Last week, Dr. Naomi Wolf posted a clip from an Australian old care facility where a virtual train setting has been set up to let senior residents at the facility watch scenes from different countries and cultures while they dine in their “replica fine‑dining train carriage.” Dr. Wolf expressed sorrow for the aging citizens because they were being entertained with a simulation instead of enjoying the company of their relatives and having pets – what is truly considered a family-friends circle.
Makes me very sad. A puppy and some human visitors would be 100x better. https://t.co/gELkMMXmfK
— Dr. Naomi Wolf. 8 NYT Bestsellers. DPhil, Poetry. (@naomirwolf) March 19, 2026
This is an important issue and one we’ll be increasingly facing in an age of tech and more tech every passing day. It is more so in the developed countries of the world, particularly the Anglo-Saxon West where extended families have long been put aside in favor of individualism and nuclear families. Aging members of society who no longer can care for themselves or can’t be left to live alone safely are entered into senior care facilities with strangers.
So is it a good thing to use tech to entertain these seniors, like the new virtual tours to the outside world? The answer surely depends on how you approach the matter. Virtual tours can make the dining experience more entertaining and enjoyable. It can give a virtual travel experience to these members of society who can’t travel anymore. Ideally, the facilities hosting them should have some arrangement to take them out on certain days, let’s say once a month. But it’s better to have a feel of artificial travel than sitting and dining in silence or the usual unexciting setting of the eating place.
Conversely, replacing reality with simulation is a downgrading of one’s living experience. The feel of talking to one’s family/friends, petting an animal, or even chatting with fellow residents is the kind of human touch that gives real quality to one’s life at any stage, but particularly in the last years of one’s life. Tech can’t bring that special feel.
One suggestion to reconcile the two opposites is to play video messages of love and support from the family members and friends on the big screen on days when those loved ones can’t visit in person to see the seniors at the facility. Just one look, a few words of positive emotions, and even a smile goes a long way.
