Ryanair’s decision to scrap boarding passes by May 2025 and replace them by digital ones is a common trend. Chief executive Michael O’Leary says all airport procedures will be done on the app and without a paper trail. Thai authorities recently announced that domestic flights from six airports, as a pilot, will be using only facial recognition technology by the end of the year.
The announcement of budget Ryanair has led to a flurry of complaints that many elderly passengers will be baffled and may even stop flying. Just because old people have a mobile phone doesn’t mean they know how to use it, say the critics of new technology. As people age their cognitive and physical abilities may decline, thus inspiring a fear of technological changes as familiar routines disappear.
But history is full of examples of useless resistance from the elderly in particular. The ancient Roman poet Juvenal told of ageing senators’ opposition to aqueducts as enemies could easily poison the water. Old monks attacked the introduction of printing in fifteenth century Europe as they would lose their jobs copying out texts. Renaissance popes, usually wrinklies, attacked the use of gunpowder as it often blew up in soldiers’ faces.
If history proves anything, it demonstrates that the elderly will have to grin and bear new technologies and the latest terminology. In the meantime, it’s best to hope we don’t have to worry too much about telnet, virtualization, flash memory or zero-day. Come back the TM30, all is forgiven.
