Parents and grandparents are using millennials as their personal tech service

The rapid advance of technologies has led to intense changes in society and has even invaded the privacy of your home. Technology intervenes in the relationship between parents and children by reversing their roles. It is no longer parents who take care of children but quite the opposite. Children are now teaching their parents and grandparents how to use recent technology and the generation gap in technology is becoming deeper and deeper.

The use of technology has become a source of stress at the family level, causing stress to teenagers and millennials according to a study by Kaspersky. Parents are amazed at the indiscriminate use of screens by their children and the intensive use of video games and blame technology for the lack of face-to-face personal relationships. Millennials have become victims of the generation gap when it comes to technology, as all responsibility for installing and maintaining new devices of the house falls on their shoulders. 

When we dig a little deeper, we find out that 54% of Spanish millennials are forced to give technical support to parents and grandparents. This results in another surprising number where we see that a quarter of these young people avoid contact with their families if they suspect that they are going to ask for help with technology issues, such as configuring the wifi, connecting to the printer or learning how to use a new mobile phone...

Farewell to technological gifts


For the same reason, young people avoid giving technology as a gift because they know that it is they who will have to configure it. Given that it is technically a service being provided to parents, 24% of millennials prefer for their parents to pay for a technical service but only 12% of seniors want to do so. So, adults ask their children for help not purely out of trust but for economic reasons as well.

There seems to be no escape from this situation. Technology is everywhere… in cars, in offices, even in cities where connectivity makes it possible to create increasingly intelligent cities, in order to make services available to citizens in a more efficient way- from parking to medical services.

So, we come to question when did we start feeling overwhelmed by technology? Apparently, the breaking point is 50, this is when people begin to feel self-conscious around millennials and their advanced skills in these areas.

Kaspersky’s study dives a little deeper and analyzes the level of family satisfaction with the situation caused by the generation gap in technology. Only 8% of parents are grateful for the help they receive. On the other hand, less than half of the millennials fear that their parents could be victims of some kind of computer fraud; although, as we see more than half feel sure of the help given to their parents or grandparents. 

Here are some alternatives to avoid friction between family members of different ages. Firstly, go to a computer service, there are many competent professionals who can help with your queries. If this is not an option for you, try to resolve your doubts through official advice and tutorials on the web and Youtube. In an increasingly technological world, those over 50 have no choice but to adapt, otherwise they will always need to turn to the younger members of the family.

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