My Experiences With the Digital Divide

My personal experiences with elderly people close to me struggling with technology inspired me to start YourTechQ. 

When the pandemic started, my violin teacher moved our lessons online. She is 70 years old and using technology to this extent was a very new experience for her. After some initial hiccups, she became quite comfortable with different video conferencing applications, but there were still times where she struggled to keep up with all of the new technology that was now a necessity for her to use. From connecting on Zoom to sending emails, I can see her get frustrated and overwhelmed with all of the links and buttons. There were times when she could not hear me because she did not know how to increase her volume, or I could not hear her because she accidentally muted herself. I ended up being her student and teacher at the same time, and it made me realize the need for access to digital literacy resources, especially for elderly people. 

My grandma is also someone close to me who I see struggling with technology. She has a phone and a laptop, and like my violin teacher, is quite tech savvy compared to many of her peers. However, she still regularly asks me questions about increasing brightness on her phone, connecting to her watch, and sending photos to family and friends. Recently, she has been dealing with several spam calls and phishing messages. Since no one had ever taught her how to handle these messages, she almost ended up giving her passwords away to online hackers. This brought to my attention how safety on the internet is an important topic that must be included when introducing how to interact with technology as well. 

Both my violin teacher and grandma always ask questions and are intrigued to learn more. I have constantly seen them struggling to use what comes so easily to me and my friends, and I want them to also have access to the world that technology has to offer without fear or frustration.

-Shomik