‘Innovations in modern technology have revolutionized healthcare as we know it. Unprecedented advances in the mechanisms used to capture and analyse data have increased the capacity to predict and mitigate a host of negative health outcomes….
Clearly advances in technology are not going to slow any time soon and the distance between health, health data, and digital devices will continue to shrink. Therefore, addressing the barriers to entry with respect to harnessing and leveraging these advantages has the potential to improve the lives of older adults. The difficulty, however, is having the capacity, foresight, and wherewithal to identify and mitigate these challenges.’ (Cosco, 2018)
‘Unwelcome Guests’ would perhaps make for a more accurate title of this unsettling short film which, for me, highlights the growing generational digital divide between the tech savvy and the elderly, the different priorities and needs of each, and society’s fascination with body image and health.
The inconsiderate birthday gifts Thomas receives from his children may have been well-intentioned but are, arguably, ill-conceived ‘gadgets’ which (since they are inappropriate to his current needs) will, as Roupa et al. (2010) caution, simply exacerbate any sense of frustration he feels.
While his kids may benefit from the use of similar devices such as activity trackers and healthy eating apps, it’s clear that for Thomas, their intrusion into his life, the incessant pinging and updating of messages, and the hectoring texts from his surveilling children are far from welcome. More worryingly, perhaps, have Thomas’s children been subconsciously or subliminally conditioned by what Miller (2011) has identified as an ‘obsession’ with the body, its control and disciplining in Western society?
Sure, Thomas cunningly outwits his tormentors, but why should anyone have to especially on one’s birthday? Cheers, Thomas!
References
Cosco, T. D. (2018). https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/blog/digital-divide. [Blog] The Oxford Institute of Polulation Ageing. Available at: https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/blog/digital-divide [Accessed 16 Jan. 2020].
Miller, V. (2011) Understanding Digital Culture, London, Sage.
Roupa, Z., Marios, N., Gerasimou, Ε, Zafeiri, V., Giasyrani, L., Κazitori, E., & Sotiropoulou, P. (2010). The use of technology by the elderly. Health Science Journal. 4.