First of all, let's set things straight—this is not an ageist post. I don't hate old people. In fact, some of the people I get along with best are old people—I'm talking octogenarians. But man, old people can whinge, can't they?
Case in point: on Tuesday, I was talking to my manager, who mentioned that on Friday, an older chap had come into the office and absolutely railed on the Sorting Team Leader. Why? Because one of the oldies at the rest home where he lives missed an appointment since the postie took too long to deliver the notice. He came in ranting, raving, swearing, and carrying on at a lady.
Now, here's the thing. You can side with old people all you want, but being entirely reliant on a service that is essentially dying? That’s on them. These people refuse to use cellphones or computers—not because they can't learn them, but because they won't. As far as I'm concerned, that's a "them" problem, and my riders shouldn't have to deal with the fallout.
As a postie, I hear this all the time:
"Old people don't want to learn to use cellphones or computers. They know the postal service, and it's too difficult for them to learn new things."
I call bollocks on that. And I say it with all the enthusiasm of someone who has seen otherwise—both through my friends and through my time working in IT.
When I worked in IT, I met a guy in his late 70s, maybe early 80s. I was replacing a CD drive that was constantly failing to write, but we later found out the actual issue was a faulty system board (don't buy Acer).
As I was troubleshooting, I noticed a couple of audio leads running from the back of his computer. I traced them to his record player and asked if that was intentional. He explained that, thanks to SeniorNet, he had learned how to connect his LP player to his computer and record his records as MP3s.
That blew me away. From that moment, I knew the old saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" was complete rubbish. It's not that you can't teach them—the old dog has to want to learn. The dog is the problem, not the teacher.
Fast forward to COVID. When New Zealand was in lockdown, we couldn’t meet in person for church. Our solution? Zoom. Say what you want about Zoom, but after 18 years in IT, I had never seen a video conferencing system that could handle more than five connections—let alone 100. And I'd worked with corporate conferencing systems, so I was skeptical at first.
With many elderly members in our congregation, we wondered how they would cope. Oh man, was I pleasantly surprised. Rather than whinging about having to learn new technology, they jumped in boots and all. I was so proud of them. They wanted to learn, even though it took time and was frustrating at first. Why? Because they didn’t want to miss out on their fellowship.
So yeah, old people annoy me when they refuse to learn new things. It’s frustrating because I know they’re intelligent, but they hold themselves back, convinced they’re beyond learning.
Studies show that older adults who challenge their brains by learning new things experience lower rates of dementia and live longer, fuller lives.
And then there are the miserable ones. The ones who refuse to learn, reject anything new, and grumble that "the old ways were better." Really? If the old ways were better, why did more people die younger back in their day? Why are they still alive today when their peers in the past never made it this far? It’s because of new technology and advancements.
Give me a break. Do the world a favor—learn something new. And stop being a whinging old oxygen thief.
