Generations, Technology & Me

Generations, Technology & Me

     Technology is the foundation of our society today. You don't go anywhere without seeing some piece of technology. Technology is everywhere and if you try to be against it you really won’t survive in today’s society. I walk around so oblivious to what technology we really use daily. It's crazy to see that something as basic as your fridge or microwave is considered technology but you wouldn't think that because it’s a normal everyday item that we use. Then I think about how much I personally use some type to technology in my life, all day, every day. Even with being a college student I’m using so much more technology then I ever thought I would. Every morning I wake up to the alarms on my cell phone, eat breakfast out of my fridge, than off to class. After class I use my ID to swipe back into the building, I can swipe it to get either on the elevator or the stairs then I use it to get into my room. My ID is the biggest piece of technology I use daily besides my cell phone. It gives me access to everything on campus.

     After realizing how much we really do use technology everywhere and every day I thought hey, why not see what technology was like decades ago and ask my family some questions about growing up through this modernization of society. But before I ask my questions I answered them myself that way their answers wouldn't influence my own. I interviewed my mother who is 38, my grandmother who is 60, and my grandfather (her husband) who is 51. Each participant grew up in a different generation of technology.

Personally, the piece of technology that impacted my life greatly has been my smartphone. My phone can just do so much anymore than it used to it is ridiculous. I remember when all my phone could do was call and receive calls. That was it. I had a flip phone and I got it in 5^th grade. I only had it because I had to ride the bus home and my parents wanted it for emergency/safety issues. Now I can surf the web and there is social media that every teen is

addicted to. It is definitely my biggest distraction when I try to do homework or other important tasks like listening to people. I definitely think I embraced technology by having my laptop and smartphone. I also use everyday items like fridge, microwave, Keurig, etc. I feel like we need to embrace it in some way because everything around us now is technology. You can’t really choose to stay away from it anymore. You need it to keep up with today’s society and to evolve. When I was in middle school one of my best friends was prank calling me and some random number was texting me at the same time. I was so scared because I didn’t understand what I text message was. And believe it or not but text messages back then cost money per text. So that experience was horrifying and the start of my texting addiction. I eventually blew up my parent’s phone bill and we got unlimited texting. So I definitely grew up in a time before texting and smartphones. Technology doesn’t really have a big part in my life I mean all I use is my smartphone and that is it. I’m completely oblivious to what technology is going on in my everyday life. One thing I could live without is definitely a TV. I never watch it. I could careless that it is on. I’m not waiting on anything specific in technology. I’m ready for anything that comes up because I’m not really slow when learning how to use technology.

     The first person I interviewed was my mother. She said that the remote control for a TV was the biggest impact on her as a teen. She was about 10 years old when she got one. She liked that you could get more than your basic channels which then introduced her to MTV. After discovering MTV, it expanded her horizon on music and opened her up to different genes that she never heard of. My mother embraces technology. She says that you need to keep current with it to keep you functioning in today’s society. Technology helps her stay

connected to people she loves but doesn't see on the regular. FacTime has allowed her to see her oldest child in college. She can see her face instead of waiting for the next visit from her. The cell phone has amazed and horrified my mom. She likes that everything is accessible to you with one touch or swipe. She says when she was a teenager she was just happy getting her own phone line but now nothing is plugged into the wall or had a cord. It just goes everywhere with you. She finds the cell phone horrifying because you can stay connected anywhere, people can interrupt anything and it made her relationships with people easier but less personal. Cell phones give people the ability to say whatever they want because nothing is face-to-face and that’s scary. Technology has an important place in my mom’s life because she uses it at her job. It helps her stay connected with her daughters without worrying where they are what thee doing she is always aware. She could live without satellite radio because we shouldn’t have to pay for radio and she would love to see us eventually not need to use physical money and everything be on one card.

     The next person I interviewed was my grandmother who is 60. When she was about 10 years old she got colored TV which she thought at the time was the coolest thing ever. It was just fun not watching everything in black & white. She got the colored TV pretty late because her parents didn’t do well with change. She also thought the transformation of the phone from a spin dial to buttons. She thought it was faster and easier to call someone. My grandmother doesn’t really embrace a lot of technology especially the cell phone. She hates that someone can get ahold of you 24/7. But she only embraces it because of safety issues. She also doesn’t like texting but does it when she has to. Something that amazed her would definitely be Microsoft Word because she grew up learning how to type on a typewriter. She likes that you can fix your mistakes now. You can save something and go back to it. Technology has an important place in her life because it makes life easier. She can pay bills online, email someone faster. She said she could live without an iPod because she doesn’t listen to music that much. She is waiting for a robot maid that cleans. She loves to cook but not cleaning up.

     The last person I interviewed was my grandfather who is 51. He thought when he was 10 the coolest thing was a handheld calculator. They were not cheap but it made doing math easier. Before then everything was done mentally

and by hand. He definitely embraces technology because he loves that we have personal computers. He said technology makes life easier but that people really don’t know how to be without it. My grandfather stays pretty up to date with everything. He is the one who taught me how to use my computer. The cell phone amazes him because he can use it at work to swipe credit cards for customers to pay for things. The cell phone is just like having a computer in the palm of your hand. If he didn’t have technology he wouldn’t be able to do his job as efficiently as he does. He gets tasks done faster and easily. My grandfather could live without a fax machine because he never uses them anymore. He is waiting for a smarter scanner that can scan documents and know where to file them at on the computer. Also he wants read receipts with all emails so employees can’t lie about getting emails.

     Technology has progressed and effected our lives very much over a course of decades. These interviews definitely made me look at the world a much different way now. I’m excited and nervous to see where we end up in 10 years. Like what my children would be using and going through.