{"id":222748,"date":"2026-03-12T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/12\/constant-technology-changes-throw-seniors-a-curve-and-add-to-caregivers-load\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T09:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:55:08","slug":"constant-technology-changes-throw-seniors-a-curve-and-add-to-caregivers-load","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/12\/constant-technology-changes-throw-seniors-a-curve-and-add-to-caregivers-load\/","title":{"rendered":"Constant technology changes throw seniors a curve \u2013 and add to caregivers\u2019 load"},"content":{"rendered":"

Constant technology changes throw seniors a curve \u2013 and add to caregivers\u2019 load<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/constant-technology-changes-throw-seniors-a-curve-and-add-to-caregivers-load-274814<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-12 08:30:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

This past Christmas, I helped my parents choose a water filter. The latest \u201csmart\u201d models all came with a smartphone app that promised to monitor filter life, track water quality and automatically request service. Yet my father, age 75, and mother, 67, were quick to reject them in favor of a nondigital model.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time it updates or I forget how to use it, we\u2019ll have to call you,\u201d my dad said.<\/p>\n

As an only child living 8,000 miles (12,875 kilometers) away, I didn\u2019t need convincing. My parents are aging in place and don\u2019t need traditional caregiving \u2013 they cook, drive and manage their home just fine. Instead, I provide what I call technology caregiving: helping them with their digital activities of daily living, from online banking to booking theater tickets.<\/p>\n

But as the tech industry shifts toward artificial intelligence agents and generative user interfaces \u2013 promising to make devices smarter than ever \u2013 I am bracing for this invisible workload to become heavier, not lighter. In addition to being a technology caregiver, I\u2019m a computer scientist who studies human-computer interaction.<\/p>\n

Technology caregiving<\/h2>\n

Technology caregiving is the act of helping someone use digital tools. While this isn\u2019t entirely new \u2013 people have long helped grandparents program VCRs and connect parents\u2019 desktop computers to the internet \u2013 the stakes have changed. <\/p>\n

Today, digitization is ubiquitous. Helping with these tools is no longer just occasional unpaid tech support \u2013 it is a form of continuous caregiving essential for maintaining independence. For example, even the simple act of clipping coupons has gone digital \u2013 marginalizing older adults who are unable to navigate store apps to access these discounts.<\/p>\n

People often view older adults as resistant to technology, but recent years \u2013 particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic \u2013 have shattered that myth. While gaps in internet access and device ownership remain, they are no longer major…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Constant technology changes throw seniors a curve \u2013 and add to caregivers\u2019 load https:\/\/theconversation.com\/constant-technology-changes-throw-seniors-a-curve-and-add-to-caregivers-load-274814 Publish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":222749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/720264\/original\/file-20260224-57-o5fs4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C475%2C5700%2C2850&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-222748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222750,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222748\/revisions\/222750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}