When Technology Fails Us: Why Do People Resist Technology?

Since moving to our continuing care retirement community, I've noticed that some residents proudly resist technology.

Created by ChatGPT 8/15/26 - for a chuckle, read the messages on the mug and picture

Some don't use email. Others never log in to the community portal, even though it contains the resident directory, activity calendar, restaurant menus, and other useful information.

So why do some perfectly capable people choose to stay offline?

Some of the apps on our community portal are very useful

Age clearly isn't the determining factor. I know several people in their 90s who are completely at home with technology. I even know 95-year-olds who tap away on their tablets every day. Some of them even read this blog.

For some people, it's simply a matter of “Why bother?” If a er calendar, address book, or newspaper works perfectly well, why spend time learning a digital version?

Those of us who enjoy technology are willing to spend ten minutes figuring something out because we expect it to save time later.

Of course, sometimes those ten minutes turns into ten hours.

I know this because hubby and I spent several hours getting our sleek new electric wall calendar to work. It sounded perfect. It promised to sync with our personal devices and both our appointments. No more asking, “What are you doing Thursday?” We would each have complete visibility into the other’s schedule.

Wall Calendar that's supposed to capture our phone calendars on one screen

It's August. I have yet to see a single one of my appointments appear on that screen.  We failed. Actually, “failure” doesn't quite capture the experience. There was muttering. There was sighing. There was screaming. And there may have been some language that would not be appropriate for a family blog.

So that got me thinking: is that why people resist technology?

Technology Never Stops Changing

Just when you finally figure out where everything is, someone updates the software.

Menus move. Buttons disappear. Features you actually used vanish. New features you never requested suddenly appear.

And don't get me started on passwords. I’m supposed to have a different one for every app, and each app requires different combinations of letters, caps, and symbols. At this rate, I'm going to need a password just to remember my passwords.

I've often thought the technology industry should create a “Jitterbug computer”—something with giant buttons, only the essential functions, and a legally binding promise never to move anything after you learn where it is.

There Is Something to Be Said for Analog

Some people genuinely prefer the old-fashioned way. The book or newspaper in their hands. And they may have a point. Look around a restaurant, and you'll see an entire table of people staring at their phones instead of talking to one another.

Technology was supposed to make us more connected. Sometimes it seems to have made us better at ignoring the people sitting directly across the table.

Nobody Likes Feeling Stupid

Perhaps the biggest reason people avoid technology is emotional.

Technology has a nasty habit of making intelligent, capable adults feel completely incompetent.

Many of us have had challenging careers. Then along comes a new app and suddenly we're staring at a screen thinking, “Why isn't this working?”

The machine doesn't care that you have a college degree. It doesn't care that you successfully managed a department of 200 people. It doesn't care that you raised three children.

It just sits there waiting for you to figure out which tiny icon you're supposed to tap.

Sometimes it's easier to declare the technology stupid than admit that you don't understand it.

I'm Definitely Biased

I have to admit that I'm on the technology-loving side of this argument.

I started using computers when I was 22. I took an elective programming course while earning my business degree. The following year, my company needed internal programmers, so I applied—and jumped three salary grades overnight.

So I've always thought of technology as a friend. An occasionally irritating friend. But still a friend.

Today I can't imagine not pulling out my phone to identify an actor in a movie, to settle a trivia argument over dinner, to look up a restaurant, or to find directions, or to answer the question that inevitably comes up when my husband and I are watching television: “Wasn't she in something else?”

Maybe Technology Is Good for the Brain

Recently, I attended an eight-week Brain Sense class on brain health and memory. One of the messages was that our brains benefit from continuing to learn, solving problems, and doing things that aren't completely automatic.

That made me wonder: Maybe all this technology frustration is actually good for us.

I'm a big fan of brain-training games like Lumosity and Peak that reportedly improve cognitive functions like memory, attention, problem-solving, and mental agility through short, gamified daily mini-games.

Some of the game apps on my phone

Learning a new app requires concentration. Figuring out where somebody moved the button requires problem-solving. Remembering another password exercises the memory.

And wrestling with an electronic calendar? That apparently works the entire brain. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

If we ever get it working, I'll let you know. Assuming I can figure out how to put the announcement on the calendar.

Over to You...

Where do you stand on the digital divide?

• I'd love to hear about your biggest technology triumph—or your most memorable tech meltdown.

• And if you have figured out how to get two people's calendars to sync on one electronic screen, please don't write to me. Just come over.