Introducing BoomerTech Adventures
BoomerTech Adventures is a Maine-based start-up whose mission is to help baby boomers and seniors to “create, connect, and contribute” through the use of modern technology. It is yet another example of creative and enterprising faculty and researchers affiliated with the UMaine System that comprise the growing roster of engaged individuals in the aging initative. Co-founders Ed Brazee, Jill Spencer, and Chris Toy are all educators and boomers themselves who had worked together previously.
When Ed was getting ready to leave the University of Maine, where he worked as a professor for 25 years in the College of Education and Human Development, he started thinking about what was to come next. At BoomerTech Adventures, they prefer repurposing over retiring, a concept that echoes the trend of older adults entering into encore careers. BoomerTech Adventures arose from Ed’s experience in planning successful summer institutes for middle school educators, his identity as a baby boomer, and his interest in technology. Another key influence was experiencing the power of using technology for learning, creating, and connecting through their work with Maine’s laptop program.
The widely held belief that boomers and seniors tend to be luddites is false. The interest in technology as well as the tech-ability of older adults is generally underestimated, says Brazee. Those folks who are tech averse are in the minority. Even those who say they’re not interested in tech would be able to go so much deeper into exploring and developing their interests if their knew a little bit about technology and how to access that information. “People get stuck sometimes thinking that being online is random surfing and silly game playing when there’s so much rich content out there that they could really learn from. We really push that too.”
Brazee was clear that the goal of BoomerTech is not to get boomers to adopt a more millennial relationship to technology in which technology seems another appendage, but simply to help Boomers stay connected with friends and family using the tools technology provides. “That’s how the world works now.”
These three repurposed boomers have been at it for two years now and, through BoomerTech Adventures, they offer trainings, workshops, multi-day retreats, as well as, increasingly, one-on-one formats. They are currently developing their first online course in an attempt to reach more people and increase the company’s long-term sustainability. The first online course will be 15 modules on how to make the best use of the iPhone.
Technology isn’t the be all end all, but it does open up a world of possibilities. It gives us the ability to create, connect, and contribute to the world in new and meaningful ways. For boomers and seniors especially opening up these channels is potentially life changing.