Digital Divide between the Younger and Older Generation - Essay Example

I believe the focus should not be on how change is difficult to embrace for the older generation. Technology producers should focus on what factors hinder the older generation from fully embracing digital technologies. In Chapter 6 of the classroom textbook, we learnt that there are higher rates of mental disorders among the older persons which may range from anxiety, depression, bipolar, Alzheimer’s disease and other problems (Hooyman and Kiyak 229). For the older generation to embrace digital technologies, I believe that technology producers can only maximize the social and economic benefits of people in this age group by addressing the mental disorders identified by Hooyman and Kiyak.

The problems faced by the older generation include ill-health, isolation, other times they lose touch with the Information Technology support and most may suffer from bereavement.For example, visual impairment is common among the older generation and how can technology producers address this problem when making gadgets? They should make more affordable gadgets that incorporate more options such as increasing the font size of words. I think if more tablets and phones would be sold at affordable prices and incorporate both large and small font sizes of words, the older generation may find it easier to use them, or at least read what is in these tablets and smartphones.

We also learnt in chapter 7, that older people feel more depressed and isolated than young people. Older people are also likely to have economic problems, particularly those with limited access to retirement benefits and not easily accepted back in the workforce. Technology producers should create products that close this gap by not only manufacturing affordable and readable gadgets but also using marketing statements that show how this generation how to make money online, not necessarily working in traditional jobs.