This is sponsored content from AllThumbs, a sponsor of Tri-Cities Central.

By: Delphine Lenoir, Founder of AllThumbs

My father-in-law got a new iPhone and Apple Watch for Christmas. He had been using the same phone for years and knew it was time. Together, we set everything up, transferred his contacts, connected the watch, and walked through the basics. He was excited and seemed comfortable with the new gear.

Within a week the watch face had gone blank. He pressed every button he could find, but nothing worked. After concluding the watch was defective, he drove to the Apple Store and walked out with a brand-new watch and a brand-new (second) Apple ID account. What he didn't know was that the screen had simply turned off — a setting we had unknowingly configured. The original watch worked just fine.

I tell that story not to embarrass him but because it is so perfectly, recognizably human. My father-in-law is a doctor — highly educated, smart, and capable. He raised a family, built a life, traveled the world, and carries himself with the easy confidence of someone who has spent a lifetime being competent. He will beat you at backgammon without apology, and he will enjoy every moment of it.

He also stood in that Apple Store with a perfectly working watch in his pocket. But how could he have known? Nothing about the device told him what was wrong, and there was no one readily available to simply sit with him and figure it out.

If you are between 40 and 60 years old, you are probably doing something that has no official name and receives no official recognition. You are your parents' technology department. You troubleshoot the iPhone. You reset the streaming password. You explain why the tablet is asking for an update, yet again. You drive out on weekends to fix things that were working perfectly last week.

A 2023 AARP study estimated that American employees spend an average of four to six hours per week managing technology issues for aging parents. And we do this because we love our parents and recognize that technology is a lifeline.

When we ask seniors what they want from their technology, they tell us they want to feel safe, confident, and independent. They want to stop worrying that they are one wrong click away from losing something. They want to take care of everyday things — make appointments, look at pictures, keep in touch with family.

They also know that keeping up with technology as it changes is too much to do alone. They need help from someone who won't rush them or make them feel foolish. Someone they can trust, whose name and number is already in their phone when an uncertain moment arrives.

And that access matters more than most people realize. Technology is no longer optional. It is part of every facet of our society and individual lives. When access disappears, it is not just an inconvenience — it has real, sometimes lasting consequences. A missed video call with a grandchild. A telehealth appointment they cannot get to otherwise. For too many older adults, lost access is not a technical problem. It is the beginning of isolation.

That experience with my father-in-law, and the conversations that followed with friends who had their own version of the same story, is what led us here. We kept seeing the same gap: people who needed patient, consistent, trusted guidance with their technology — and no good place to find it.

This is why we created AllThumbs. AllThumbs is a technology coaching and support service built exclusively for older adults. Now serving the Chicago area, we work with clients in Geneva, St. Charles, Batavia, and the broader Fox Valley. We are not Geek Squad. We are not a call center. We do not send whoever is available. We teach, we support, and every member is assigned an individual advisor — the same person, every session, every call.

That advisor learns your parent's specific devices, their comfort level, their history, and the things that trip them up. And will do so with the level of patience and respect your loved one deserves.

We offer both group teaching and individual sessions: setting up a new phone or watch, configuring a streaming device, running a full security audit after a suspicious call, preparing for a telehealth appointment. No jargon. No rushing. No sighing.

Sessions can be one-time — a full device audit, a setup, a specific problem solved — or ongoing, with a consistent advisor who knows your family member's setup and comfort level over time. In-person seems to be the clear preference for most clients, though we accommodate remote sessions as well.

A few months after the Apple Watch ordeal, I was sharing the story with a friend and she told me about her own mother's recent experience. She got a call from someone who sounded exactly like her bank. The caller knew her name and the last four digits of her account. She was told there had been suspicious activity overnight and that she needed to verify her information immediately.

She hesitated. She knew something felt off. But these calls are designed by professional scam artists who are growing more sophisticated by the day. They know exactly how to sound and what to say.

Thankfully, no money was lost. But what about next time?

$3.4 billion was stolen from American seniors in 2023 — up 48% from the year before. Today, artificial intelligence generates voices that are indistinguishable from real people: the voice of a grandchild asking for help, a bank representative, a Medicare administrator with an urgent matter.

Every AllThumbs membership includes ongoing fraud awareness as a core feature. Our Scam Alert newsletter arrives monthly with clear descriptions of what is currently circulating in the region. Text alerts go out within 24 hours of any newly verified campaign. And every advisor is trained to be the person your parents call before they do anything else.

If you are a senior and wondering whether this kind of support might be right for you, ask yourself: Is there something on your phone, your tablet, or your television that you have been meaning to figure out for months? Something you feel a little embarrassed to ask your children about again? Something you have decided to just live without?

If the answer is yes, there is nothing wrong with you. These struggles are not a question of competence. Technology is overwhelmingly built by younger people, for younger people, with younger people's instincts baked in. Interfaces assume fluency in conventions that were never explained to anyone. You simply need a patient guide — one designed with you in mind. You deserve to feel safe in your own home with your own devices. You deserve to pick up the phone with confidence.

We ran our first session with my father-in-law. Together with his advisor, they spent ninety minutes going through every single device he owned — both Apple IDs, the watch settings, the phone, the tablet he mostly uses for news and watching stocks. The advisor found the screen timeout setting that had caused the whole watch episode. He showed my father-in-law exactly how to recognize a fraudulent call — what to say and what not to say, regardless of how official the person sounds.

Before he left, he wrote his direct number on a notecard. My father-in-law put it on the refrigerator.

Then that day he beat me at backgammon. Mercilessly.

To learn more or schedule a session for yourself or a parent, visit allthumbstech.com.

AllThumbs is a sponsor of Tri-Cities Central. This is sponsored content.

Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] with questions or comments.

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