How many seniors know how to use Siri on the iPhone? Is it the senior citizens’ faults they don’t know what an Android is, or how to use Windows 7? More importantly, is it their fault that they cannot keep up with the technological age? Fifty years ago, a typewriter was one of the most useful devices in the world, because one could write messages. Today, we have computers, tablets, and other gadgets they did not have; however, these are all born from their inventions. We easily adapted to using smartphones, because we were born near the time of their invention. However, this wouldn’t be as facile for the people who were born half a century before us. Thirty to forty years from now, will smartphones still be the coolest and most useful device to have?
In the comic, the woman’s dialogue implies that she is lazy and wants the transportation to come to her. The grain of truth concealed within the satirical comic is that seniors face difficulties with transportation. Not only do they not know how to use vehicles like a minivan, they do not have the available funding for them. As the senior population grows, more and more seniors will be left in the dark about how to use transportation methods. Recently, a retired woman in Oklahoma had saved up her money for two years just to buy a 1988 Ford Mustang, which was priced at around $27,000. When she bought the car, though, she had no idea how to use any of the controls. One day, she was parking her car in a mall parking lot, but thought the reverse gear was the forward gear, and when she accelerated at full speed, her car was flipped over, and she died during the accident. This incident is just one of many examples how seniors do not have the available resources needed to use transportation. Is it really the seniors’ faults that they can’t use technology?
The true overlying cause of both transportation and technological problems is an obscured one: social isolation. This is such a common problem among seniors, it can almost be considered a new type of flu. It is a rapidly spreading “disease” that leads to emotional, physical, and mental problems such as depression, lack of sleep, accidents, etc. People have tried to tackle this in many ways, but these attempted solutions have not been very successful.
However, a group of young high school freshmen, has thought of a solution which may possibly be the key to minifying the effects and causes of social isolation; a social networking site that connects the younger generation of students with retired seniors, known as SeniorStudentConnect.
The site intends to be a movement that spreads throughout the globe in order to prevent the isolation flu from spreading further. Already this work has been commended at the State Qualifiers and State Championships for the Senior Solutions Challenge hosted by the First Lego League, earning the title of “Best Overall Solution” at both. It’s a major issue that many people in today’s world, especially the younger generations, forget about; this leads to more and more cases of seniors suffering from social isolation. At this point in time, we must do whatever we can to prevent this now, because we have the time and resources available to do so. If we keep doing nothing about this crisis, it’s going to affect the younger generations in the future, and it’s a constant cycle of viciousness which has to be immediately prevented.
The site’s main purpose is to connect students who need assistance with their homework and who have other academic problems interact face-to-face with seniors through a video chat. This allows for the senior to feel more appreciated and useful, gradually eliminating the intrinsic effects of social isolation and simultaneously benefitting the student learning. The site is readily accessible to seniors, so seniors with even the faintest knowledge of being able to use a computer would be able to understand the user interface clearly. The group is also planning to give tutorials to seniors who are unfamiliar with the basic functions of a computer. Because the solution is unique and both educationally and socially beneficial for students and seniors respectively, it uses a system of academic improvement with the goal of removing isolation. If it works, it could potentially make a very positive impact in the world for many decades to come.
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Rishabh Swarnkar is a student at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif., and works as an intern at Empathy FX International. He enjoys playing basketball and singing Indian classical music in his free time.
