Seniors Are Ready for Tech — They Just Need It Built for Them

Ninety-three percent. That is the share of adults aged 65 and older who, when surveyed, said they felt comfortable trying out a new device. Not reluctant. Not anxious. Comfortable. If that number surprises you, you are not alone — but it probably should not surprise us as much as it does.

We have a habit of assuming that older adults and technology do not mix well. That seniors are reluctant adopters, slow to learn, resistant to change. The data simply does not back that up. What it shows instead is a generation that has been adapting to technology their entire working lives, that troubleshoots with YouTube, video calls their grandchildren, and checks the weather on their phone every morning — and that keeps running into friction that has nothing to do with their willingness and everything to do with how the technology was built.

That friction is exactly what I had in mind when I built GG Yahtzy.

What the Research Actually Shows

When you survey older adults who are functional technology users — people who own a device and use it regularly — a consistent picture emerges. They are not beginners stumbling through menus. Seventy-one percent have five or more years of experience with their devices. They spend between one and three hours a day on them. They have a preferred device (usually a smartphone), a set of go-to activities, and a YouTube video ready to go when something stops working.

The most common activities? Keeping in touch with friends and family tops the list at 63%, followed by checking the weather, sending photos, and video calls. Social connection is the engine driving technology use in this age group — not novelty, not entertainment, not habit. People. That matters a lot when you are thinking about what kind of technology to build for them.

The Barriers Are Real — Just Not the Ones People Assume

There is a genuine gap between technology use in adults over 65 and everyone else. Only about half of Canadians in that age group own a smartphone, compared to 85% of the general population. But closing that gap is not about convincing seniors that technology is worthwhile. Most of them already know it is. The barriers are physical, emotional, and economic — and they are very solvable if you care enough to try.

41% of older adult device users experience vision loss uncorrectable by glasses. 27% have some degree of fine motor skill impairment. They are using their devices anyway. Small text, tiny tap targets, and fiddly menus create real friction for people dealing with these limitations. On the emotional side, about 42% of respondents reported discomfort when trying new things — not an unwillingness to try, but a fear of doing something wrong, of looking foolish, of breaking something. One finding that stuck with me: older adults consistently said they preferred asking a peer for help over asking a family member, because it felt less embarrassing. That is not a technology problem. That is a dignity problem.

Socioeconomic factors play a role too. Internet access at home is not universal, and the cost of devices and data plans hits harder on a fixed income. These are real barriers — but they are infrastructure problems, not attitude problems.

Games Matter More Than You'd Think

Eighteen percent of older adult device users play games. That might sound modest, but consider what the research also found about happiness: the majority of seniors who played games on their devices reported feeling happy or very happy afterward. For a population where loneliness is a documented health risk, that is meaningful. Passive social media use, by contrast, left 42% of respondents feeling at least some loneliness after browsing. Active engagement — a game, a video call, a hands-on activity — seems to do something that scrolling does not.

There is also growing evidence that regular technology engagement supports cognitive health. Reminder apps, voice recorders, and interactive games have shown measurable benefits for older adults with mild cognitive impairments. The key word is interactive — passive consumption is not the same thing.

Why I Built GG Yahtzy

My mother had a handheld Yahtzee game she loved. When it broke, there was nothing like it on her tablet — not without ads interrupting every turn, not without a subscription, not without an interface built for someone thirty years younger. The games that existed for seniors were either insultingly simple or buried under the same clutter as everything else on the app store.

GG Yahtzy is a one-time purchase. No ads. No subscriptions. No hidden anything. The text is large, the buttons are big enough to actually tap, and the game plays exactly like the Yahtzee you already know. It respects the player.

That is the whole idea behind GG Games. Not simplified — considered. There is a difference. Seniors are not a lesser audience that needs a lesser product. They are experienced, capable people who deserve technology that was actually designed with them in mind.

The research is clear: older adults are ready. They have been ready. The question has never been whether they want to engage with technology. It has always been whether we were willing to meet them halfway.

GG Yahtzy is available on Google Play for a one-time purchase of $4.99 CAD. No ads. No subscriptions. No nonsense. Built for the generation that taught us how to play.