Compunews, for example, we're offered "more gizmos and gadgets, more demonstrations and test drives, more specials offers and prizes and, of course, much more fun for the whole family". Older people are not looking to a machine to provide `family fun'! Nor are we necessarily interested in a "range of top software packages including a range of games, educational and productivity programs" Even the trans-Atlantic spelling of "program" can be off-putting.
Finally, the survey found a significant number of older people who felt they were to old to learn. This is more than countered by the explosion in Third Age learning in recent decades in Europe and the United States. Now it is appreciated, as never before, that active learning as we age is to the mind what exercise is to the body. One reason why many older people are unwilling to take on a PC is lack of motivation. Is it worth the effort for such an apparently trivial result. Why learn to surf the Net when you've more books than you'll ever have time to read? Once again it's a matter of focused marketing aimed at the older section of the community.
Training facilities designed to cater for older people are a must if any marketing programme is to succeed. As the MRBI survey indicates the bulk of formal IT training in 1999 was either received at work (41 per cent) , at school (34 per cent) or college (24 per cent).
Most training is provided at school or in the workplace. There are no widely available low-cost training courses for older people catering to their special requirements. Funding has not presented an insurmountable barrier elsewhere. The best sort of training would be provided by older people for older people following the example set by the US and Australia where teams of older volunteer IT teachers operate on tiny budgets.
Another major block deterring many older Irish people from starting the journey towards the Internet and the Web are set-up and maintenance costs in an area of monthly obsolescence. It's hard for older people, for whom long life and durability were key considerations when making purchases, to get used to technology which is frequently subject to either breakdown, updating or replacement. These are the sorts of issues that need to be confronted if older people are to get the benefit of the brave new online world.
Michael Gorman (mgorman@iol.ie) will be writing about computing from an older user's perspective in future Computimes isssues.