It would be so easy to attribute it, in true ageist fashion, to me getting older.  “It’s natural, you start to forget things.” Meaning: “It is your fault but we understand” … And yet life today is an endlessly swelling stream of things to forget, things you are expected to do quickly and in line with other people’s perceptions of efficacy and timeliness.

I cannot but help feeling that the attempt to “excuse” you reeks of being patronising and ageist.  They don’t say that when a teenager forgets to put petrol in his father’s car, do they?

The Digital world. So wonderful, so ambiguously powerful. We see the effect it’s had on our jobs, our social relations.  Psychologists have grown hoarse telling us about the effects it can have on children, on adolescent relationships.  But what about older citizens … those like me whose first real experience of a big jump in technology was the remote for the TV … is the subject up for discussion?  In relation to senior citizens, the digital world has been called a double-edged sword … on the one hand generating a mix of cognitive strain, a feeling of social isolation, and on the other a feeling of regret at not having had these wonderful tools when you could handle them.

I am not alone. A 2026 report from Forbes explains:”Fragmented attention caused by constant task-switching within social media platforms can also be a problem. Attention split between games, messages, videos, news and notifications coupled with infinite scrolling may contribute to cognitive strain or undermine protective habits like deep reading.” (“What Excessive Social Media Means For Older Adults” – Angelica Mari).  And a Harvard Health publication points out that digital overload from “apps, texts, emails, patient portals, social media, [and] video calls” creates intense day-to-day pressure because of age-related brain changes, making seniors feel as though they “can’t keep up with the demands of everyday life.”

How do you react when somebody tells you “I sent you a message”?  How do you react when you cannot keep up with a group chat?  Don’t they have anything else to do?  You can only stand there feeling sheepishly guilty.  Do you walk away to your solitude and start shunning the media which can lead to further instances of inadequacy?

I have often myself been the one to applaud advances in the routines of everyday transactions and felt that maybe “excusing” senior citizens because they are intimidated by the digital divide is ageist and not quite right.  And yet I find myself increasingly stressed whenever the slightest glitch stumps me during some digital transaction.  And everything is a digital transaction today. The simplest of tasks like ordering a food delivery or a taxi, buying tickets for your concert, are digitised and look so foolishly simple. Watching my junior family members resolve the issue without batting an eyelid is making me feel inadequate and anachronistic.  

While the total availability of information and distraction may be so valuable at times, especially in view of an increased lack of mobility, the very same games I play exert a pressure on me “to perform”.  They track “streaks”, meaning that you cannot miss one day.  They rank you in so many ways.  Pleasure gives way to the old instincts of competition and rivalry, obsessive traits get triggered off, and that pleasure you sought is tainted.

I feel like those Guards standing in front of Buckingham Palace, ever watchful and standing to attention.  Could something get past me?  I remember that this started even when I was still working, and I felt stressed that my colleagues would be boasting that they were answering their mails at two in the morning, and they looked as fresh as a young head of lettuce.

And as soon as you’ve mastered one digital hurdle, you hear another word which has blossomed right under your nose.  My last memorable example was Tik-Tok … and I still remember the loaded smile I received when I gave the empty stare.

Just as the technology is new, the awareness of how people of all ages are being affected is also new. UNESCO’s “Bridging the Grey Digital Divide: Enhancing ICT Learning for Older Adults” advocates for embedding senior-targeted ICT learning into national lifelong learning strategies to ensure long-term financial stability for community-led programs. The report further proposes decentralizing learning through local, accessible spaces and mandating age-friendly pedagogies, moving away from generic models toward tailored, peer-led support. Implementing these structural changes enables a shift from viewing older adults as “digital refugees” to facilitating their role as autonomous participants in a digital society.

Malta is actively running nationwide initiatives to bridge the digital divide and integrate senior citizens into the digital age. Driven by the country’s National Strategic Policy for Active Ageing and the National Lifelong Learning Strategy, these efforts aim to ensure that older adults gain digital autonomy, stay socially connected, and safely navigate the modern internet. Laudable.  But are we assuming that the issue is simply one of getting senior citizens to sit calmly in front of the computer?  We look on in stupor as we see toddlers fiddle around with gadgets … it looks so easy.  Is it so for everyone?

So, do I feel like a “digital refugee”?  No, maybe it’s not as serious as that, but the issue is actually there.  It is worth asking how far awareness of the complexity of this situation has filtered down in Malta, and whether actual senior citizens are involved in dealing with it.  There is an African proverb which says that “If you want to know how the shoe pinches, ask the person who wears it.”