Thursday, February 4, 2016

India's new smart phone generation


I have spent the day fruitfully (I think) showing my aunt, in Chennai, around her 6 month old smart phone. She has invested the princely sum of Rs.7000 on it. She has 3 other plain old unsmart mobile phones. Her ardent wish is to master this one to browse Google and Facebook, use Whatsapp to send and receive messages and make free overseas calls, to send and receive emails and book cabs through Ola or Uber. She is fascinated by her device and spends hours swiping it up and down. However, she is an octogenarian. Her body and mind are agile and sound but the logic of our digital devices and apps defy her. So she has to memorize the steps relating to opening apps and getting back to menus and her retention capacity is somewhat diminished. It's therefore frustrating I am sure but she persists undeterred trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result! But I love her curious mind, her fascination with this unknown wonder world and the mystique it holds for her right there in the palm of her hand - so I patiently walk her through the steps over and over again.

Everywhere she goes, she carries her phone and asks for help using the device. She is not alone. My mom and I giggle over stories of others who do the same! Even as she flashes it, she gets the indulgent " Do you need this at your age? Why did you not settle for something simpler? " A logical question. However, the answer is not straightforward I realize. It slowly dawns on me that it is not about using a smart phone at all. It is about not wanting to be left out of this virtual world that holds the younger generation captive and through which they communicate to the exclusion of all other modes. There is fear that not fitting in and using these channels means becoming even more irrelevant! I empathize. As I enter my fifties I hear from my daughter's generation that Facebook and other apps I use are passé. I have no time to enquire and fear being left in the dust! It could be me in her shoes soon! I love my aunt and her generation's youthful exuberance and courage embracing and tackling the complex world of smart phones and am determined to help at least one among them ease their anxiety over the use of their device by teaching her the little I know!

1 comment:

Paramasivam said...

Yes. Help them in mastering Smart phone use. With GPS and various Apps, it is a must for elderly people.