Personal Post 7 the generation divide

I feel like an overlaying topic that we have not given much thought to over the course of the semester is the generation divide when it comes to technology. If you are my age 22 or a few years older I would say up to maybe 30 you grew up with technology of all kinds are are more likely to embrace it. Unfortunately if you are older than that you are more technology averse and do not catch up as quickly to the ever changing trends. This is a huge problem in any technology that requires communication to thrive.

I understand that we are working on crisis informatics and ever increasingly over the semester we have been working on making social networking reliable and it's ever increasing role in crisis relief. The important thing to remember in my mind is the generation divide. The people that run the UN and most of the big NGO's are older people who have a hierarchy and standards to adhere to and technology turns it all on it's head. Technology doesn't care it wants to be new and trendy and do whatever it wants to do and find a market. These companies already have a market and no matter how good the technology is it will not fit that market. Also the fact that older people are running these corporations makes them even more technologically averse. This leads to them being less able to and less willing to see the benefit of the new technologies and the ability to fit them into their day to day activities.

I know it's a leap of sorts but  I can compare it to my mother and father, both in their mid to late forties. My mother had a facebook and was all about her zoo on their but realized it was taking over her life so she de-activated her account. She was not able to cope with the urge to be on it constantly. She did not find herself comfortable in the immersion of technology like my generation and the younger ones do. I do not mind being on a computer for 14 hours a day, I don't do it every day and know it isn't healthy but occasionally I will because I like being plugged in. About a month ago I had to teach my dad about a little thing called Wikipedia. He was amazed, it was how I think the first cavemen felt about fire. I was laughing in my head but shaking it at the same time because someone like me doesn't understand how you can not know about what my generation considers one of it's greatest resources. You don't know someone google it or look it up on wiki. We turned google into a verb.

It's always important to remember the differences between generations because they can hinder or help progress all the same. Every generation has a different quirk or solution to problems. We are part of the tech generation and I love it but we have to wait for the non-tech's to be done with their time before we can try our crazy bass-ackwards solutions and possibly drive the world to the ground or to places it has never been before.

I leave you with White and Nerdy