Article totally misses another major issue with an aging demographic: UX concerns.<p>I'm 54. A UI with clutter, or carousels that move too fast, or text in a small font (or one with low contrast against the background color/image) is hard to use. I also have middle-aged memory issues, which only get worse with age: I'm far less able to hold multiple bits of information in working memory, so I can get demotivated and give up when a website or app expects me to remember seemingly irrelevant details (hint: disabling copy/paste in password entry fields is a great way to lose me as a customer because I rely on 1password and know enough to use strong passwords — but I can't memorize them).<p>Apps and websites designed by twenty somethings tend to assume twenty-something levels of cognitive performance and sensory ability and reflexes which older users once had but have now lost.<p>And so on.<p>… And before you comment to say "well, don't use the app/website, then", bear in mind that it's increasingly impossible to avoid filing your tax return online, dealing with your bank and credit cards via an app, ordering supermarket deliveries online (especially if, as with many elderly people, you're mobility-impaired) …<p>There's a point at which bad UX design becomes life-threatening. This is well understood in human factors engineering in e.g. the aerospace sector, where aircraft cockpit controls are carefully designed to be where and do what pilots expect. But there comes a point at which badly-designed smartphone apps are going to become an actual hazard to users who are unable to use them as their (younger, able-bodied) designers expected.
I am shocked how some older people behave in their inboxes... One lady clicks on every single link in every e-mail she gets. Her man tries to open every attachment. I was even more shocked when I saw, that their free mail provider Gmx doesn’t really have spam filter. I use gmail in Germany and see spam every few months. Gmx’s inbox had many suspicious e-mails when Amazon purchase notifications landed in spam folder. Both computers Windows 7 with no antivirus. After years educating them I achieved, that she does not open suspicions e-mails and the guy open attachments only from his friends. Some of these friends strongly believe, that everything on Internet is true. It was a weird moment understanding, that some random website is trusted by older people on same level as quality journalism like Sueddeutsche Zeitung. This aging population is nice target for individuals with not the best intentions.
I mostly felt like I was reading a piece from 10 years ago. Liking a page on the back of a share or ad for something popular is so common as to be a trope. Britain First were hugely successful pushing their far right racist bullshit with this tactic ten years back. It's how they grew to being noticeable in the first place! Now every idiot can be heard.<p>Much of the age statistics also apply across the demographic - if non-technical. I don't think anyone, of any age, outside of tech has a reasonable picture of how algorithms affect their lives, and what they might see. The older couple might get taken in by a Microsoft tech support scam or a you won a lottery you didn't buy a ticket for spam. The kids buy cheap games/festival tickets/fashion/tech from absurdly poor scam sites - then don't complain as they've been educated by site policies rather than any awareness of consumer law.<p>Last, I think <i>everyoen</i> is more lonely. We have apps that centre on us, the individual. No need to go to the club without an appointment, or make a phone call, or interact with any of those pesky humans. Apps, internet and politics are all driving this hard. Purely from what I see, it <i>seems</i> like the youngsters are hardest hit - they <i>should</i> have their max amount of friends and least chance of existential loneliness. By the time you hit 60s half your friends have moved miles away or died. A good proportion will have been widowed. Loneliness rather goes with the territory of ageing.
(source: I'm 58)<p>I think another challenge that is already happening is reduced accessibility to older people of household devices that are app driven.<p>I'm in the process of buying some new high-ish end audio equipment. All of the systems I've seen pretty much involve having a smart phone / tablet to control it and access to streaming services (e.g. tidal or deezer) if you want high quality sound. There are several challenges right there for folk who just want to insert some physical media and press 'play'.<p>I can handle this, for now. But who knows what the interfaces to these systems will be like in say 10 or 15 years time. Voice control may address some of these challenges, but I think for a lot of people, a whole range of devices they rely on will become alien and scary.
I wonder if this is a transient phenomenon in which people from the last generation not to grow up with internet (=people born before 1985 or so) becoming easy prey to manipulative agents online, or whether it will continue in subsequent "old" generations due to age-related cognitive decline and social isolation.
Dealing with my aging baby boomer father concerning the internet has been a FUCKING NIGHTMARE. He somehow gets every toolbar installed on his computer, falls for every phishing/fraud scheme. I am terrified of what the world will look like when I start losing my faculties.
I'm a bit annoyed when people talk about "fake news" as if everyone understands what that means. It seems pretty clear to me that different people have different conceptions of what that is.