Barbara Duff

Communications & New Media Major

Communications Technology is intimidating if you are a senior citizen. My first exposure to a computer did not happen until I was 50 years old. Even then, because I am a writer, all I really learned how to do was word processing. My next learning curve came when cameras went digital. I still, however have not let go of my old flip-style cell phone. The new Smart phones seem light years more complicated than trying to stream on my television or use a TIVO and I still cannot consistently get these devices to work. Besides, just when I figure out how one “wheel” works, they invent another. Sigh.

If you were born during the last 25 years, you are probably thinking that I sound as clueless and challenged as your mother or even your grandmother. You have been using computers, cell phones, video game technology, and other electronic devices in the classroom and for play since you were in kindergarden.

Each sequence of steps is so built into your muscle memory and into your brain’s neural pathways that you can use these devices on automatic pilot. The way the next latest gadget works truly is “intuitive” for you.

There is a huge gap between senior citizens and millennials. The gap will not truly close until everyone alive has been using the same technology since they were toddlers and maybe even infants. The last of the baby boomer generation probably won’t die un-
til 2060 or so. This makes it important for us senior citizens to do our personal best to close the gap or the world will leave us behind. It behooves us not to give up or to resort to the current senior citizen mantra—“get a teenager to help you.” The teenagers and 20-somethings are getting very exasperated with us. They are right. We need to try harder to learn this stuff before it is too late.

Tired of feeling irrelevant, handicapped, and out of touch, I took the plunge and enrolled in Digital Foundations, one of the beginning level classes in Southern Maine  Community College’s Communications and New Media Program. Being in that class felt like I was an elephant among hummingbirds. As I lumbered along trying to absorb the “intuitive” sequences of the Adobe suite, my millennial classmates soared, dipped, and darted through the steps, finishing their assignments in 3-4 hours when it would take me 30-40 hours on average.

The surprising thing to me was that even though it took me ten times longer than the younger students, I did finally create some new neural pathways and muscle memories. I actually have a working knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, html web site design, and After Effects as well as how to use a PC. (I have an ancient Mac at home.) It is not about how fast you learn. It is just important that you learn.

Many times when I was ready to give up, my amazing teacher, Rachel Guthrie, was there to rescue and encourage me. So were all of my fellow students, even the ones who were in the more advanced classes but respected my struggle and the hours I was putting in to learn these digital foundations. So many stopped what they were doing to help me. (Emily, Jack, Phil, Christian, Brandon, Roscoe, Dieudonne, Matt, Rasa, Ryan, Ade-
lynn, Abe, Sam, Dustin, Robert and many others…)

The semester is ending now and I need to say a special thank you to everyone who helped me along. They say it takes a village to raise a child. It just might take a whole communications department of teachers and millennial students to coach a senior citizen. Thank you SMCC for being the kind of educational environment that makes this happen. Like the Beatles song says, “I’ll be back again.”