Our Older Friends, Forever In Meat Space

The trauma of technology for the elderly

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

why has the world changed
the rules are wholly different
impenetrable by any measure

surely a sign of the world’s decline
a vast conspiracy toward the individual

I sat amicably with my neighbor
who asked, why does no one teach me
about my phone?

she then worked herself into a lather
about impatient young people
who snatch her phone from her
instead of showing her how to access
step by step gobbledygook
in a manner that makes sense

I recalled this very anger, this impotence
from my nursing home years

there was a paradigm shift that occurred in my lifetime
in the 90s and aughts

suddenly everything was “windowed”
in advertisements, in the new internet
a new way to parcel up the world
to present information