Why are elderly people so confused with technology most of the time?

My grandma has had an iPhone for years and still doesn't know how to use it… She always asks me to help her with things that are so simple. Same with my granddad and my older aunts and uncles. They seem like they don't know how to use the simplest user friendly technology and when me or someone else who is young fixes it so easily they think were magicians. I know they didn't grow up with technology but really, is it that hard to figure out? (Not trying to offend anyone btw)

I think they're afraid they might break it if they do something wrong.

Ok this same this happens to me-totally feel this. But I do think not growing up with it/not being used to it is a big part. The older people are the more time they have spent in their life without these kind of technologies. Also the general ideas are also more far fetched for example why communication than they have been used to with the basic call. Just a couple ideas-hope these help.

The up & coming thing always always makes young folks salivate like doggies with yummy new snacks, like girls n makeup shoes tops sneakers jerseys hair color, stereos & now new devices that need exc eyesight acute ears
new tech of the 20s involved crystal radios, modelTs, electric toasters, phonographs, old folks have less acute eyesight which is necessary to see all the teenyweeny keyboards, that girls have no trouble making dance with their liddle thumbs from 3 feet away

I think part of it is just anxiety using new devices. Even though I'm only 21, I have had this "anxiety" using new things. For example, my friends always had the latest tech. Being someone who didn't even have a phone, because I couldn't afford it at that time, I was always anxious with using phones. If my friends asked me to do something like take a photo for them using their phone, I'd get anxious and embarrassed because I didn't know how to use it (since I never had one) and would just avoid it. Or even if I did have some idea of using it, I'd still try to avoid it because I didn't want to look dumb and be embarrassed. So I think part of it is just avoidance out of fear.

Young people are geared by nature to learn rapidly while the brain develops.

After a certain point, for most people, learning becomes more difficult.

The complexity of modern technology is more than many older people can absorb.

It's not that they weren't ever capable.
Had they been exposed to the same things when they were your age,
they would have learned the stuff as easily as you do now.

Be patient and understanding with them,
and accept that there will be some things they just won't be able to handle.

Moreover, be aware that eventually in your later years
you will find some new technology daunting
and you will need some young kid of that time to help you with it.

In my profession the current average age is mid 50's and at my current location the age is slightly above that. I have spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out practical approaches to this delima and or to see from the view of coworkers several generations above myself. Anyhow to the point… In my generation having used a basic form of all these systems learning new technology comes quicker not necessarily with anymore ease as the difference maybe equivalent to learning how to use IOS/Apple as opposed to Android. Whereas for the older generations its like someone from my generation learning how to build a NASCAR or NHRA Drag car and not knowing how to use any manuals or even where to get one. In order for my generation to understand fully we would have to go into a coma for 20 years and then try to learn what ever technology is available in the future, but of course after breaking a few things first.

You make an excellent point re growing up with a certain technology versus learning it later in life.

You are confused. It is the young people that are confused. All they know is how to run an application, they know nothing about the technology behind it.

YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE GROWN UP WITH IT AND HAVE LEARNED ALL ALONG THE ELDERLY HAVE TO LEARN EVERYTHING FROM THE BEGINNING.

The elderly often have a harder time, because their memory is becoming worse. It's not really their fault. Most elderly are like that.
When the younger generation becomes the older generation… Then the result would be the same.
The elderly can't catch up with the technology.