Technology - AARP

The tech user experience – still flawed and in need of fixing.  As noted in the May report, The User Experience Needs an Upgrade, the requirement to use smartphones and other tech is growing exponentially – in-person and by-telephone experiences have disappeared or deteriorated.  Yet there are few useful ways to help older adults navigate the thicket of user interfaces, and this only becomes more obvious as AI capabilities emerge that could be extremely useful, but finding and understanding them is, well, work.  Frustration bubbles up here and there – AARP’s 2024 Tech Trends and Adults 50+ noted that only 61% of adults aged 70+ felt they had the digital skills to fully take advantage of being online. 

Is aging in place a smart strategy? Here we go again.  In a brand new and similarly rosy article in the Wall Street Journal, more of the same mediocre advice is offered about how to prepare. Have a frank talk with family members. Maybe do some home modifications (those rickety stairs? Or a $20,000+ elevator), or address that lengthy distance from a supermarket? Maybe the 3-4% of older adults with long-term care insurance will pay for home care that averages $24,000/month for round-the-clock care.  Hmmm. Or voice-activated devices, says an AARP exec, will be helpful for his long-distance aging parents. Says a family, we want Mom to stay in her house, and so we pay $4000 per month for care, because staying in her house is keeping her alive. Really.

Surveys were released recently that trigger some debate.  Consider whether the low adoption of health-related tech is due to flaws with the tech or with the survey questions?  AARP’s responders only had notable interest in fitness apps, though 63% of responders had chronic conditions that could usefully be monitored or mitigated by apps if the survey took a deeper dive. Do we really know from this non-specific survey whether older adults are trying them out? Up next was the Best Buy survey of consumer health tech – and again some irony in the responses.  Sixty-seven percent of the 65+ responders said that staying in their homes is a top priority. Yet when asked about the utility of monitoring technology for use in later life, the 65+ segment was the least interested among age cohorts, a clear “What me, worry?”  Here are the blog posts from August 2024:

You were not alone at finding the first page of Google search results annoying.  As has been expected, the tech user experience was annoying. There were ads and more ads to scroll past as you looked for a believable answer.  As a result of those ads, the answer seemed, well, somewhat untrustworthy.  But a few months ago, that changed, and for those of you just returning for a search, you will be startled. Asking “what AI is in hearing aids” – a longer answer is provided, with the ads for hearing aids pushed to the right side for those with big screens.  On a phone, these are not visible. No doubt Google is working on that as we speak, though its list of examples, these soon became AI (Gemini) powered paid ads.

Aging baby boomers – the demographic looms large – and their future is likely underserved.  You see it everywhere, baby boomer-focused marketing, articles about their wealth and interests, etc. Yet the 30 million peak boomers also represent a bleak future ‘peak burden.' This Economic Impact study published in April 2024 notes that two-thirds are not prepared for retirement. The details of this study are depressing – about a future that will be financially worse for women than men, in total representing 30 million people who will all be 65+ in six years. On the positive side, according to an AARP survey there is growing interest in technology from the older adult population, particularly in fitness apps. But are useful technologies viewed in combination for the baby boomers’ life and health span? Not yet. 

AARP fielded a survey that is worth a look. The topic was health and wellness app usage by the 50+ population. The goal was to understand 50+ level of engagement with health and wellness apps – an online survey that included 694 individuals who owned smartphone or tablet.   Interestingly the 15-minutes survey also includes a response comparison with 40-49 year-olds, likely because that is AARP’s next-up target membership. Responders needed to be comfortable with downloading a health and wellness app -- and have interest in trying them.