Interview with Rozzie Sky

I recently spoke with Rozzie Sky, a senior citizen living in Pennsylvania, to discuss some of the issues I’ve done research on for the Senior Connection Project. I asked her questions about three main categories—social well-being, technology literacy, and transportation access—to get a first-hand account of what these problems might look like. Here are some of the main things I learned:

 

Keeping Busy = Happiness

Sky is a widow, and she lives at home alone. When I asked how she deals with this, Sky said that she keeps herself so busy that she has “plans every day for the rest of the month of June.” Her social life is vibrant, she travels with relative frequency to visit family, and even “spends a lot of time playing word games with friends” on her phone. Sky gives herself a sense of fulfillment by keeping busy, a decisive measure of one’s happiness. In fact, she directly credits her activity with causing her general well-being, stating, “If I don’t have a plan for the day, I feel very alone. That’s why I like keeping myself very busy.”

 

The Internet is Daunting

Sky doesn’t own a computer and has never purchased an item online. As the future of shopping will likely see a diminished role of retail stores, the ability to use services such as Amazon will only become more essential. When I asked why Sky was evasive of the web in general, she cited scamming as the most glaring deterrent. Given that senior citizens are more likely to fall for phishing and similar scams, her caution is warranted. Even more, Sky rarely fixes her phone herself, instead using the help of her grandson or even driving to a local phone repair shop. This inability to troubleshoot is both time-consuming and potentially expensive. While Sky and other similarly-aged older people might be able to get by as of now, the same will not be true for seniors in an ever-increasing digital world in the coming decades.
 

Transportation

Where Sky really stands out among her peers is in her ability to get herself from place to place. She still drives daily, even venturing hours outside of her hometown to visit friends. Transportation is crucial for her independence, making her able to live her life while she doesn’t “ask any favors from anybody.” She says she would absolutely “hate not being able to drive,” largely because her town and most of America is extremely car-dependent. Because of this lifelong car dependence, Sky says she could “not imagine” being without her license. That’s entirely understandable, because mobility and independence can directly affect a person’s well being and quality of life.