That unparalleled sense of accomplishment
Before this community service, I wanted to find out more about the kind of struggles that our seniors are facing when using new technologies on their smartphones. From that, I hope to better understand how they think. I believe I managed to find the answer to that. Although everyone can be very different (as seen from our three participants), I think that the seniors think differently from the young ones like us. It can be difficult for them to visualise the virtual location that they are currently in. Also, they tend to be more forgetful than us since this is also not something that they are very familiar or comfortable with. Icons and certain words are just not as intuitive for them. I think that the seniors need more explicit guides when it comes to using smartphone apps. The icons and descriptions need to be simple to understand. As a computer science student, I hope that in future when opportunities arise, I will be more aware of the group of seniors who may be using the app and keep that in mind when designing websites and apps.
As we all know, we are living in a highly digitalized world now. The Covid-19 pandemic has turned many events to virtual ones. It has never been as important to equip the elderlies with these skills. The pandemic can have a great impact on a normal person, but the effect is much worse on lonely seniors who struggle to connect with others online. And personally, I want to leave a long lasting impact on their standard of living. Physically engaging seniors through activities such as gaming and singing can only keep them entertained during the session. Teaching the seniors how to find entertainment online will keep them occupied whenever they want. I believe Aunty Y definitely has more fun after the session at home watching YouTube videos that she is interested in. I hope that the guides that I made for her will help her recap when she forgets. I believe with more practice, she will definitely master all the topics that I taught her in these four weeks.
This community service also taught me to be more patient with my parents. I find myself being impatient with them when they ask me about certain functions on their smartphone. When being asked the same questions repeatedly, I often end up complaining. I really feel extremely guilty when I do that. I think I can understand their pains and struggles better now. I really hope that they can ask more questions when in doubt, instead of keeping quiet and suffer quietly which may end up resulting in more potential problems. This also brings up an observation that I made during the sessions. The aunties do have children. For Aunty Y, she is currently living together with her daughter. This is really shocking because I would have expected her family to teach her some of the functions that I taught. I am not sure why that is the case. I really hope that everyone can be more patient and encourage the seniors to ask questions. Also, we have to observe their needs and actively teach them new things because the seniors may have limited access to new knowledge or technologies. For example, Aunty Y did not see the need in using a calendar on her phone. However, after my demonstration, she felt that it can come in handy when recording future events. Sometimes the seniors are just unaware of what they want. Only through this we can make sure that they can keep up with this rapidly developing digital world. This also reminds me that we will get old eventually and may feel left out by future technologies. If we can put ourselves in their shoes, we can better understand how they feel. Nevertheless it is important for us to embrace the habit of lifelong learning as well.
The sense of achievement is really unparalleled to any kind of services that I have previously done. When Aunty Y appreciates the new function that I taught, I really made my day. I remember coming on the very first week feeling nervous, but going home feeling extremely delighted. The difference I made is visible immediately during the session and this really makes me feel very proud. I really hope that she can continue to explore other functions on her phone.
Submitted by Jiahao
Engaging the senior at Blossom Seeds Pte Ltd
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