Problem We’re Trying to Solve
We want to change the current narrative on aging in Canada; that seniors only want to live quiet lives and are sequestered in retirement homes, assisted living and nursing homes, away from younger generations.
The Real Problem With Seniors and Technology
We believe that the social isolation of our seniors has more to do with social norms than the global pandemic. Seniors have been inadvertently kept out of the movement to digital technologies and social media. Technically Tied Together (T3) aims to change this, one small Ontario city at a time!
As a culture, we have “socially-quarantined” our seniors and kept them from the mainstream – bubble-wrapped as “little old dependents” unable to take care of themselves. Living into old age was supposed to be a “blessing” and a “gift” but as a society we treat seniors like a burden.
In the West, we tend to think of seniors as a singular, homogeneous population with uniform needs. The norm is that seniors will live quiet lives, sequestered in retirement homes, assisted living and nursing homes, away from younger generations (and allowed out to shop and dine as early birds when the rest of the world is at work and school). Seniors are supposed to be a modest consumers of goods, services and ideas; with bland preferences and adorable, nostalgic perspective. Seniors are supposed to want leisure and safety – wanting products and services that are medically oriented or accessibly-focused, that help them to manage their aging bodies and deteriorating minds.
This is the narrative of aging in Canada – and until now we have believed this is what older people want, this is what they need, and this is what makes them happy. Western society over serves seniors’ lower order needs (health and safety) and under serves their higher level needs (e.g. – desire for human connection, ambition, learning, growth and fun). Seniors aren’t supposed to be passionate (forgetting that psychological well-being increases every year after middle-age!) or want to have “fun” the same way they used to.
We think the biggest barrier to the adoption of technology amongst Canadian seniors is that we’ve presented them with the wrong goal line – we’re trying to get them online for banking, filling prescriptions and paying taxes (ughh, no other age group would race to adapt technology either if this was your goal!). We believe the key to getting seniors online and addressing isolation starts with helping them harness technology to revitalize their passions, to make connections and engage with people, groups and assets they otherwise couldn’t.
Seniors need to be viewed as a group of individuals, with diverse goals, aspirations and motivations. Technology should be about addressing wants, not just needs. Our culture needs to get comfortable, then enable seniors to pursue things, opportunities and ideas that excite and delight them. We need to cater to their need to be talked to and listened to and provide them with the same tools and opportunities others are afforded – not paler, watered-down versions of what every other adult groups can have. Of course, there are real physical and cognitive issues unique to older people but these are obstacles to be navigated and boundaries to be pushed – not reasons to avoid trying new things.
Sure, seniors are permitted to be entertained, but it’s always watered-down, safe and ‘inside the lines’ fun– never the kind of unabandoned fun they were allowed when they were younger. How many of us think a great time is finger painting or whacking balloons with pool noodles in our 30s 40s, 50s and 60s? So why does it pass for “fun” in our 70s, 80s and 90s?
The reason is, as a society we are comfortable with seniors consuming from their safe basket of goods, services and ideas that we think they “need” but it is uncomfortable for us to accept that seniors have real wants, desires, aspirations and dreams. And the thought of them producing and creating products, services and ideas doesn’t fit with the narrative. For many seniors, they have so few opportunities for meaningful interaction with people outside their age group (who aren’t family or paid to provide them care). Yet older people bring immense wisdom, curiosity, time and interest in engaging younger people.
Our goal is to create a cultural environment that values the contributions of older adults; allowing them to have hopes, dreams and desires, all while making it easy for them to interact with the world around them. We think this begins with passion – so let’s light some fires!