Digital Ageism [View all]

My cell phone started ringing just as I turned the key in my front door. George, my dear friend and neighbor in downtown Los Angeles, was calling. We had just shared a celebratory lunch, and an unwelcome surprise awaited him when he returned to his apartment. Building management had installed a new digital lock on his front door while we were out. And he didn't have the code. On the eve of his 90th birthday, George found himself shut out of his long-time home. I rushed across the plaza that separates our buildings. I had a hunch what must have occurred.

Building management, it seemed, had been alerting tenants about the upcoming change via email and text — methods of communication my friend didn't use. As his eyesight had been faltering, George hadn't been getting online much lately. His sole lifeline to the world was his ever-ringing flip phone.

In the name of efficiency, more companies are driving customers to conduct business digitally. QR codes for menus in restaurants. COVID-19 vaccines scheduled exclusively online. Apps for everything, from banking to health care to travel to routine maintenance requests. The presumption that everyone's life is fully digital — and that everybody is, or wants to be, comfortable with screens — shuts out many who may not be deft with the technology, or even have access to it.

(snip)

Well, he shrugged, she probably couldn't. Then, he called up a temporary code that allowed us to enter George's unit. Inside, we logged onto his email, and retrieved the company-assigned digits that would now serve as his lock. They hadn't even paid for the upgrade that allowed you to choose your own code. George panicked. How would he remember these random series of numbers, much less punch them in on a tiny keypad? "Can't I just have a key?" George asked, pointing to the old-fashioned keyhole above the keypad. "There's no way I'll remember that, much less be able to see those numbers."

(snip)

Later on, I, along with George's daughter — a lawyer who lives in a different city — composed stern emails to management explaining the severity of having locked a tenant out of his apartment — and installing a system that was challenging for him to navigate. The next morning, the friendly maintenance man appeared at the front door of George's apartment — old-fashioned key in hand. George was happy, and relieved, at this work-around that relieved him from digital jail.

https://www.nextavenue.org/digital-ageism/