Induction stoves with automated off function are a blessing for the elderly. Can not count the times when someone puts on a pan, sets the power to 10 and then walks away.
Home automation can be hard to install/config to many but maybe they'll manage. They will however not manage without help when the router says no. Or the brain.
Home automation can be hard to install/config to many but maybe they'll manage. They will however not manage without help when the router says no. Or the brain.
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I know what you mean. I have older family members that essentially can't set up any device themselves (eg. smartphone) so we are roped in. I got a basic brand name doorbell camera that uses a phone app; they liked the idea and said they want one. Now I am trying to discourage them because the phone app is just too technical for them and I'll be over there all the time tweaking settings they've stuffed up, updating firmware, or whatever. Arrgh!
The main issue is refusal to learn anything.
The main issue is refusal to learn anything.
Yes, simply refusal. Difficult to cope with as the reverse apparently does not apply. Why would you need to put time and effort in it (instead of also refusing)?
For people with serious brain damage, it is not refusal to learn anything new but inability to learn anything new.
Also relearning is harder than learning the first time, whatever level of neuroplasticity you have.
In my experience the general pattern in the relatively healthy part of 50…75 year old group (besides the mentioned exceptions /disabilities) is simply refusal. In the 75+ group nothing can or should be expected. As always the exceptions confirm the rule. No time to be busy with the exceptions, that is either for specialists or the person is brighter than the young.
I see 70+ people having solar panels and inverters installed. Then after a while no one monitors, maintains let alone understands the stuff. Same with stupid wireless doorbells on batteries (always depleted when you ring the bell 😉), wireless security camera, domotica, apps on smart phones, e-cars and the charging etc.
My tip when I help the elderly: don’t start with complicated stuff if you already have a hard time understanding it now. In fact that can be applied to young people too.
I see 70+ people having solar panels and inverters installed. Then after a while no one monitors, maintains let alone understands the stuff. Same with stupid wireless doorbells on batteries (always depleted when you ring the bell 😉), wireless security camera, domotica, apps on smart phones, e-cars and the charging etc.
My tip when I help the elderly: don’t start with complicated stuff if you already have a hard time understanding it now. In fact that can be applied to young people too.
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Probably, it should be applied to young people first, because in my opinion, brain freshness or old age do not matter much, and because in this way they can grow in a better way.
I think it's more correct to understand that there is a limit to everything and that the latest generation technology is more suitable for a robot and not for a human being.
In my opinion, home automation is another technological step that is more useful to production companies than to the user, even convenience has a limit, especially if it depends on unsustainable technological production.
Always chasing something technologically new makes no sense to me, it never ends and we consume resources as if they were infinite, but they are not.
Our fathers and grandfathers had none of this and lived better.
I think it's more correct to understand that there is a limit to everything and that the latest generation technology is more suitable for a robot and not for a human being.
In my opinion, home automation is another technological step that is more useful to production companies than to the user, even convenience has a limit, especially if it depends on unsustainable technological production.
Always chasing something technologically new makes no sense to me, it never ends and we consume resources as if they were infinite, but they are not.
Our fathers and grandfathers had none of this and lived better.
We are all bombarded by advertising.
And we are all bombarded by absurd models of people and life.
Without all that cr@p no one really needs the entire economy would collapse. So refusing to buy all that $*** would make me some sort of terrorist, right?
On that general topic, I was just whinging to my wife the other day about the sheer complexity and amount of resources that go into a modern car. Her car has things like voice control, but once we were over the gimmick, it was easier to press a button or flick a lever.
It's a pity no maker would produce a very simple but modern (as in safety and efficiency) vehicle aimed at minimising the amount of resources used to make it, like the French were so good at (Like the Renault 4 or Citroen 2CV). Unfortunately when they do make a modern homage to these classic models, it still has all the gear like any other modern car. I cringe with all the ads showing cars self-parking.
But I do realise simple cars wouldn't sell sufficiently well because most punters want all the gimmicks and the 'look at me' factor is prevalent.
It's a pity no maker would produce a very simple but modern (as in safety and efficiency) vehicle aimed at minimising the amount of resources used to make it, like the French were so good at (Like the Renault 4 or Citroen 2CV). Unfortunately when they do make a modern homage to these classic models, it still has all the gear like any other modern car. I cringe with all the ads showing cars self-parking.
But I do realise simple cars wouldn't sell sufficiently well because most punters want all the gimmicks and the 'look at me' factor is prevalent.
Not everything is black or white.
A process of economic/ecological/social adjustment is impossible from one day to the next.
Even the current situation is the result of decades or centuries.
But don't worry, my feeling is that there is a lack of will to do it, because there is no competence, on everyone's part.
Home automation is a very "chic" technological achievement, which projects us into a more comfortable and apparently superior life compared to someone who has to get up from the sofa to press a switch.
But if we are not able to understand that everything has the other side of the coin, we will simply live the virtual life that advertising tells us.
One area where automation might be of some benefit is CCTVs, motion sensors, early warning systems etc, not sure what those are collectively called, security systems maybe. Lights, fans etc. do not need any automation in my opinion, unless the user is bedridden.
Sadly, this is a factor I am experiencing also.
At 78 years of age, I increasingly 'miss' stuff in an app simply because I don't 'see' it (not visually impaired).
If I discuss with talented designers in their prime, they typically think twice as fast as I do.
I still have the edge in combining factors and seeing links due to experience, but in terms of raw thinking power they leave me in the dust.
Unless they are morons, which I also increasingly meet ...
Jan
Just over four years ago, I had a brain infarction. Thank goodness only a very small one; although it wasn't a TIA, the main symptom (loss of control of one eye) was gone in a few hours and the rest (occasional double vision) in a few weeks. A probable root cause has been found and treated, so hopefully I won't get any more of them.
In hospital, there was a man in his late 60's who due to a stroke could not walk without falling. He was asked to call the nurse when he wanted to get out of bed, but didn't, because he didn't know how to call the nurse without her telephone number. It took some effort from the nurses and him for him to learn that all he had to do was to press a big button with a nurse drawn on it.
In hospital, there was a man in his late 60's who due to a stroke could not walk without falling. He was asked to call the nurse when he wanted to get out of bed, but didn't, because he didn't know how to call the nurse without her telephone number. It took some effort from the nurses and him for him to learn that all he had to do was to press a big button with a nurse drawn on it.
Maybe you did not notice (we did) but you earlier had 3x the capacity/capability only going to normal now. No worries.
That is serious trouble. Happens quite a lot around me and it is both scary and worrying. Many live in fear after it which I fully understand. I hope you will not experience it again. Since I was in a group of health troubled people myself I regularly was in hospitals until recently. Last time I was the youngest by decades in a group of 80+ men. Seeing their relaxed way of dealing with severe issues was soothing but everyone was aware that death had a chair in our room.
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I have had a stroke and two TIA's and also an unrelated cerebral aneurysm which was clipped with a titanium clip. The latter involved 'taking the top off and having a look around', as the two neurosurgeons that jointly worked on me joked.
Seeing the stainless steel bladed 'dremel' they were to use on me (once I was out of it) was quite the reality check as I was wheeled in. Although I have only a numb thigh as a deficit, I definitely live with a certain amount of fear!
Seeing the stainless steel bladed 'dremel' they were to use on me (once I was out of it) was quite the reality check as I was wheeled in. Although I have only a numb thigh as a deficit, I definitely live with a certain amount of fear!
I was very scared when it had just happened, but my main worry wasn't death but vascular dementia. My late father had had vascular dementia caused by a series of strokes, so I knew what misery strokes can cause. Sudden death seems much more attractive to me than having to go through what he'd been through.
When my eye started working normally again a few hours later and I realized that everyone else in the Brain Care Unit was in a far worse condition than I was, I realized that I was a lucky bastard. I was still scared, but I also realized how lucky I had been.
Ever since a potential root cause has been found and cured, I just assume that it was the real root cause and pretend everything is normal again.
When my eye started working normally again a few hours later and I realized that everyone else in the Brain Care Unit was in a far worse condition than I was, I realized that I was a lucky bastard. I was still scared, but I also realized how lucky I had been.
Ever since a potential root cause has been found and cured, I just assume that it was the real root cause and pretend everything is normal again.
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It has been an adventure so to speak. Your positive mind surely has influence on how to cope with it. Recently I visited a lady that had both breasts amputated and she was smiling and positive minded while the operation had only been done a short time before. Very inspirational such power, I like to think such power is half of the healing.