Darlene Everett knew it was time when she went to Target and bought her first smartphone as she entered her 80s.
The retired administrative assistant more or less had been forced into her first cellphone when her daughter bought her one for her 65th birthday.
“I kept telling my kids I did not want a cellphone,” she said.
They didn’t listen. But about two years ago, Everett was on her own when she took the next big step − into the world of texting, Facebook and selfies with her first smartphone.
“I bought it on my own,” Everett said. “I had an earlier phone that didn’t have the apps and the things that this one has, and I decided I wanted a more up-to-date phone. I wanted to be able to text and use some of the other apps like GPS and things like that.”
Admittedly, she did it knowing she wouldn’t be working without a proverbial net. She knew there would be help for her to get comfortable with the new gadget and today, at 82, she’s as much a part of the technology age as most teenagers. She uses Facebook. She sends text messages to her daughter at work knowing that a phone call may be too much of an intrusion. Her grandson turned her on to Snapchat.
After her purchase and before even setting it up, Everett took her phone to Tucson Adult Learning Adventures, a group of five retired “techies” who hold regular and free training sessions primarily for senior citizens who want to jump in or are nudged into the technology age with a smartphone, a tablet, computer or other new device.
Anyone looking for instruction can sign up on the TALA website, www.tucsonadultlearningadventures.com, for one of five spots at the monthly sessions at the AARP Arizona Information Center.
Henry Hanson is 78 years old, but he and his four partners at TALA can speak the language of current technology like any good smartphone salesperson. Their embrace of technology has helped hundreds of others in their age group join the technology age instead of watching it pass them by.
“They get these devices and they don’t know what to do with them,” said Hanson, a retired engineer who spent more than 30 years working for Pima County in civil engineering, public planning and real estate management.
Oftentimes, Hanson said, the first thing a new device owner has to conquer is the fear of it, which is the basis for how the group approaches the instruction it provides. There are no group classes. Device owners instead sign up for one-on-one sessions, as all the instruction is tailored to the individual.
“We have a lot of people who are afraid of their devices and say they don’t really want to get on Facebook, but they’d like to know a little bit more how to use the phone or how to use the laptop,” Hanson said. “So we take the fear out of it first.
“We like idea of doing one-on-one because we know that elderly people have a difficult time learning new things like this. We’re willing to sit down with them and show them how to use these devices. And we’re patient, so we go real slow.”
Warren Beneville, who helped form the group, said it’s not unusual for someone who signs up for training to show up with their device still in the packaging and hand it to him. It is then that the training starts from the very beginning.
Beneville, 72, got his background in technology working in aviation electronics for 47 years, 33 of those at Learjet and Bombardier Aerospace in Tucson.
“The first thing I do is take the device and check out all the buttons. We go completely around the device. We don’t even turn it on,” he said.
He said after the student gets a good understanding of the structure of the device, then comes the next big step.
“I say, ‘Now we’re going big time. We’re going to turn it on,’” Beneville said. And that’s when they dive into the devices and all the functions the student wants to know about.
Everett said she was aware of the group before she bought her phone and took it for the training still in the box. She worked with Monica Tervoort and approached the session with a simple goal.
“I wanted to learn the basics first and figure out how to turn it on and answer it,” Everett said. “It was just basic things at first. I felt pretty comfortable.”
Since then, Everett said, she’s learned to use more of the functions, both on her own and with the help of other family members. She’s continuing to figure it out as she goes along.
“Now, I do texting with it. I have Facebook. I have the camera. I have a lot of pictures of my grandkids, naturally,” she said. “I use the calendar. I can do the GPS. I play with it a little bit trying to figure out more things that I’m not doing. I just found out the other day how to make the screen brighter.”
“Everybody has a different need,” said Tervoort, 64. “Some of them have had everybody else doing these things for them for so long that this is all new. Now they don’t have that secretary sitting next to them. They have to learn how to do everything themselves. And so it’s really teaching them independence with their phone and giving them a connection that is so needed.”
In some respects, the lessons open up a whole new world with a new language that allows the seniors to communicate with those around them, especially the younger generation.
“It’s a whole new language for them,” Tervoort said. “Words like ‘icon.’ What’s an icon? What’s an application? What do they do?”
The instructors also try to be ready for new questions with new technology hitting the markets on a regular basis. Even though they don’t always own the latest technology, Beneville said, they try to be prepared for when someone is asking about something new.
He said his granddaughter has a new laptop made by Google and he’s already made arrangements with her to show him around on it. The new Amazon Echo and Google Home — two smarthome management devices — are starting to generate some questions, but so far they have not provided training for those. “It’s mostly what people are carrying around,” Beneville said.
“The technology is changing so quickly, we just kind of plow through it,” he said. “Once we get a feel for how they write the software and where they put stuff, it at least gets you into the forest.”
For now, it’s more about connecting with the younger generations who have had technology at their fingertips their entire lives and being able to be on the same information highway no matter what their age.
“It’s that people don’t want to be isolated,” Hanson said. “And they feel proud of themselves when they learn something new. When they come in and say ‘We can’t learn anything new.’ We say, ‘Yes you can.’
“We’ve had them in here from their early 50s to one that was 90-some years old and didn’t know how to use the thing, and she was very happy in learning something. You can see their faces light up when they catch something.”
