Technology and the Generational Gap

As technology becomes increasingly used by more people in their everyday lives, a generational gap is also dividing many relatives, acquaintances, and even co-workers. Jenkins said that as the rate of technological and cultural change accelerate young people will have different cultural values and styles than their parents. Along with that Jenkins also said that when we live in different media environments we use technologies differently and form contradictory interpretations of experiences.

Within my own family I can see a generation gap between the younger, middle, and older generations. Everyone grew up within different eras, and we all had different methods of watching tv, listening to the radio, using the phone, and being able to use a computer. Some people are able to stay up to date and learn with the new technologies like the younger and middle generation. However, the older generation has a harder time adapting to the newer technologies like a computer since they have lived most of their lives without it. An example of this within my own family is my grandma. My grandma does not use a computer at all. She has bad arthritis and uses a typewriter for things she needs to type, but for her that's normal and was more a part of her life than the computer is. She also has a phone which she barely knows how to work, but its an older model which she only brings out with her when she goes out, and always is off. Many of us have tried to show her how to use it more and get her a newer model, but she says she doesn't want to mess with the phones because they are too complicated. While I on the other hand use both a phone and computer daily with ease. This agrees with what Jenkin said about forming contradictory interpretations of experiences. Not being able to understand the way one another thinks we have differing opinions about technology, and value certain things more than different generations would. Sometimes this can harm relationships between people of different generations because of this difference of opinion.

In an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/business/09cell.html) from NY times it mentioned how "children increasingly are relying on technological devices to create social circles apart from their families that change the way they communicate with their parents." It also noted that there has always been a change within society as certain technologies become more ubiquitous. The author gives many examples of technologies that have widened the generation gap like the progression of the phone, the invention of the automobile, computer, and internet. And in using these technologies the younger generation is very connected, and far more independent than their parents were at that age. The cell phone is a technology that is causing a generation gap, and causing problems between some children and their parents. Parents are upset that a child could be doing anything right in front of them while they are on their cell phone, and they would never know. Parents have been confused as how to communicate with their children since it seems their world revolves around their phone. To solve this some have learned how to text and communicate via the phones making things not so tense, and filling in only a small part of the generational gap.

Will the generational gap be a continuing trend as we grow older? Will we, when older, be as open to technology as we are now? What new technologies will be invented that we would never imagine seeing that might cause tension between us and our future children or the future younger generation?