The Times - UK (2022-05-26)

2 Thursday May 26 2022 | the times

times2

E

sther Rantzen was

in the news this

week saying there

should be a

“minister for older

people” to ensure

that government

policies aren’t

ageist. She specifically referenced

the “digital revolution” that is

causing “distress and anxiety”

and, as an example, parking

apps, because they are fiddly

and complicated and demand

a smartphone and put some

older people off the driving

that could be essential for

their independence and

wellbeing.

I have to say, I love a

parking app. I have four

on my phone and can’t

say which one I like best.

I hope to visit a new area

soon so I can add a fifth.

I want the whole set

eventually. Luckily a

nearby council recently

changed from RingGo

without telling anyone,

so I did get a ticket but

also I’ve now added...

JustPark! Swings and

roundabouts, my friends,

swings and roundabouts.

Only joshing. I hate

those apps as much as

anyone. In my instance

they’re a fraught horror on top of

the fraught horror that is parking.

I am a bad parker but, thankfully,

there is usually a passing fella

happy to stop and stare

relentlessly as I pull out and start

again for the umpteenth time. It

always helps, that staring. They

may even feel sufficiently stirred

to do that round and round thing

with a finger. “Thanks, I wouldn’t

have nailed it without you,” I will

always say, before entering the

location number that the app will

say doesn’t exist. If I didn’t have

my heart set on collecting the full

set of apps — AppyParking, I’ve

got my eye on you — chances

are I wouldn’t bother to leave the

house either.

However, not all older people

are reluctant around technology.

My father, for example, was

willing and able almost up until

the end. He would go to the

Apple counter in John Lewis and

basically say: “What’s new? I’ll

have one.” He practically had a

video suite and could have edited

a Hollywood blockbuster by the

time he died. But my mother was

the opposite. My father bought

my mother a mobile phone that

she never wanted and never used

except the one time he called her.

This was when she took it out

with her for the first time.

“Denis,” she said when she

picked up. “How did you know

I was in Tesco?”

So it can go either way, but,

speaking solely from first-hand

experience, your technology

willingness does diminish with

age. I think I am a whizz, the

business and where it’s at, but

then the young people come

round and I see that you can put

cartoon hats on the people in

your photographs and also the

dog. I could learn that (I think

I could) but I can’t be bothered

because people and dogs look

fine without cartoon hats. You

skip one skill and then it’s

harder to catch up when the

next skill comes along. And so

it begins.

Or, to frame this more

scientifically, there is an

information theory called TAM

— technology acceptance model

— and TAM says when people

are faced with new technology

there are a number of factors that

affect uptake, such as support,

encouragement, physical ability

and so on. The most influential

factors arise from perception and,

most notably, perceived use (will

it be of use to me?) and perceived

ease of use. That’s what’s being

weighed up.

Older people, studies

show, are less likely to

deem a new technology

useful — “I don’t need to

put hats on things” or, in

my mother’s instance,

“Denis, I’ve managed

without a mobile all these

years.. .” — and less likely

to perceive it as easy to use.

Even if they have decided

that a digital innovation

would be worthwhile, says

one study, “they are not

sure they are able to get the

benefits because they

consider themselves not

skilled enough to use these

kinds of applications”.

Probably because they fell

behind. And the more you

fall behind, the more you’re

beset by “fear and anxiety”.

Which, inevitably, makes you fall

further behind.

There is, in fact, more to TAM

than this (look it up), but the long

and the short of it is: older people

feel that parking apps exceed

their skills set. But the answer is

staring us all in the face, surely.

Shall I go first? OK. Make it all

simpler. Focus on ease of use.

Couldn’t automatic number plate

recognition clock the car so all

you have to do is swipe your card

at a machine? Couldn’t we retain

pay and display as an option for

those who want it? As it stands,

and as I’ve said, if it weren’t for

wanting that full set, I would

seriously consider never parking

anywhere again. Also, I must

think of the fella with the twirly

finger. What will happen to him?

Back to

the office,

and BYO

working from home

and return to the office.

It brings the benefits

of “face-to-face,

collaborative working”,

he has said. It brings

“wider benefits for

the economy”, he has

said. Secretaries of

state should send a

“clear message” to

their workforce that

a “rapid return” is

expected, he has said.

Those who refuse

aren’t “pulling their

weight”, a Whitehall

source said. Rees-

Mogg left those notes

on the desks of those

who had yet to return:

“Sorry you were out

when I visited. I look

forward to seeing you

in the office very soon,”

he said.

The economy,

collaboration, pulling

your weight. It doesn’t

exactly sell it —

particularly when he

could have been

saying: “Wine at 4pm!”

Plus: “It’s BYO, but no

need to clear up after

yourself !”

Why he hasn’t

talked all that up, I

don’t know.

The government —

most vociferously Jacob

Rees-Mogg — has been

saying that civil

servants should stop

Deborah Ross

Come on, oldies, parking

apps are easy! Just

kidding, I hate them too

I

f you and I look at a pillar box,

the chances are we see

something that’s about 4ft high,

red and round. Yet if you and I

look at my body — and, to an

extent, yours and other people’s

— we see them differently. A

recent study by researchers at

the Medical University of Silesia in

Poland found that less than half of

their 750 participants were able

correctly to estimate whether they

were underweight, a normal weight,

overweight or obese.

Unreliable body image perception is

something the scientific community

has long acknowledged. Often we

associate this skewed perception with

eating disorders and body dysmorphia,

but body misperception is much more

pervasive than we might think.

Many more people without those

conditions do, in fact, “see” themselves

in ways that others do not. Think of

those times when you have looked in

the mirror and had an emotional

reaction to what you “see”, and maybe

even “feel” you’re having a “fat day”.

You might resort to yo-yo dieting and

bonkers exercise regimens, and have

low self-esteem.

Full disclosure: I am 57 and had

eating disorders in my twenties,

officially long gone, but the vestiges

definitely remain. These days I go in

for “disordered eating”, but, like a

functioning alcoholic, I work and

socialise normally, while recognising

that my eating habits are repetitive

and pretty controlled at home, less so

when I go out.

I define this as checks and balances.

Eat a larger supper and I restrict

myself the next day. Nothing too

unusual in that, and I admit that it is

so as not to gain undesirable pounds. I

own up to dissatisfaction with my body

(my stomach is not flat and I have a

bottom that feels too big to me).

As one expert told me, this dim view,

while not outright body dysmorphia,

has a label, namely “normative

discontent”. I wrote a book, Eating

Myself, 15 years ago, and called this

phenomenon “normal-abnormal”.

This affects most people, women in

particular, to a greater or lesser degree.

Normative discontent is prevalent,

says Dr Kamila Irvine, a lecturer in

body image and eating disorders at the

University of Lincoln. “Find me a

person who has nothing but nice

things to say about their body!”

It doesn’t necessarily follow that the

super-slim universally like what they

see in the mirror. The famously svelte

fashion designer Victoria Beckham

told Grazia magazine last week that

women today “want to have some

boobs — and a bum”. She believes

wanting to be thin is an “old-fashioned

attitude”, and that younger women

these days want to “look healthy and

curvy”. So where does this leave us?

With advances in technology and,

in turn, a greater understanding of

body image perception, the hope is

that people may be less spurred or

triggered to engage in extreme dieting

and overexercise and negative

thoughts about themselves. “The aim

is for more body acceptance,” Irvine

says, “or at least body neutrality. It’s

very hard to escape the diet culture

and society’s constructed beauty ideals

and standards, and some people are

more susceptible to these than others.”

So what is the mechanism whereby

so many of us — with eating disorders

or not — see ourselves differently

from how we actually are?

“That’s the holy grail, to understand

what people ‘see’,” Irvine says,

laughing. There’s nothing much the

matter with my eyesight and I am not

using hallucinogenic drugs, so how

come I put on phantom weight when I

look in the mirror?

I occasionally catch myself feeling

alarmed by the curves. It’s the

continuing battle between the rational

and irrational. I have learnt that I can

step away, say, “Get over yourself,

pull yourself together, this is absurd

self-indulgent twaddle”; step back

five minutes later and, lo and behold,

I have “lost” about half a stone. It’s

almost spooky how, with some effort,

I can shift what’s in the mind’s eye in a

matter of moments.

When Irvine says people can have a

negative and positive body image at

the same time, I agree entirely. “They

are related, of course, but separate.” I

know I am not living with obesity and,

equally, am not blind to the ribs on

show in my chest, but I definitely have

times when I “feel” fat.

Dr Katrin Giel, professor of

psychology, eating behaviour, at the

Medical University Hospital in

Tübingen, Germany, told me that

there’s always a higher order of

influences with body perception than

there is with “an outer, neutral object”

like, say, the pillar box. “There are very

emotive, evaluative influences about

our own bodies. What we judge to be

thin or overweight is very built into

our psychologies.”

One of her colleagues in the

Netherlands has an experiment in

Mirrors scare

me. Can an

avatar help?

Candida Crewe, 57, has felt unhappy

with her body since her twenties.

A new treatment could change that

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