3 Tips For Helping Elderly Family Members Out With Tech

If you keep up with current news and events, you are probably aware of all the recent changes in technology. Tech, like many other industries, is ever-changing and evolving to help make our lives easier and it can fit into the lives of even elderly folks who are set in their ways. Whether you are using the internet to look for an assisted living community to move them to, or using a video chatting platform to talk to your elderly loved one, you’ve probably already used tech in some way when it comes to your elderly family members. But have you noticed that sometimes they can’t keep up with emerging technology themselves? Here are 3 tips to help you help them. 

Teach Them To Use E-mail

Although email has been around for a few decades now, far longer than many other types of technology, many elderly people still don’t quite know how to use it. It is a great way for them to have pen pals or just keep in touch with friends and family at their own pace. They don’t have to worry about it when not at a computer. The tricky part is making sure they know how to log in, and compose and send emails. Make sure you write their username and password down somewhere for them and go through the process with them a few times until they feel confident. Before you know it, they’ll be emailing you on a regular basis! 

Spend A Day With Them Going Over Their Phone

Many elderly people still don’t have cellular phones or smartphones, but they can be a helpful tool used for communication and even emergencies. Teach your loved one how to use their phone by spending an entire day with them going over everything from how to make a phone call to send a text to use their maps. Of course this may take more than one day, but be patient with them and make sure you are thorough. Try not to get frustrated too easily – they have likely lived their entire lifetime without ever using any of this technology, so it can all be very new and overwhelming!

Go At Their Pace

If your elderly family member is having trouble accepting new technologies or is even anti-technology and doesn’t want to learn, you’re not the only one dealing with this. It is quite common for older people to shut down when it comes to learning new things, because everything has worked fine for them the way they’re been doing it. Instead of trying to convince them that your way of life is better, instead let them call the shots and go at their pace. Allow them to see the ways in which tech helps you out in your life instead of forcing them to use it in theirs. They may eventually come around. 

Dealing with an elderly family member has its highs and lows, and helping them with tech can definitely be on both ends of that spectrum! Just try to have fun with it.