Why Are You So...Old!?

Hi, my name is Kaylynne. I’m a Mac AND a PC! I’m also a member of Generation Y.

            Allow me to start at the beginning!  I’m ____ years old (okay, so I’m not stating my age, but that’s because I don’t want it to discredit me) and I was born into a world saturated by technology. By the time I was 2, I could operate the VCR on my own; at 8 I was introduced to Mavis Beacon, MS Works, and the internet; by 11 I was coding HTML websites; when I was 12, I took apart my family’s desktop computer (I put it back together with only a minimal number of “spare parts”); and at 16 I started to learn about cybercultural anthropology, network security, and the future of technology. In addition, I’ve been playing video games since I was in the 4^th grade (my first console was a Sega) and I’ve had a cell phone since the age of 15. 

 Mo' Money Technology, Mo' Problems

            Knowing a lot about technology, is a little like knowing a lot about cars. Once people find out, right away they start always coming to you for help. (I really don’t think history fanatics have this problem).

            Once my parents started to realize that I was able to use the family computer better than they could, they started to call me EVERY time they had a problem with something. 

            Well, you get the idea.

            The day that I taught my mother how to Copy and Paste text on the computer, you’d have thought she’d won the lottery. It was a good day for me too, one less thing for her to need my help with.

            Unfortunately this problem wasn’t limited to my parents, my IT help was requested by just about everyone I knew: teachers, grandparents, siblings, etc. and while my siblings have started to figure a lot of this stuff out for themselves, anyone older than me still seems to struggle.  

            Even now, I continue to act as my family and friends’ personal IT department.

            In the 1960s, a term was coined to explain differing opinions in politics, fashion, and music between the generations: “The Generation Gap.”¹

            Today’s generation gap isn’t as strongly fueled by culture itself but by the technologies that are shaping our culture, as well as our differing opinions about these technologies.

            There are currently two prevailing generations that interact most with technology both at home, school, and in the workplace: Generation X (born between the late 1960s and early 1980s)² and Generation Y (born roughly between the late 1970s and mid-1990s³; sometimes referred to as the ‘Net Generation’ or ‘iGeneration’). I could also include a third generation, the Baby-Boomers; however, their opinions of technology are generally similar to those of Generation X, so for the sake of simplicity and for the purposes of this blog, most references made to Generation X will likely also include Baby-Boomers.

            There are a variety of technology-based issues on which Generations X and Y disagrees, including: privacy issues; the etiquette of technology;  opinions of different interfaces (likely as a result of differing introductions to technology); and the overall importance and effects of technology on society.

            With constant backlash against changes made to privacy policies on social networking websites like Facebook, it’s no surprise to find that both Generations X and Y are concerned about privacy issues online.⁴ However, Generation Y is often less concerned about these issues than Generation X. Having grown up with technology affecting just about every aspect of their lives, Generation Y has become used to sharing a variety of aspects about their day on a variety of social networking sites, and consider it to be just another part of communication. They are living their whole lives online. Meanwhile, Generation X is more likely to withhold certain things, choosing only to share things they don’t consider to be “personal” (except in the sharing of family photos).⁵

             One area in which the generations seem to most strongly disagree is that of digital etiquette. While most of Generation Y would think nothing of texting while speaking to someone, Generation X would consider it to be remarkably rude. The majority of disagreements in what is appropriate and inappropriate seem to deal specifically with digital etiquette in the workplace. In a study conducted by LexisNexis, researchers found a variety of “discrepancies between generations on what the appropriate use of technology and software is…in the workplace.”⁶

            It appears that members of Generation Y don’t consider mobile phone use or the access of social networking sites to be distracting, while older generations tend to disagree and consider these things to be inappropriate in the workplace and may possibly have a detrimental effect on productivity.

I'm Worried I Might Break It!
             I have a theory of my own (if it’s been studied already, I’d love some links to read and would happily give credit where it’s due, but so far I have yet to find something that really discusses this) that, when combined with the fear that Generation X seems to feel when it comes to technological changes, could provide some explanation as to why they could have a sort of ‘mental lock’ that can prevent them from learning and using new technologies.
         Personal computers were relatively new when Generation X first started interacting with them. Most importantly, these computers did not have interfaces anything like the ones we use today. While Generation Y has grown up using operating systems like Windows or Mac; Generation X grew up using an earlier version of DOS. They were taught to code and not how to interface and interact with operating systems and software.