Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Never too old

I've been contemplating technology lately. Namely generational differences in technology. My hypothesis is that each new generation is not necessarily better with technology. I think it's more a case of its usefulness to each person. Maybe folks from the Baby Boomer generation have no use for things like Twitter or Facebook. Certainly those from "The Greatest Generation", parents of the Boomers, may not seem all that interested in setting up a Facebook account or texting on their smart phones. But perhaps it's just because they haven't explored the benefits.


Recently my father-in-law upgraded his cell phone and he now has texting capability. At age 84 he's learning the joy that is the efficiency of communicating in brief spurts and getting answers back without the extra stuff that comes with phone calls. He's very proud of himself and we're all very impressed. He hangs out on the internet for hours, checking his email and reading the news. Pretty impressive! He plays a mean Mario Kart too, when we take the Wii downstairs.


I took an online survey from the Pew Research Center, "How Millenial Are You?" (thanks JenX for pointing your readers that way). The closer you score to 73 the more you have in common with Millenials. I scored a 69! Most folks my age score in the twenties. I may be an anomaly, but I have a theory for that too. I have a lot of millenials in my life between offspring and co-workers. They all prefer texting and Facebook over phone calls or even emails, so I better adjust if I want to communicate.


According to FASTForward,"Generation Jones appears to be taking to social networking in a significant way, almost as much as Generation Xers, who already have a reputation for their computer savvy." Remember, GenJones was born at the end of the Baby Boomers in the late 1950's and early 1960's.

I'm happy to be connected through my smart phone with texting, Facebook and Twitter. When I'm in my 8th decade, I plan to still be connected to the world in new and interesting ways.
I want to be like Bernie.

2 comments:

tessa said...

That Bernie lady is cool! I would agree with the idea that old people aren't as savvy with new technology because they don't see a need to since they already think of themselves as 'old.' And I have to say I was a little thrown when I received a text from grandpa last week. So weird!!

MarkJ said...

BTW, I got a 74 on the test..... AND my magic word for this post is "glike" as in "GEE I SURE DO LIKE YOU!!!