Technology problems and dependence

I don't think it's a question of intelligence at all. Younger people grew up poking at screens, so they've absorbed a set of unwritten rules: three lines mean a menu, a long press reveals options, nothing breaks if you tap the wrong thing. Older users were never taught that grammar, and they're often afraid a mistake will cost them money, which is a reasonable fear given how many scams target them. Poor design makes it worse, with tiny grey text and updates that move every button just when someone has learned where it was. On dependence, my honest answer is yes, in certain areas. Many of us can't recall a single phone number, and I've seen a shop come to a complete standstill because the payment system went down and nobody could work out change by hand. The weakness isn't using the tools; it's having no fallback when they fail. That said, calling it over-reliance can be unfair. Nobody accuses us of depending too much on electricity or running water, and technology that works reliably simply becomes part of the furniture. As for the future, I think the surface will get simpler while the inside gets more complicated. We'll just speak to a device in plain language instead of hunting through settings, which should help the elderly enormously. The cost is that when something does go wrong, almost nobody will understand why, and we'll be entirely in the hands of whoever built it.