Your age isn’t what’s holding you back. It’s something else.
There’s a theme across many questions I get. It has nothing to do with the question; it has to do with the person asking the question.
That theme is age.
More specifically, the person indicates that because of their age, they struggle with technology.
That’s. Just. Wrong. And it makes me sad.
Technology and aging
Saying “I’m too old for tech” is just holding yourself back. It’s not your age; it’s self-doubt, bad design, or lack of interest. None of that means you can’t learn. Please don’t let age be your excuse. Keep learning. Keep trying.
Age in society
The phrase I hear often is “I’m too old.”
In a sense, I get it.
Many cultures are obsessed with youth. We get the message that we should delay signs of aging for as long as possible. The implication is that getting older is a process of slow decay and growing inability. Our relationship with technology seems to be a particularly common stereotype.
You are not a stereotype.
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Age and technology
“I’m too old” is usually followed by “to understand this” or something similar. The feeling is that because you’ve reached a certain age, you’re now incapable.
Pardon my language, but bullsh*t.
More often than not, you are very capable of “getting it” if you give yourself a chance. It’s only your lack of self-confidence that’s in the way. When that happens, it becomes a self-fulfilling belief. You’re “too old to get it” only because you believe you’re too old to get it.
Now, other reasons may be making things more difficult for you.
- You might not be interested. As much as I love technology, I get that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
- You might not have or want to prioritize the time to invest in understanding. While tech might be interesting, you have more important ways to spend your time.
- It might not be about technology at all, but whatever you’re being encouraged (or sometimes forced) to do with it. This can be very frustrating.
None of that is about age. In fact, those reasons and more — all legitimate — can apply at any age.
But age itself is not a reason. If anything, it’s an excuse.
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Tech can be frustrating for any age
I often see people blame age when something else is at play.
- Poorly designed websites can be difficult to see. Whoever invented dark gray text on a light gray background clearly has no concept of what it means to have eyesight issues, for example.
- Some devices are difficult to use. Essential tremors and other motor skill issues can interfere with mouse and trackpad movement as well as the ability to tap accurately on touch screens.
- Tiny keyboards on mobile devices can be error-prone.
- Poorly written or poorly explained information can be difficult or time-consuming to comprehend.
None of these issues is age-specific. All of them affect users of any age. It’s the issue you’re facing, not the age at which you’re facing it, that matters.
Aging is real
I won’t claim that aging isn’t a process of change. Our mental and physical processes slow or change as we get older. But none of this is guaranteed to occur just because you’ve reached some threshold number of years.
If you’re not interested, you’re not interested, not old. If you’re being forced to use a poorly designed website for some service, that’s not because you’re old; it’s because a) you’re being forced to do something you don’t want to do, and b) the website design sucks. If written explanations are full of incomprehensible gobbledygook, it’s incomprehensible gobbledygook, not your age, that’s the problem.
Your age alone is often irrelevant. It’s your priorities and capabilities that matter, and that’s true at any age.
Don’t make your age a limiting belief
“I’m too old” is giving up without even trying.
This frustrates the heck out of me. I don’t care what age you are; I can point to others your age and older who are not only quite tech capable, but even thriving. My favorite example is the 95-year-old gentleman teaching Android and mobile phone use at the local senior center. Older than everyone in the room, his age doesn’t stop him. It is irrelevant.
Your age should not hold you back.
But Leo….
A common response (though less so as I age myself) is “Just you wait, Leo! When you get older, you’ll see! It really is all about age!”
I’m still waiting. I’ll turn 68 in a couple of months. I’m older than many of the people who already claim they’re too old.
I expect to be doing this and playing with technology for years to come.
Use it or lose it
It’s well known that muscles atrophy with disuse. Exercise and movement are important to stay fit and healthy and mobile for as long as possible.
The same is true here. It’s one reason I love my career: there will always be something to keep my brain busy and “exercising”. It’s an important part of my mental health and my efforts to keep my brain as sharp as I can for as long as I can.
Don’t let technology, and especially not your age, intimidate you.
Do this
That you’re even around and reading this is an accomplishment. Don’t sell yourself short. You’re much more capable than you believe.
And please, stop using age as an excuse. Acknowledge issues you have and deal with them as appropriately as possible. But don’t let the length of time you’ve been around stop you from doing what you are otherwise capable of accomplishing.
Please.
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I couldn’t believe that you were NOT talking directly to me. My last job was running H/P mainframes at McDonnell Douglas in Seal Beach in the 90s (Space Admin). I had a computer before Windows 98. What I find SO frustrating is that the Home version of Windows10 on my new computer is so much more confusing than my previous Windows 10 (that computer crashed on June 16th of this year) NOW I have all this horrid information page when I turn on my computer. I am 73 and the only thing I like is the weather. I just want my log on page to come up. It is so complicated. I have yet to find how to make my apps smaller. They are 3/4″ big. My backups are OK but the one thing I didn’t backup were my Bookmarkers (10 years of saved quilt patterns gone). I use Chrome. I thought I disabled Bing but it came back again once. Sometimes, I want to hook up my Sony VAIO running Window XP. Life was so much simpler back then! Love your videos!!
I turn 71 later in the month of August. Technology has simply SKYROCKETED since I was a young fellow!!
I continue to “go-with-the-flow” as things change, or I just simply can’t continue to accomplish the little that I actually do with technology. Age or not, there’s NO WAY that I can keep up with it all!!
That’s why that I subscribe and listen to your information, Leo.
I’m 75 and have been working with Ask Leo! for almost 15 years. I suspect that working with Leo and going to a lot of rock concerts have kept my mind sharp. I’m sure you’ve often heard “Your brain is like a muscle — the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. And if you don’t exercise it, it gets weak.”
And like a physical muscle, it takes hard work, but you can exercise to get in shape.
“it’s a plethora of other things, ranging from society’s expectations to bad software design“
“bad software design” that’s a big one. Firefox used to be my default browser. Now I mostly avoid it because they don’t highlight the active tab. (Maybe they do, but it’s not visible to most people over 40 🙂 ).
This is crazy, but when I opened Firefox to see if this was still true, I clicked on a random tab and I got this article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2025/07/31/brain-health-dementia-prevention-strategies-study/
And yes, the tab looked like all the other 15 tabs.