Janet CollinsTechnology is not Exclusive to the Young
July 5th 2010 11:07
One stereotype that really gets my blood boiling is the one that associates young people with technology savvy. You would really think the way this is bantered around that most people over 30 are incapable of using a computer, a mobile phone, searching the internet or going on to a social networking site. Well I’ve got some really good news – just about everyone is “tech savvy” in some way.
If you asked any of my friends, family or anyone who really cares enough to listen, they would all agree that I am pretty outspoken when people christen the young people with the automatic tag of being “tech savvy” that separates them from the rest of us.
An article in The Sydney Morning Herald today prompted me to write this post. In a lot of ways this article justifies my argument but I have plenty of real life stories to justify it as well.
The article was about a prediction by “internet guru”, Clay Shirky, that in 15 years time, newspapers as we know them will be really outdated and in 50 years time will be a thing of the past. Shirky may not be known in wide circles in Australia but I had read his book a few years ago, Here Comes Everybody: How Change Happens When People Come Together. I thought it was a pretty interesting read.
Shirky studies the theory and practice of social media and has been writing about the internet since 1996 way before the internet turned into the social networking phenomenon it is today. Back in that decade according to the Herald, after working for several web design companies, he was hired by major media companies for his advice on the new world wide web.
When social networking sites started blooming in popularity, Shirky followed them and now teaches new media at New York University and writes books about it.
While the main thrust of this article was Shirky’s condemnation of major newspapers charging for access to online content such as Murdoch has done with The Times, what shone out to me in the article was that Shirky, now 46 did not even own a computer until he was 28 and was introduced to the internet by his mother!
Shirky's ability to track and gauge the changes in the way we communicate comes from him also living in a time prior to online communication, an experience that younger people just don't have.
I was in my 20s too before I had used a personal computer but that was because they weren’t around all that long before that. The company I worked in at the time decided to move us all out of the dark ages and off the electric typewriters and on to personal computers.
It was also before any of the easy-to-use programs like Windows that we have now and you needed a serious course before you could even get into the computer program to type anything.
Years later and even a few careers later, I have succumbed to the social networking thing too even if it was after years of resistance. I have become pretty expert at research on the internet too.
Many of my friends who weren’t in jobs where computers were thrust upon them or had little or no experience on one until recently have been able to quickly adapt with a few simple instructions and become pretty savvy themselves on the internet.
A few years back my mother, who is well into her 70s, bought her first mobile phone. Without any computer skills, she was able to work out how to text and now is one of the best text messagers I know.
There are lots of things about computers and the internet that young ones don’t know too. I have often asked young people in computer departments about quite simple things and they have often had to ask someone else. In years to come too, technology will probably be entirely different again and they too will have to learn something they knew nothing about in their school days.
In fact most of the people I know in all age groups are well able to research online whether it be for information or shopping, send emails, text, write letters and even pay their bills or do their banking.
The reality is that technology has not only become more accessible, it has become a lot easier to learn if we either want to or need to. It doesn’t really matter that we did not have a computer in our bedroom when we were growing up. We may not know how the whole inside of it is wired but that doesn’t mean we can’t navigate our way around it. In fact, I really think the majority of young ones would be in that boat too.
Everyone it seems, no matter what age they are, use the technology that they either need to or want to. Ask any mother of a teenager and they will be quick to dismiss their child's use of the internet as just a play thing that has to be controlled because that is basically all they are using it for.
I am not about to get into a debate about the pros and the cons of modern technology but the reality is that there are very few at any age who "know it all" when it comes to technology. So would everyone stop assuming that being tech savvy and even being able to use technology efficiently is limited to the young?
I didn’t learn to drive a car when I was five, or ten or even 15 either. That didn’t stop me from learning how to drive one.
Sourced: www.smh.com.au
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