We all have superpowers - no matter our age

Traditionally popular culture, tech companies, advertising agencies, and the likes have not targeted an older audience, mainly because the age of people working in these industries are younger, so perceptions are slightly skewed. So products, user experience, messaging, and marketing target the young. But a fact of life is our populations are getting older -  it’s inevitable. 

As people fall into this category of older adults, they don’t feel old, but they also don’t always feel welcome in a ‘younger person’s’ domain.  There’s TikTok for influencers, Twitch for gamers, YouTube for creators. But this group, who arguably have the most skills, knowledge and time, didn’t have a platform. 

It’s assumed that older adults are regularly backing away from technology, we can assure you that is not the case. My best example comes from my very own parents - following his retirement, my father taught himself Quickbooks and started helping startups and non-profits with their accounts.  That drive and curiosity he’d always had didn’t go anywhere with age.

“Older adults are a massively underserved demographic”

Older adults are a massively underserved demographic - there wasn’t anywhere that celebrated and welcomed them to showcase their skills. All the superpowers that each of us possesses (and are only enhanced with maturity) weren’t being sufficiently nurtured online.

It felt like the default for those people was to learn through private research autonomously,  watch TV or read a book. Well, that or subscribe to a hugely time-intensive or expensive course. This couldn’t be the answer to a massive cohort of people who’ve so much to offer and still want to take part in life-long learning. 

Source: GetSetUp

My goal with the GetSetUp platform was to create a space and community where my parents and older friends could learn, create, and give back to society through shared knowledge and acquired skills. We want to redesign the every day for people in later life. Making sure their interests and needs are being catered to. 

Working with my co-founder and friend, Lawrence Kosick, we started GetSetUp, to literally get older adults set up online. We wanted to remove all barriers to tech and support an online community of older adults in a digital age.  It quickly grew from that mission.

“We’ve had over 4 million users globally with an 800% YoY (year on year) growth in users from 2020, proving that this is a massively underserved market. ”

We have built a social learning platform that makes it effortless for older adults to get online, learn technology, engage in mental enrichment activities, and be socially connected. We’ve had over 4 million users globally with an 800% YoY (year on year) growth in users from 2020, proving that this is a massively underserved market. 

Classes that are available range from How to get the most out of my smartphone, to Creative writing, Yoga, Cooking and nutrition, Travel, Social media, How to build a website, and everything in between.  We offer over 3000+ community driven experiences in five languages.

The value that peer-to-peer learning offers makes a massive difference to the lasting behavior changes from our end learner. We’ve often heard that younger tech gurus can rush the terminology, programs, and concepts, and it doesn’t lead to an expectation match. It can leave learners feeling less confident and unwelcome. 

“We’ve built this business with our end-users in mind and made accessibility the priority of everything we do.”

We’ve built this business with our end-users in mind and made accessibility the priority of everything we do. We’ve lowered the barriers to entry, through our no friction interface, easy-to-use chat function and by introducing older adults as our teachers to create a non-judgmental environment for peers to learn from. 

They don’t have to bend and squeeze to be part of a size zero space. Our learners are the influencers of what classes are available on GetSetUp. Either by coming to us with a request for a subject area they’d like to learn more about or offering a lesson/skill, they’d like to share. 

GetSetUp is about much more than just becoming more digitally enabled, though. It is about enhancing skills for work, opening up friendship circles, sharing interests, and improving health and well-being - it’s about fuelling a “Live your best life” philosophy. 

I know this philosophy firsthand because as we built GetSetUp, my mother got more and more interested, and in just a few months, she learned all the new technology to become a rockstar instructor! She has loads of avid learners taking her cooking classes weekly. 

“The average user is taking between 2-5 classes per week. ”

We’re finding that engagement levels are very different from other media platforms; there is a desire to increase the time spent immersed in the classes and then take a natural step to becoming Interest Group Hosts. That’s the courageous step to teaching on a subject area they’re passionate about. The average user is taking between 2-5 classes per week.  Again, this is very different from other social/content platforms, where users are irregularly browsing passively through short clips and content. 

Even if they’ve never taught anything before, this platform gives learners the confidence they need to become teachers for the first time. Seeing millions of people learn skills on GSU and then apply them in their communities, homes, and workplaces, is a privilege. We are going to double down in 2022, showcasing the talent and superpowers of this generation.

Source: GetSetUp

One of our successes is Glenda (63). She started as one of our initial Guides and was teaching a lot of tech skills like using Youtube, screencasting, and more. Now she’s thrilled to be able to share even more skills she’s passionate about, like meditation, African music, and dance, and she’s finishing a Zumba course certification to bring that to the GetSetUp platform. 

Glenda’s a brilliant example of the importance of life-long learning and constantly developing yourself. She’ll be the first to tell you about the long list of benefits she gets from learning and teaching, and puts her significant happiness levels down to it. 

Arming this generation with the skills to use social media confidently, build their friendship communities, improve other vocational skills, as well as have a lot of fun, is proving to be life-changing for many. 

It’s not going to be long before we see a more balanced remit of content across social platforms, really reframing the conversation around what the popular in pop culture is. 

I’ve met the new influencers, and they’re here to make an impact!