As I write each blog the one I write before always gets me thinking about the next one. Last week I wrote my blog on Paul Millers Youtube lecture and he touched on the subject of parents and the difference between our generation and theirs in regards to the internet. I decided to do a little experiment of my own and started to observe my parents and grandparents in relation to the internet and in particular, social media.
My own generation uses the internet for pretty much EVERYTHING. We communicate with one another through it, it’s how we find out about events, academic work, for entertainment purposes, the list goes on and on. For us google is our go to source if we have a medical question or need travel tips or just advice in general. With my parents and grandparents it was a little different.
When observing my parents I found my father much more adaptable to the world of the internet and social media much more than my mother. My father loved the idea of online banking, connecting with friends he hadn’t seen in years and sharing youtube videos with everyone on his email contact list. My mother found it more difficult in that she was very apprehensive about trusting something as boundless as the internet with her credit card and personal details and who could blame her with everything she hears on Joe Duffy?
Although my parents were amazed with Skype when I first showed them it was nothing compared to the look on my grandfathers face when I set up a video call with him and a grandson living in Canada he hadn’t seen in years. The disbelief in his face in witnessing my cousin on screen thousands of miles across the world was heart warming and you could tell he felt lucky to have seen technology such as this exist.
It’s what our generation is missing I think. We have become so caught up in this whirlwind of technology that we forget how special it is and take it for granted. We should all look at things from our grandparents point of view and realize how lucky we are to have come this far in the world of technology.
(Photo Credit to: http://unclesamsauntie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/old-woman-using-laptop.jpg)