The Myth of a PC-Free Life for Boomers and Seniors

Are seniors largely cut out of the digital picture?

PCs and Macs represent growth markets in 2010. With the excitement (translate that “lots of press”) about a wide variety of PC-less connection choices for TV, radio, and books, one might almost think the PC and its Mac brethren were dead; however, PC sales are actually expected to grow 10% this year. Mac growth expectations are as high as 26%. . . .

Yet home devices that end-run them are the rage. For some leaving Las Vegas last week (I never arrived, so this is hypothetical), one could almost imagine a PC-avoidance strategy in the home. Let's imagine unpacking boxes of our newly acquired collection of device goodies culled from post-CES roundups. Of course, to use any of this, we already have a wireless router in the home and high-speed Internet access.

3D and broadband television. First we plug in our new 3D TV with its broadband connector for Skype and phone calls. Hopefully, there turns out to be a boatload more content than is currently available and we haven't forgotten to pick up the 3D glasses so that we get the most out of it.

Next, the radio. Sometimes we're not in the mood to watch TV—maybe (no surprise) there's really nothing on right now. We turn on our Internet radio—maybe one of the spiffy new ones from Sensia or this far less expensive one from Myine.

Wireless picture frame. One company calls their wireless digital camera card Eye-fi (how cute). Since I have a wireless network, I can transfer the pics directly from my camera to the frame, and my relatives can receive photos from me in their home, instantly. Of course, for those family members to view pics, they need a wireless network too. Sigh.

Now our eBook Reader. While we're listening to the radio, we want to read a book that we can download directly onto the reader. (How're you going to buy this thing? But I digress.) Down comes the latest bestseller available. Maybe it's even the Nook, the one that the Barnes & Noble bookstore is selling for $259. And why not lend a book to your friends: "Besides just allowing you to trade between friends with the Nook, you'll also be able to swap your stuff down to someone with an app on their iPhone or iPod touch, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, and eventually Android devices." Hopefully, they have one of those. And no doubt you'll love the impenetrable user interface as described by that reviewer.

Round out the collection. Where's that PC/Mac? We want to make sure to use our Google Voice or Skype account to call long distance for free. Maybe we take our new GPS with its continuously updated maps, and we also dock and sync our brand-new smartphone. Oops, we sign up for Internet-based calling through our PC or Mac, register online for those GPS maps, loudly complain about lack of customer service for our new Google Nexus One, and get our email percolation down to those devices through . . . you guessed it—that pesky PC/Mac. And how did that wireless router get configured, anyway?

Sadly, seniors are largely cut out of this digital picture. Pew Research's late-2009 survey update is now available. Looks like broadband adoption and Internet use by those age 65+ is dropping year over year: 38% use the Internet, 26% have broadband (down from 30%), only 16% have wireless access via a laptop or device. Why, and what this means, that's for another day.

By Laurie Orlov
Aging in Place Technology Watch Blog

[Originally posted January 17, 2010, at Laurie's Aging in Place Technology Watch Web site.]