Trample in on this week’s blog to find out what's causing it.
We’ll begin with A – D. That’s analog to digital. There’s such a difference in the deep recesses of our minds that it carries over into how our brains operate. (No idea if there is a study on this – I’ve made it up because it makes sense to me!) One of my brothers-in-law once said to me (more or less), “We older generations were raised on analog technology, so we have analog brains. It takes us longer to comprehend the new digital stuff. Whereas the younger generations are being raised on digital formats, so their brains are more compatible with it.” This seems so logical to me and also seems to be true in most people I know of various ages. It isn’t that we who are 50 and over can’t learn digital logic, but it comes harder and slower – the older you are or the less exposed you are, the slower it comes. You know the old saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”? In this instance, I suspect there is a certain amount of truth in it. There have been studies done on the first three years of a child’s life being the most important in how we learn or how much we can learn in later years. Beginning by the age of two, we watch grandchildren swiping, tapping, texting, clicking faster and more knowledgably – and naturally – than our generation; it begins to dawn on you how true this is. It helps me to not get too impatient with myself – or the present device in front of me (no, I have never thrown my computer across the room, or phone, or – I’ve contemplated it, but no).
Let me give you an example. Some twenty years ago my mother-in-law received an answering machine from her daughter so she could leave messages for her if mom was out. About six months later, my sister-in-law called me up and said, with a little frustration in her voice, “Would you go over and set up mom’s answering machine?” I chuckled to myself, said sure, went over, set it up and went through the process with mom. After which, I also yellow highlighted the step-by-step process for retrieving and erasing messages, making it as simple as possible for her. I also tried to walk her through setting it up again in case of electrical failure. She poo-pooed that. [Definition break: poo-poo – an outright dismissal of some argument as being unworthy of consideration or debate.] A month later when the electricity went out during a storm – guess who went to mom’s apartment with a smile on her heart and reset it. They were fairly simple in the early years. She just couldn’t grasp it. Then there was the VCR – which her daughter bought so she could watch movies, in particular their wedding video. She couldn’t do that either. She was a smart woman who could cook up a feast or run the cash registers, etc. of her era, but modern technology was not an element in her brain. It was too far remote for her to even try.
I went to a community computer class once – early internet years, I’m guessing – but I got nothing out of it as all the wonderful, friendly senior citizens kept asking the instructor to help them with the most elementary things; like turning on the computer, so he didn’t get far enough for it to be pertinent for me. Now, however, many of the present older generations can manage a decent amount of technology. Enough to do what they have to do and some things that they like to do (texting, Facebook, etc.) – or they ask one of the younger family members to do it. Plus, we have our friend “Google” to show us all the many videos and articles of how-to’s. But to get the knowledge we need at the moment, we olders tend to have to rewatch, reread and retry or – my favorite – accidently do something and hope we can figure out what we did! It’s a moment racked with pure joy and then the inevitable disappointment when we finally admit we have no idea which key we hit to get the “magic” maneuver to happen. Fortunately for us, our brains adjust somewhat to what we’re inundating ourselves with, so there’s hope for all of us if we are willing to put the work into it.
What do we do with all this technology? Do our best to keep up with what we need to make life better or to keep in line with the rest of the world as much as possible (in case they quit making cash or something and we’re forced to learn more than our brains can handle!). And remember, you younger generations or general geniuses, that screens continue to get smaller and smaller and arthritic fingers just don’t cut it; be patient with those who struggle with it. Remember it’s not a stupid, old coot you’re dealing with, it’s an analog brain striving to learn a new way – and that goes for people who haven’t been exposed to much technology due to finances and the like.
Lastly, get ready for what’s next, folks. There’s so much more to discover, to create, to learn – whether we want to or not!!
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