Keeping Up with Technology as We Age

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast. Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani.

Well, hello to everyone joining us today on our podcast. You're listening to the Living to 100 Club, and I'm your host, Joe Casciani. Before I introduce our guest, I'd like to remind everyone that I'm available for public speaking events, particularly to community organizations and senior groups. I love to talk to others about aging well, keeping a positive frame of mind, and making it over those hurdles. There's an option on my website to set up a call to arrange a presentation for your group. I also offer a free 30-minute lifestyle audit for individuals to look at lifestyle practices, attitudes and outlook. This audit gives us an idea if one-on-one coaching with me may help to bounce back from challenges and setbacks. Set up a call with the button on my website to get started with this audit. And one last item of self-promotion: if you're looking for a consultant or trainer on clinical topics like dementia or depression, this is my wheelhouse. So feel free to contact me if there's a need in your organization. Contact options are on my website, again, livingto100.club. Now, onto our podcast. Today we have a conversation about the latest technological advances that make our homes smarter. Our guest is Dr. Wade Yarbrough, who is deeply interested in helping older adults solve problems by learning about home automation systems. We discuss smart speakers like Alexa, smart plugs, programming emergency alerts, and adding one of the leading ecosystems from Google, Apple, or Amazon to our homes. Can this technology help older adults live more independently and possibly remain in their own homes longer? First, a little background. Wade has a doctorate degree in psychology from West Virginia University. For most of his career, he installed and supported healthcare information systems at facilities including the University of New Mexico Hospital, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2014, he decided to shift his career but not his passion. He found new ways to continue training people to be more productive and solve their problems. Now he teaches psychology at a local community college and trains seniors on technology for Get Set Up. Wade, welcome to our podcast.

Thanks for inviting me.

Great, you're welcome. I'm looking forward to our conversation. I always like to open by asking our guests to give us a little bit about the journey that brought you to where you are today. I know I covered much of it, but in your own words, tell us how you got to where you are today. Okay.

Yes, sure. You mentioned really my two passions, which are teaching and technology. My degree is in experimental psychology, so I had a lot of research data to analyze. So that was sort of my entrée into computer science and technology, doing data analysis. But I really love both of them. So when I finished my doctorate and was looking for a job, I looked both for teaching jobs and for technology jobs and ended up going down the technology path, uh, installing hospital information systems. But a big part of that was training, training users how to use the systems and helping them when they had problems. Did that for 35 years and then decided to retire, but not to stop.

Sure.

And really went back to my roots. I started teaching psychology at a community college. And then found Get Set Up, which is an organization that teaches seniors, and they were looking for someone to teach technology. So I thought that's a great way to bring my two passions back together, teaching and technology. So I've been with them for a little over 2 years now and having great fun, uh, in that job. Uh, one of the things I always say I love about Get Set Up compared to teaching college is that Teaching kids, about half the time their heads are on the table because it's a required course. They're not really interested. And it gets set up, people are in the class because they want to be there, which makes teaching so much more enjoyable.

Sure. And there's so much to teach, right? And when you have a motivated group of students, that's got to make such a big difference.

It does. Yeah.

So I'm curious, uh, why is it so important to adapt to these latest technological advances in our homes? I mean, A lot of people are somewhat skeptical about technology, and I don't want to generalize, but why do we, why do we need these advances in our homes?

Well, kind of in general, the technology makes life easier, but I think it's especially important for older adults because it can really help older adults stay in their current home longer, be more comfortable and more safe, which is sort of what we're all trying to do. I mean, for example, your smart home can remind you to take your medications at the correct times. It can close the blinds for you so you don't have to get up to close them and potentially trip over something. It can turn on lights when you go into a dark room, again, so you don't trip. It can let you know you forgot to close the front door and lock it. So it can actually be a caregiver to some extent and allow you to live in your own home without having to have a caregiver there.

Yeah. So what have you found in terms of the openness to making these changes? Let's say with the 55+ group, how does this age group compare with younger adults in terms of wanting to learn and really adapt to, uh, the latest advances?

Well, there's clearly some differences. The 30-somethings and 40-somethings grew up with technology and are very comfortable with it. I mean, they are very anxious to do home automations, whereas with the older adults, There's a little more resistance in general. We're not as comfortable with technology just because we didn't grow up with it. There's concerns about cost. Anything like that, that's a big unknown. And I think a big problem is just not knowing how to get started. They may hear about some of these devices and home automation, but they don't know how to get started with it.

Yeah, I could see that because it might be a big leap. We're not always a big leap learning something new compared to the younger generation that, as you said, grew up with this technology and smartphones and apps and a lot of the software development. So overall, bigger learning gaps, but still passable, right? I mean, yeah.

And I would say that the older adults that I teach classes on, the things we're talking about, smart homes and Alexa, and once they take a class and start to learn about it, they become very excited about it because they can see how it makes their life easier and safer. And so I think they quickly get it. It's just a matter of getting them exposed to the information.

Hmm. Yeah, we can get excited about it when we learn about all the great things, great developments that are available. So let's jump into it then. Let's, let's begin. Let me ask you by defining home automation, what does that look like? If I have an automated home, What would someone see?

Well, basically home automation involves replacing a lot of the devices and appliances that are already in your home, things like lights and doorbells and locks, thermostats, uh, and replacing those devices with what are called smart devices. And smart devices serve the same function as their dumb cousins, but you can activate them using your voice, using your smartphone, even by things like time of day or motion detection. Even they can listen for certain sounds, like a beeping appliance that says you left the refrigerator door open. The smart home can recognize that beeping and tell you that your refrigerator door is open. So it's a lot of the same things. If you walk through the house, it's not going to look any different, but it's how you interact with the appliances in your house that is different.

Hmm, so you talk about lights, locks, thermostats, blinds, draperies. So I guess there's a lot of opportunities, a lot of options. Tell us, what do you have in your home? Let's get started by understanding what you have brought into your own home.

Sure, mine is fairly modest. I have 4 smart speakers, and the smart speaker is really the key to home automation, but it's an independent device by itself. That's the Alexa devices that we've talked about and some people may be familiar with. So I have 4 of those scattered about the house. I also have some smart lights and some of the smart plugs as well. A smart plug is just a plug that you put into an existing electrical socket and then you plug something like a lamp or a space heater or a television into that plug, which you can then use to turn those devices on and off. And I've got smart cameras outside and inside. I've got smart camera for each one of the entry doors, front door and the rear door. And even though that's fairly modest compared to everything that you can do, even a pretty modest one like that gives me lots of advantages. And especially when you combine them with what are called routines. And routines are ways to string together commands and functions so they happen in a series. So for example, I've got a routine called Sunset Lights, and that routine is triggered by sunset, and it is literally sunset. It's not by a time on the clock, so as the days get shorter and longer, it adjusts. But when that routine kicks on, it turns on designated lights throughout the house. So if I happen to be gone somewhere and get home later than expected, I don't come into a dark house. The lights are already on. Plus, if someone's looking for a house to break into, it looks like someone's home. You can even have it turn on music to be playing to make it, again, make it seem like you're home. I have another one that's called Good Night. So when I'm ready to go to bed, I say, Alexa, good night. She turns off all the lights in the house. She flips off all the smart plugs. So if I forgot to turn the heater off in my office, it'll turn that heater off so it doesn't run all night. It plays, and then she plays music to sleep by.

Wow. Sounds great.

And that would be even more powerful if I had something like smart locks on my doors. Again, it would lock all the doors to make sure you don't go to sleep and have you forgotten to lock the front door.

Sure.

Routines work together with all those appliances to make your smart home even smarter.

Yeah, yeah, I love that. The routines can string together a series of steps, series of events to take, and makes it all, all connected.

Yes, exactly.

Sunset, good night. Yeah. Good morning. Do you have good morning too?

Actually, I do. I have a routine called good morning. I use it every single morning. When I walk into the kitchen in the morning, I say, good morning, Alexa. She says good morning back to me. She gives me the weather report. She turns on the lights in the kitchen, and then she starts playing music.

Okay. No bacon and eggs, no oatmeal, no muesli for preparation? You just have to do that yourself.

You didn't, but there are more and more smart devices. You can have a smart coffee pot, so she could turn your coffee pot on and start your coffee. You can even have that maybe happen at a certain time, so when you wake up, she's already got the coffee cooking. But yeah, there's more and more smart devices popping up all the time. It's pretty amazing what's out there.

How long did it take you to put this together, Wade? Just Approximately a year.

I probably have put the things in over the course of a year. It's, it's kind of like a high project. I'll, as interest and money comes around, I'll throw in something new. I originally bought, had 3 light bulbs and then I bought a couple more a few months later and I had 1 plug and then I would think of something else I wanted to put a plug onto. So I bought another one. So now I'm up to 4 plugs that I use for space heaters and appliances and things like that. So again, instead of having to buy a new coffee pot, you could buy a smart plug, plug your old dumb coffee pot into the smart plug, and then use the smart plug to turn it on either by a time of day or by voice.

Do these smart plugs all speak the same language if they're made by different manufacturers, or do you have to have different systems in your phone?

Uh, great question. There are what are called ecosystems, and an ecosystem is a group of smart devices that work together, and they do have to all belong to the same ecosystem. So for example, the three main ecosystems are Amazon Alexa, Google, and Apple, which uses Siri for the voice assistant. So if you go to buy a smart plug and you're using the Amazon ecosystem, which is the one I use— that's why I'll probably use Alexa as the example since Alexa is the voice assistant for the Amazon ecosystem— you got to make sure that plug works with the Amazon ecosystem. Some devices work with all three of them, some will work with two of them, some will only work with one. They all will provide you the same devices, so you can get a light bulb that will work with any of the ecosystems. But if you just go grab one off the shelf, you may have grabbed the wrong one.

I see. So to go to Home Depot or Best Buy or whatever, then picking these up, you have to make sure is going to be compatible with what you already have.

Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's usually pretty easily marked. And if you buy things online through Amazon or Best Buy, or they always tell you as well which ecosystems it works with.

Hmm. Okay. All right.

I always tell people to double-check and make sure you're getting the right one.

Mm-hmm. All right. Well, that gives us a good context of what we can work toward. I mean, some of our objectives in terms of automating our home. So where would we start? What are the first steps? What would you recommend?

Uh, absolutely.

Cameras, lighting, locks.

Yeah, I think absolutely the starting point is the smart speaker that we're talking about, the Alexa device. And again, each of the ecosystems has a smart speaker, and the voice assistant, which is what Alexa, Siri, Google are, you know, that is what you're talking to. So it's called a smart speaker because it plays to you, but it'll also hear your voice and recognize it. That's so you give all your voice commands to that smart speaker. So it's a key component to build your home automation. You've gotta have that piece in place. It's called a hub. So all the other devices talk to that hub. So all my lights and my plugs and my cameras all talk to Alexa. And so I can talk to her and control everything through that voice assistant.

Mm-hmm. Okay.

But there's a lot of things you can do with that alone. If that's the only thing you have in your home automation or your smart home, that is a good place to start.

Mm-hmm. So we have to select one of the three ecosystems. That's what you're suggesting, right? Yes. Apple or Google or the Amazon system.

Yeah. And a lot of people already have maybe one of those pieces in place now. A lot of people already have an Alexa device and don't know that they can build the rest of their home automation around that Alexa device they've already got. Or maybe somebody has a smart device, for example, within the Google ecosystem. A lot of people have Nest thermostats. They're very popular smart thermostats that work standalone, but they also work with the, the Google ecosystem. So if you've already got a smart thermostat from Google, then you might want to go with the Google ecosystem. If you've already got an Alexa, you would probably want to go with Amazon. So If you've already got something in your house, just build on what you've already got instead of starting over.

Right. Are there any advantages of one over the other? I mean, without going into depth, I mean, I always heard that Alexa is better for being able to get your routine shopping done on Amazon just by using the smart speakers. Google's a little bit— a few more steps. But do you have any advantages or pros and cons of the systems?

In terms of the actual smart speaker with the voice assistant, they are pretty compatible. In terms of the ecosystem, there are more devices that work with the Amazon ecosystem than with the other two. So as you're looking at devices, you're going to pick up work with Amazon than with the other two. Again, there's plenty of devices that'll work with any one of them, but that's, you know, I used to say, if you don't have one, that's an advantage of probably going with the Amazon one. Of course, a lot of people are— if you've got a Mac and an iPad and you're kind of an all-in Apple person, then you're probably going to want to go with the Apple HomeKit ecosystem built around Siri.

Okay. And the Siri system uses— it works off of our cell phone?

Yes. If you have an iPhone, it's got Siri built into your iPhone. And so, but when you buy a Apple smart speaker, it also uses Siri. So it's the same Siri you would use for your smartphone to talk to that smart speaker.

Okay, I wasn't aware that Apple had the smart speaker too. So all three are comparable from the beginning starting point?

Yeah, I think they all are, and it's, it really kind of comes down to your preference which one you, you like better. Yeah, you can make it work with any of them.

Okay, what's the easiest one? I mean, they're all the same, so you have to just make your choice, whatever you've had some history with or some prior experience with, and adopt that and expand on that one, right?

Yeah, I, I think so.

I think so. And shopping, is it better to go online for these different add-ons, all the plugs and everything?

You're gonna get a better selection shopping online than going to big box store. You know, there, your big box stores have a few, but certainly you'll have a much broader selection and prices do vary pretty dramatically. Some of the products, it's fairly consistent, like lights. There's not a lot of differences there. When you start getting into things like cameras and doorbells and door locks, you can have huge differences in pricing. Of course, they've got different functionality as well. A $250 thermostat is going to do more than a $50 thermostat, which is where some of the research comes into play. You need to figure out what do you really need, but you don't want to— but you can get a bigger selection shopping online, I think.

Mm-hmm. So I'm curious about older homes that may not be so friendly or so cooperative with these systems. As you talk about blinds or locks, I mean, you have to change the locks, I take it, to use these systems for security?

Yeah, there's actually— well, the one piece that you have to have is Wi-Fi, which you can certainly install in any older home because that's not part of the infrastructure.

Sure.

So, but that is one thing I do want to make sure everybody understands. You've got to have Wi-Fi because because that's how your smart speaker talks to all the other, to your plugs and your lights and those kinds of things. So that's a component that you have to have in place before you start.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, but beyond that, you know, as you talk about a lot of the smart devices we were talking about don't require any infrastructure. So for example, when you buy a smart light bulb, you unscrew the old light bulb, screw in the new light bulb, you're ready to go. So it would work in any home. Same thing for the plugs and even the cameras. You know, the cameras just plug into an electrical outlet, or a lot of them now are battery operated and you can just set them down anywhere.

Hmm.

Okay. And when you start getting into door locks and thermostats and things like that, now you either have to have an electrician come and install it, and your wiring can become an issue if you don't have the right type of wiring. So those can be do-it-yourself if you are a handy person, but if you're not comfortable playing with electricity and those types of things, then those become more complex. But still, I don't see any areas where an older home, you know, can't support all the devices we're talking about.

Sure. Okay. That's great to know. So probably the majority, maybe 75% of these automated systems are independent of the structure itself. So you can set them up in a house, in a condo, in an apartment. You can set them up wherever you have Wi-Fi, sounds like.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

And a lot of them, as I said, don't even connect to the house, so you can, can take your lights and your plugs with you if you change apartments. Uh, if you want to do door locks and doorbells, then you'd have to check with your landlord, of course, before you start making those kind of changes.

Sure. Okay.

But actually, in terms of the door lock, there's one really innovative one that's out there where it just sits over the top of the physical lock and it has a little motor in it. So it turns the same lock you would turn with your hands. So you can install that one without changing the hardware, which is great if you're in an apartment or a rental unit.

Oh, interesting. So it's partly mechanical.

Yeah, it is mechanical. It's got a little device that you stick over the lock that you would turn with your hands. And it's, it just spins a little motor that turns that lock left to right to lock and unlock it, which is okay. Most of them, you do have to replace the handset. So now you're making changes to the structure, which—

yeah. So part 20th century, part 21st century. Yeah. Okay. What would you recommend after— once we have these smart speakers in place, what would you recommend then? Are we talking about smart plugs? Is that the next smartest step? Or light bulbs? Or what do you think?

The sequence that I, that I think most people follow is most people start with lights. I think it's probably just because They're very simple, but you get tons of benefit from those because going back to why we're doing this, if you're doing it to be able to stay in your home longer and safer, falls are a big problem. And lots of times falls are because you don't have adequate lighting. You get up in the middle of the night to go into the kitchen and you stumble on something. So by having smart lights that turn on automatically based on a motion detector, or you could just say, Alexa, turn on the lights. She would turn on the lights so that you don't trip and fall. Very simple. To do that. So lots of benefit from the lights. And similarly for the plugs, they're very inexpensive, very versatile. So I think those are the two where most people start, just because of the, the payback, if you will, and the low cost. Cameras probably is the next one, because— and that kind of goes into the feeling safe at home, you know, that has a big safety feature. You can have cameras at your entry doors like I do. So if anybody walks up on my porch, I get a ding on my phone, letting me know that my camera's detected somebody at the phone. If you have a video device connected to your home system, there's, in addition to smart speakers, there's something called smart tablets or smart shows, where it's a speaker you talk to, but it's also got a screen on it. So if I have, if you have one of those devices, you could say, Alexa, show me the front door camera, and you can actually see who's out there. If you don't have one of those, you can use your phone. I don't have one of those. I have just smart speakers, but I'll get a ding or Alexa will say someone's at the door. I can take out my phone and see who's out there without having to open my door.

Okay. So yeah, I've seen some of those devices, the Alexa device that has a little camera, a little LED camera in it, and you can actually see it. So that would be a way to activate your camera system, your security system, and actually see real time.

Exactly. Yeah, it's running. They run 24/7. You can always, you know, look and see what's going on outside. But if it detects motion, then it will actually alert you either through the, your Alexa device. You can have Alexa tell you someone's on the front porch, or it'll just have it ding on your phone and you can look on your phone. There's lots of ways you can program the, how it alerts you if it's detected something.

The security systems, the cameras are very popular. We see those all over now. All the home goods stores have security systems, very popular. Yeah. Okay. All right. This is great information, Wade. I mean, really, it's very doable what you're describing, starting with these smart speakers and then adding on to it. It's not like we have to have a whole system blown out before we can finish it. So we can do it in small steps. I like that. And you're recommending selecting the system that you want to use and then building on that. What's on the horizon? Do you know of any products that are on its way?

I'm starting to see more things around in the kitchen. There's now like smart microwaves and smart stoves, even. Pretty much any type of appliance now, you're starting to have smart technology built into them. I think pretty much in the future, any appliance or device in your house could potentially be a smart device. I'd say one we haven't talked about that is very popular is the door lock. Well, we've kept sort of mentioning the door locks, but you know, that one is popular and I'm seeing lots of advances in the technology of making those more and more functional. And kind of getting back to the pieces working together. Now, if you've got either a camera or a smart doorbell, which is like an outdoor camera, but it also functions as a doorbell, those you can build in face recognition. So if someone walks up on the porch and you put their face into your system, uh, it'll say Bob's at the front door. And you could actually program in that, that Bob has access to the house. So if Bob walks up, it can automatically unlock the door for Bob. Or maybe if you have a cleaning service and the person walks up on the porch, it uses face recognition to recognize that your cleaning person's here, unlocks the door, they can come in.

Sure. That sounds great. Yeah. Are they available now, these facial recognition?

Yeah, those are typically with some of the more advanced, more expensive smart doorbells have that face recognition capability built into it.

Mm-hmm. I know Amazon was touting some new feature where they allowed people to— their delivery persons would have access to your lock and unlock the door and leave the package inside. Did that get off the ground? Or it seemed fraught with problems, but— Is that still around?

Uh, that is still an option that you can use for your, uh, your door. I know some people use it for via the garage because they're also smart garage door openers. So you can have garage door openers that you can actually recognize your car by the Bluetooth system in your car. So when you drive up, it recognizes your car, opens your garage door automatically for you. But you can have that hooked into the Amazon delivery person where they can unlock your garage door and put it in the garage.

Hmm.

Well, yeah, one nice thing about that one as well from a safety perspective is, again, you could have in your good night routine, if you've got a smart garage door, you can make sure your garage door is down because maybe you forgot to close the garage door and you go to bed and your garage door open is all night providing an entryway. Or, and with your phone, because I've done this 100 times, I leave and I think Did I close the garage door? And I'll drive back home and check to see. And of course, 99% of the time it's closed. But with the smart garage door openers, you just take out your phone and use your phone to check and see if the garage door is open. And if it is, you push a button, close the garage door. Of course, pull over to the side of the road before you do that and get back in the road and go on without having to go back home again.

I like the sound of that. I like that garage door opener. That makes a lot of sense to me. And closer. Yeah. What about storage devices outside for deliveries? Are there security systems connected? Are these part of an ecosystem where you can have a storage box that gets unlocked by your Amazon delivery guy or UPS person?

Great idea. I haven't seen those, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's not a way to have a something like that where, and then you could either built in, you probably couldn't use face recognition because you don't know who the delivery person is going to be, but you could have some type of a way to unlock that for them.

Yeah. I mean, we hear the term porch pirates. I'm not a big fan of that term, but we know people have lost some of their deliveries and it seems like it's smart to have them locked away, but still accessible by the delivery person.

Now your cameras also provide a disincentive to those people. And I intentionally put my camera where it's pretty obvious that there's a camera right there by the door. So, so somebody comes up on the porch, they would see it, and so they could still take my package, but I've got their face that I can give to the police and say, here's the person taking my package.

Right, right. Yeah. Well, great information. Are there some online programs that people can take? I mean, Get Set Up, I'm sure, might have some programs just so someone could just take to learn more about this home automation.

Sure.

Yeah.

Get Set Up has 3 classes that I teach. There's an Alexa Basics class. There's an Alexa Intermediate class where we get into things like how to do all those routines and things. And then just a smart home class where we talk about all the different devices and how to install them and select them. A lot of the things we talked about today. So we have classes on that and there's lots of other information available online. PC Magazine has a nice section, which is called How to Set Up Your Smart Home. Beginner's Guide, uh, that goes over some of the basics. If you would rather read something, uh, tons of YouTubes out there as well. Lots of, lots of information available online about smart homes and smart devices.

This is our future, right? I mean, uh, we can resist it if we like, or we can put it off, but seems the sooner we adopt it, bring it into our residences, the better. Simplifies our life. We don't have to worry about these little details. We can worry about other things, right?

Yeah, yeah. And there are— and one, one of my favorite safety features I forgot to mention, I want to mention, is that your smart speakers also are a hands-free calling system. So for example, I'm in the kitchen and I slip and fall and break my hip, and I can't get up to my phone which is on the counter. All I have to do is say, Alexa, call, and then give her anybody in my contact list, call my neighbor, call the police, call the fire department. And you can place a phone call through your smart speaker when you're laying there on the floor.

So you don't need the Echo, the Amazon Echo to make that call?

Yeah, you need to have the Echo. So you have to have an Amazon or a smart speaker within sound of your voice. But I know a lot of the people that are doing smart homes, they make sure they have those smart speakers scattered throughout the house. So pretty much anywhere you are, if you yell loudly, Alexa can hear you, basically.

Sure.

But yeah, so as long as there's an Echo device within voice range of where you are, you can always just yell and say, "Alexa, call," and it can place a phone call to a landline, to a cell phone. Yeah.

Now, I recently heard about another feature from Amazon called Amazon Together. Have you heard of that?

I have.

Kind of a monitoring system and it can detect activity or absence of activity, whatever is programmed in.

Yeah, that's a program where you can have a caregiver that can monitor you or you can monitor your caregiver remotely. So in this case, say for example, my dad is 92 years old and lives in Tennessee. I live in North Carolina. But if I could get him to install an Alexa device, or again, works with that, with the others, but this is actually an Amazon product, right? What it does, it links our two systems together. And so I can monitor his activities. So for example, if every morning, first thing he does is ask Alexa what the weather is, I can set up a routine that says if dad hasn't asked what the weather is by 11 o'clock, notify me because he's off of his routine. Or alternatively, you can actually just go and check and see every interaction that he's had with the smart home so far during that day and see if he's up and about. And you can do something called a drop-in. So if you're not seeing activity there, you can use your smart speaker and just connect to the smart speaker in his house and say, hey Dad, are you there? And if he hears you, he can just reply back, yeah, yep, everything's fine. Or he can say, no, I've fallen and I need some help. So it is a way that you can actually be a caretaker remotely for another person is what that device is for.

A great valuable service, I think. I understand it's a 6-month trial period and then there's a subscription fee after that, but seems like a terrific addition. Especially if we have some relatives that we're concerned about.

Exactly, that's really the idea. And, uh, from somebody in one of my classes said, I'm going to set this up with my friend because we both live alone, and so we'll be connected together so we can keep track of each other. It doesn't even necessarily have to be a family member. If you have a friend, or, uh, you can set it up, but you can link any Amazon accounts together with that program.

That's true. That's true. Neighbors, friends across the country. Yeah, that's great. Beautiful.

And one more quick related one that you made me think about as you were telling me that, there's something called Alexa Guard and it's like a little mini home security system. And it's got a free component where it will listen for things like the sound of glass breaking. And it also will listen for a smoke alarm, which I use that one. When you leave the house, you just say, Alexa, I'm leaving. She turns on Guard, and if she hears the smoke detector go off, she'll notify me via phone and I can listen to see if I can hear it and call the fire department. But there is a premium version of that. And what it actually adds is where you say, Alexa, I need help. It'll call a staffed support center and you can actually talk to a real person and tell them what's going on. And they can call the fire department, the police. Get an ambulance. So it's, you know, kind of like calling 911, but it's a staffed desk that does the same thing.

Sure.

So more and more things like that are coming out all the time, which are really focused on helping us older adults live in our homes longer, more comfortably, and safer.

And safer. Sure. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think they're great products. I meant to ask you one question though. Can you mix systems? I have Alexa in my office and Google in the home, can you mix them in the same location or smarter to not mix them?

I don't think that you can. Always reluctant to say you can't do something when it's technology related because there's all sorts of tricks I may not know, but in general they don't talk to each other. It's kind of why you need to pick your ecosystem. Now you could have Google in the office and Alexa at home, that's fine, but they're not going to interact with each other very easily.

But we could add one to the other as long as we speak to them distinctly. It's not like— I'm thinking they don't necessarily have to talk to one another, but we can communicate to one and we can communicate to the other.

Yeah, exactly. Because, well, if, for example, I have an iPhone, so I use Siri on my iPhone. So if I'm going to ask a question, I would say, hey Siri, and, you know, communicate with her. She just came on on my phone. Whereas if I'm in my house and there's an Echo Echo device, I would talk to Alexa, but I also have an Alexa app on my iPhone, so I can talk to Alexa through my iPhone instead of Siri if I want to use Alexa. So in that sense, you can start to kind of commingle them. My iPhone will give me entrée to either the Alexa ecosystem or the Apple ecosystem.

Okay, they're not compatible, but they can be in the same location.

Yes. Yeah.

2 different systems running parallel. Yeah, and I see mine lighting up every time we mention the A word. So yes, and a couple times she's responded, so our listeners might have heard it in the background, but we'll see. Well, this has been great. This has been great. A lot of useful information, practical details, practical steps for people. What would you hope our listeners take away from our conversation today, Wade?

The main thing is that this, this is not hard and it's not expensive. And just go ahead and get started. There's lots of help out there. Certainly Get Set Up has classes, but there's lots of other information. So the main thing is just to go ahead and get started. It really doesn't take a lot of technical knowledge, or to especially to install a light bulb, you just have to unscrew the light bulb and screw in a new, another one. So don't let it make you think it's tougher than it is.

Great. That's encouraging. Good advice. Good for our audience. Thanks. Well, Wade, it looks like we're out of time for today, but before we wrap up, I want to remind our listeners about a co-sponsor for this program, A Mighty Good Time. Are you looking for ways to engage and stay active? Check out amightygoodtime.com. It's a one-stop shop for events and activities for those 50 and over. It's free to search and it's free to post. amightygoodtime.com. And be sure to visit the Living to 100 Club website to sign up for weekly podcast announcements and monthly newsletters. And while you're there, be sure to download a free copy of my 9 Tips for Living Longer. Lastly, pick up a copy of my book, Living Longer Is the New Normal, all about maintaining a positive mindset in all we do, available on Amazon as an ebook or as hard copy. We've been talking today with Dr. Wade Yarborough. Wade, for those who might want to contact you, what's the best way to do that, and how can they get connected with Get Set Up You could reach me at my email address is wade@getsetup.io.

And to get to our website, it is just getsetup.io. Okay, lots of great classes, all for seniors, taught by seniors.

Yeah, yeah, I've been teaching some myself there at Get Set Up, so it's fun. It's a great audience and really a wealth of information available. I mean, there's such good information available at our fingertips. That's what's great. Okay, well, thanks again for being a guest on our program, and thanks to our audience for tuning in. Hope to see you next time.

Thanks, Joe.

Hi, this is Suzanne Newman, host of the Answers for Elders podcast and radio show. We are the North Star that guides you through the complicated journey of senior care with trusted experts in money, law, living solutions, and more. So join us on this station, your favorite podcast channel, or just go to answersforelders.com. Meet the Wayshowers who will help your journey go a lot easier.