The pace of technology is moving quite rapidly these days and many old people are struggling to come to grips with the simple tasks required to access social media sites like Facebook such as purchasing internet credit, creating accounts, logging on and posting pictures online.

Some older people are witnessing the younger generations glued to their phones and feel that they must be missing out on something and so would like to join the perceived fun of social media.

A resident of Viengchaleun village in Xaysettha district of Vientiane Somsack Vongsagna, is one of many people who started playing with Facebook last year. He soon found he had a lot to learn from his friends and younger people.

“Right now, I can post my photos on Facebook and am able to open Facebook for looking at pictures of my friends on social media,” he said.

Meanwhile other elderly people have also purchased nice mobile phones with all the latest features but they don’t like to play on the internet as they consider it a waste of time. They only use their fancy phones to make and receive calls from their family and friends.

So while some elder people can be seen to be trying to embrace new technology others are not and view it as a bit of a gimmick and wish their children had a few more practical skills.

However the vast majority of younger people cannot imagine life any other way, at least those who can afford fancy phones. But ordinary mobile phones can be found even in some of the most remote villages these days, such is the penetration of technology.

According to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications report to the National Assembly (NA) last year, Lao internet users have increased considerably, rising from only five percent of the entire population in 2008 to about 20 percent in the middle of last year.

Looking internationally, internet ready devices do make things more easy for foreign tourists visiting Laos who might otherwise have difficulties due to language barriers.

Today, it is now very easy for tourists to access information about the country via the internet and many overseas visitors to Laos can be seen doing just that.