This article explores how search engines in the digital age have replaced the wisdom and advisory roles of elders, weakened their social status, and explores ways to restore their connection to society.
There is an African proverb that goes something like this. “When an elderly person dies, it is like a library burning down.” This proverb implies that an elderly person is like a library, a treasure trove of wisdom, as he or she holds countless experiences and life lessons gained over a long lifetime. In the past, the elderly played an important role in passing on their years of accumulated life wisdom to the next generation and providing advice and counseling to others. Elders were revered by those around them, including their children and grandchildren. These cultural values were passed down through the generations, and elders were at the center of families and communities, passing on wisdom and providing guidance.
Today, however, elders are not as socially recognized as they once were. I volunteered at a nursing home near my home when I was in high school. I participated in an autobiography writing project where I got to talk to the residents about their lives. Many of them told me that they had been rejected by their families, suffered from loneliness at home with no one to talk to, and ended up in a nursing home. This experience made me realize that the elderly are no longer considered important in society. This problem is not just about personal isolation, but also about structural changes in society as a whole.
As of 2023, the proportion of South Korea’s population aged 65 and over is expected to be 18.4%, which is increasing every year. The fact that South Korea has the highest elderly suicide rate in the OECD is a clear example of the severity of the problem of elderly marginalization. These statistics are not just numbers, but a clear indication that the elderly are being marginalized by society. Where does this phenomenon come from? What has caused the elderly to lose their place in society?
These changes are not only related to social and economic factors such as the development of nuclear families and urbanization, but also to the rapid development of digital technologies. In particular, the advent of search engines has fundamentally caused and accelerated the disconnect between the elderly and younger generations.
Search engines first became a part of our daily lives in the 1990s. In 1993, the World Wide Web, better known by its address names beginning with www, was introduced, making it possible to collect and explore documents online. Later, with the launch of large portal sites like Google and Yandex, internet users began to flock to these sites, especially services like Quora and Reddit, which were designed to allow internet users to publicly post questions and have them answered by other users. Sites like wikiHow have become a place for advice on writing, overcoming internet addiction, raising pets, and more in many languages around the world, including Spanish, English, and Korean.
The range of topics covered on the internet has expanded to include everything from interpersonal relationships to career issues, with answers to every concern and question available online. People are no longer just searching for information, but also seeking answers to their deepest questions, such as life advice, counseling, and emotional connection. As a result, search engines have taken over the role of advisors that older people used to play.
Why do modern people choose search engines? This is due to the circumstances and lifestyle of modern people. First, modern people don’t have the time to talk to people one-on-one and seek counseling or advice, so they want immediate answers to their questions, and they want them in the shortest possible time. They also want to minimize consumption, and physical meetings are financially burdensome because of the cost of food, transportation, etc.
Online search engines fulfill these needs. One of the advantages of online search engines is that you can get a variety of answers and advice from a large number of people. This allows you to get different perspectives on a problem compared to getting advice from a single elderly person. It’s also important to note that you can get new advice and answers regardless of the time of day. Thanks to the ubiquity of the internet, you can get the answers you want in a short time, and there are few time or monetary costs other than the electricity to use the internet.
So, if search engines are replacing the role of the elderly, how can we restore the connection between the elderly and society? First, there are ways to increase communication through direct contact between seniors and the rest of society. This can be done through volunteerism, which is not just about physical contact, but also about providing opportunities for older people to pass on their experiences and wisdom to the next generation. For example, you could run a mentoring program that pairs older adults with younger people, or you could run an activity like an autobiography writing project for older adults to document and share their lives. This way, seniors can feel that they are still needed in society and can pass on their values to the next generation.
You can also utilize the familiar online environment to facilitate communication with older adults. One way to do this is to create a system where someone can post a question or concern on an online site, and an elderly answer assistant can reply to it. Of course, this requires training seniors to use smartphones and computers. It is important to provide training opportunities for the digitally illiterate elderly so that they can access the digital world. Such a system could facilitate communication between the young and the elderly while utilizing the speed and convenience of the online world.
These systems don’t just facilitate communication. Seniors can continue to use language, strengthen their cognitive abilities, and even help prevent dementia by engaging with online answer assistants. Most importantly, they can share valuable life wisdom and lessons and overcome the loneliness that comes with a lack of communication. This will also encourage young and old people to look up to the elderly and rethink their lives. Changing the perception of the elderly can make a huge difference to society as a whole.
Of course, some people may argue that the era in which the elderly lived is different from the one in which young people are living today, and it may be difficult for them to give each other appropriate advice. However, human life has its own meaning and value regardless of the era. “Listening to someone talk about their life is like reading a book,” said Alibaba founder Jack Ma. Our lives are finite, and the number of experiences we can have is limited, so it is very valuable to learn from the lives of the elderly and learn their lessons. It’s like borrowing books with life wisdom from the library of the elderly.
With so many libraries being neglected due to the marginalization of the elderly, an online elderly answer assistant system could be the first step in the effort to save these burning libraries. It’s not just about restoring the social role of the elderly, it’s about laying the groundwork for all generations to communicate, learn, and grow together. Only when society as a whole embraces this change and works to promote intergenerational communication and understanding will we be able to fully utilize the treasure trove of wisdom that is the elderly.
