system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Feral children have proven that it is very hard to learn after a certain point in life, mainly speech and writing. Could this somehow apply to older people when trying to learn new technologies?
gpt
No, this does not apply. The scientific term for what you are describing with feral children is a linguistic phenomenon known as the Critical Period Hypothesis. This hypothesis generally states that, after a certain age, generally stated to be around 11 or 12, learning language goes from being easy and natural to being extremely difficult. A child or adult exposed to any new language after this age is likely unable to master it to the degree of a native speaker. Similarly, a child exposed to no language before this age is unable to master any language at all.

Neurological studies have shown that the language processing centers of our brain function differently from the rest, and this phenomenon does not directly translate into other areas of the brain. It is the case that brains have a more difficult time learning many things as they age, but new technologies are not hard to learn in the same way or to the same degree as a post-critical period language.