Touchscreen phone and the dilemma of a Senior

By Amitabh Sharma

An elderly lady sat in a phone company office in Kingston, Jamaica, staring at a box that was thrust upon her by the sales rep; she was looking at it with a mix of awe, and mostly confusion.

It was a swanky new ‘smart phone’ – the sales rep was rattling its features, the gigs of data it comes with (gigabytes presumably), which gives her endless social media access – WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok – the elderly lady was seemingly confused with each word coming out of the rep’s mouth. The lady didn’t utter a word, but her facial expressions said a thousand words, like an alien was rattling in some intergalactic language, “what’s what … whatever? And I don’t play tick, tack, toe …”

The rep, nonetheless, thrust the box in the lady’s hand, and waltzed away to engage another customer who was checking out the array of new phones.

She came and sat next to me, and I decided to strike a conversation; after exchanging pleasantries, I asked her if she had used one of the ‘smart’ phones before. Mrs. Smith (name changed), who was a retired teacher, said all she came in the store for was to replace her old phone, whose keypads wouldn’t work. “Where are the keypads on this,” she asked, perplexed, as she stared at the blank screen.

“All I need the mobile phone for is to send and receive text messages from my daughter who is studying abroad,” she said. “I had the numbers I need in the phone, but I have written them down in my diary.” Ah, the good old days of pen and paper, and alphabetically perforated name/ telephone / address diaries, which have become relics now.

Where is the keypad?

Mrs. Smith needed help. All she wanted was a mobile phone with a keypad from which she could make and receive calls, and send and receive text messages (the SMS for those of us who now go Whatsapping and Instagramming and Tiktoking).

I asked the rep to come over … the young lady came with the ‘oh another sale’ look, of course twiddling her fingers on her ‘smart’ phone. I asked her if the store didn’t have the ‘normal’ phones (they are called ‘bangers’ in Jamaica), she responded with a confusing “Yes, we do, but …”

I knew the ‘but’ was coming … Not that the store didn’t have a normal phone, it was the overzealous sales rep trying to peddle this ‘smart’ phone.

“Why are you selling this touchscreen phone to the lady,” I asked

“But sir,” the rep said. “This is the latest model with 12 gig …”

“Young lady,” I interjected. “All the lady wants is a normal phone with keypads, she’s not interest in the gigs or cares about social media. Please show us what simpler models do you have.”

Her plastic smile vanished … and she came back with a phone with keypad.

Mrs. Smith’s old phone was a Nokia and this was a Samsung – I took it upon myself to teach her how to navigate the phone – critically how to save phone numbers. She was elated … mission accomplished!! “Thank you so much, now I can text my daughter,” she said.

What the Elderly need

I was intrigued though, I asked her if she had a mental block against new technology, she said no, only that no one has the patience to explain things in simple language and teach the elderly. She would like to know to navigate through the gig and all …

She thanked me again, paid for the phone, and left.

Couple of lessons were learnt that day, a lot of people have very basic needs, for them enjoying a meaningful conversation with another human is more important than checking on how many people are ‘following’ them. For the youngsters to assume that everyone should know techie jargon is confounded; the older folks would love to know about technological nuances, but they need be to taught in baby steps and in simple language … you never know which grandma is the next Insta Reel darling or TikTok star …

For the social media savvy … have they ever thought how many friends they have in the real world, or are they happy with the thousands who follow them in virtual reality?

(The column Postcard from Jamaica appears every Wednesday.)

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