Opinion: Technology—Barrier or Benefit for Seniors? It Depends
By Cynthia Child
August 9, 2025
In today’s fast-evolving digital world, technology often promises greater convenience and efficiency. However, for many older adults, it can instead present frustrating obstacles, especially when it comes to accessing essential services like Social Security and Medicare. Cynthia Child, technology services coordinator at Senior Community Services in Minnetonka, shares her insights on how technology both helps and hinders seniors—and what must be done to ensure they are not left behind.
The Digital Divide for Older Adults
Bernadette, a 92-year-old Minnetonka resident, hasn’t watched TV in her basement since her husband passed away 16 years ago. Despite that, she was charged $12 monthly for a cable box rental—a service she never used—that added up to a staggering $2,304 over the years. Child recounts this as just one example among many where seniors, unfamiliar with modern technology, inadvertently pay for services they do not need or use.
As a specialist working directly with older adults, Child often encounters similar stories. Many seniors find themselves excluded or disadvantaged by a digital landscape that increasingly requires technological know-how that wasn’t integral to their earlier lives. Basic benefits and services are now predominantly accessed online, demanding skills and resources many seniors do not possess.
Technology: A Learned Skill, Not a Given
Despite common misconceptions, the challenge isn’t a lack of intelligence or willpower among older adults. Child explains that technology use is a learned skill—it can be intuitive for some, yet requires repetition for others and sometimes appears entirely illogical. Without reliable broadband access or suitable digital devices, even the simplest online tasks become daunting.
Broadband connectivity remains a significant barrier: countless households in Minnesota still lack the speeds needed for video telehealth, a critical service for many with mobility or health challenges. Frequent video glitches—call drops, freezing, lag—might be minor annoyances to seasoned users but are crippling frustrations for those less tech-savvy.
The Impact of Funding Cuts
Worryingly, programs designed to close this digital equity gap, such as the Affordable Connectivity Program and the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, face cuts or derailment. Low-income and rural seniors are at particular risk of being cut off from vital infrastructure and essential support. Meanwhile, new devices and services tend to grow more expensive, with budget-friendly alternatives often proving poorly designed and unintuitive.
Community Efforts and the Need for Sustained Investment
Fortunately, local initiatives—libraries offering computer help clinics, nonprofits like Senior Community Services providing digital literacy training—are stepping in. These efforts teach seniors how to avoid scams, use video calls to connect with loved ones, manage prescriptions online, file taxes, and apply for housing assistance. Yet, these programs rely heavily on short-term grants and the tireless hustle of staff and volunteers, making their sustainability uncertain.
A Call to Action for Minnesota
Child urges Minnesota to take a leadership role by expanding digital equity funding explicitly to include older adults and rural communities. Investment should extend beyond broadband infrastructure to sustained community tech programs, embedding digital navigation into aging services, and ensuring public systems are designed with accessibility in mind.
As technology increasingly permeates every aspect of daily life, progress must never come at the cost of excluding vulnerable populations. No one should unknowingly pay over two thousand dollars for a television service they have not used in sixteen years.
Cynthia Child is technology services coordinator at Senior Community Services, a nonprofit in Minnetonka focused on supporting older adults.
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