How many of you have tried to tell your
grandfather about your brand new
ISDN line with two channels that also acts as a 64k
modem, and in return got a reply that went something along the lines of “don’t patronize me
sonny, when I was your age I could
herd a flock of 20
sheep, I’d like to see you herd a flock of three
sheep.”
Sure your dad can hook up the
VCR just fine, and maybe after reading the
television manual for 4 hours he will finally tune the
channels too, but that’s nothing in comparison to what a ten year-old can do in this modern day and age. Growing up with computers will become a necessity for every working person, just to be able to grasp
up-to-date technological innovations.
From the moment that a child grows up surrounded by multi-channel
telephone lines,
video conferencing with people thousands of miles away and surreal
3D video games, technology soon becomes second nature to them. Most importantly, unlike adults they don’t tell themselves that they’ll learn how to surf the web one day, and after never getting round to it, feel technologically handicapped in regard to the
tidal wave of surfacing inventions. Children are always fascinated by the unknown, while
senior citizens fear it, fear it like cancer.
In addition to that, older people often don’t want to learn what new wonderful things they can do using technology. They’ve gotten through life without needing any
weird toys and pretentiously deny the usefulness of
electronics, besides, they have probably been left so far behind that it would take them decades to catch up on everything that’s come out so far, so ‘why bother?’ they think.
Just to specialize in
computers professionally a person must grow up around them, just to be able to study the discipline and have an
edge in the market. Most older people nowadays had a hard enough time when the
radio was invented, they’re going to bother with
WAP or
e-mail? They assume that modern products are for the young and decide to detach themselves from technological advancements. When most people reach a certain age, they decide to retire from the modernized world and become
old and annoying by pretending to be deaf.
In conclusion, kids have the opportunity to discover so much more electronically since they have the time to sit for hours on end fiddling with every
gadget they can get their hands on, adults naturally have more important things on their minds and usually can spend only an hour or so a day to do something in specific, for instance
surf the net. Most people won't go further into understanding the arising
Information Age, and this isn't nearly enough insight needed to cope with the upcoming
Brave New World.