D.C. teens are helping teach seniors skills that are becoming increasingly necessary for the more than 80,000 people age 65 or older in D.C.
Miller, 74, has balked at computers and phones since floppy disks were around — “I took a computer class and I just hated it,” she said. But now cabdrivers text her to pick her up for a trip to the hospital. Friends send her photos, and she doesn’t know how to reply. Miller realized that she can’t avoid today’s technology forever.
For Miller and the city’s seniors, decades older than the first smartphone and any of the dizzying parade of devices that have followed, gaps in technological literacy can disrupt their daily lives in countless ways. “A lot of seniors ran away from computers and the internet when it was coming,” Sutton said. “A lot of seniors are just scared of it. They think the internet is [all] Facebook, and if they go on the internet, then all of their business will just automatically be on there.
Errick Lewis, 16, joined the program at the recommendation of his engineering teacher at Dunbar High School. He sat with Miller, walking her through the process of sending a photo by text.Sutton’s workshops will run every Tuesday and Thursday at different libraries for another two weeks, and he’s planning more programs to help other communities affected by digital literacy issues.
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