“Technology is the devil…” -People everywhere over 50

You can see the soft glow of technology reflected in his bifocals, right?

As I said in my previous post, we live in a world of hyper communication. The internet transcends time and space, making virtually any information accessible to anyone who has a computer, smart phone, etc. Texting, Skype, and other communication programs allow instant communication with anyone in the world. We have incredible resources available to us in this day and age.

HOWEVER, old people are always jawing about “kids these days” who are obsessed with their video games, owned by their mobile phones, and in all other ways totally ruined by technology. i think there are a few different reasons for this attitude.

Firstly, they are talking about something that they don’t/can’t understand.  Maybe that is a disease of the brain as people get older, forming opinions of things that they haven’t experienced or even looked into or studied.

Second, they don’t understand how an electronic gadget is a satisfying way to spend one’s time.  They grew up in times where the only place to get news was from the evening news and daily newspaper, and the only way to contact someone was to send a letter, call them on a land-line phone, or physically go to them.  They worked hard on the farm in order to make ends meet, and they feel that this is the only way to build character- hard physical labor.  When they see us (the millennial generation) focused mainly on entertainment, and with a sense of entitlement we view the world as our oyster.

The facts are these: yes, there are some people in my generation who do feel entitled and only want to be entertained. But it is my opinion that we are not all like that, in fact the majority of us are not complete failures as human beings. We’re actually kind of awesome.  And i’ll tell you why.

The gift of technology allows us to be incredibly efficient.  Presentations, papers, research, no problem. We save a huge amount of time. We are therefore able to accomplish other beneficial things, like learning about what is happening in the world around us, reading articles on a myriad of subjects,  all made readily available by TECHNOLOGY.

We’re also awesome becuase we don’t do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgu5kXyNAtE

Basically my point is that the world is moving forward, and there are new ways to grow and learn. Old people may not understand them, but its the way it is, and griping about these darned kids who have no moral judgement system isn’t going to help us one bit.

instead, try:

Taking the computer 101 class offered for free at your local library. See what word processors and the internet can do for YOU.

Send your grandchild an encouraging email, and when you get really good, send them a funny photo from your phone. Yes, the mobile one. yes, they have cameras.

As my parents so poorly demonstrated while raising me, the best way to motivate is through positive encouragement. “keep doing great!” as opposed to “You’d better not mess up.”Don’t get me wrong, I love old people, er- “elderly,” (as my mother incessantly corrected me.) We as a younger generation can learn a LOT from them, but they can also learn a lot from us. I’m a firm believer that in order to get respect from someone, (healthy respect, not fear that some people disguise as respect,) we must first respect them.

ps, I feel like this sign should be posted outside every home where one of “these” resides. . . . haha just kidding… kinda.