Spanish pensioners rally against technological discrimination
Carlos San Juan, a retiree from Spain’s Valencia region on Tuesday delivered a petition (link in Spanish) to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, and to the Bank of Spain. The “I’m old, not an idiot” campaign was signed by more than 600,000 people on Change.org (link in Spanish), protesting discrimination against older people who either have no access to new technology or are unfamiliar and uncomfortable using online banking services.
The technology landscape is evolving at ever greater speed. For some people, this means taking the time and making the effort to keep up to speed so as to to carry out the most basic tasks, leaving them vulnerable if they are unable to do so.
Banking, which in Spain is overwhelmingly used by 94% of the population, illustrates the problem. The country’s population is steadily aging, and large numbers of people used to carrying out their banking needs in person at their local branch have trouble understanding technologies as seemingly simple as an ATM, and much less the intricacies of online banking, now used by about 45% of the population, while less than a third of people do so through their smartphone.
Using basic banking services has become a challenge for a very significant part of the population. The pandemic made things worse…
