Most people under 40 years old spent their holidays fixing their parents and grandparents computers and trying to teach them things about new devices – facing down the inevitable resistance of the older generation to change. They say that they like the old ways better and do not want new things, all while depending on younger people to actually make possible various labor-saving devices that enable ever better communication. (This is not a universal of course, just a tendency.)
It’s been this way for some ten years now. I’ve variously wondered if this is a new problem or something that goes on throughout all of human history.
I’m reading One of Ours by Willa Cather, set in the days before World War I, post-frontier and pre-modernity, and running across exactly the same thing. The younger generation was forcing the older generation to look at cars, washing machines, butter churners, irons, and the like, while the older generation was dogmatically sticking to their old ways and decrying the uselessness of the new gadgetry– while secretly depending on young people to take them everywhere and make the butter and wash and iron the clothes.
{ 2 comments }
Mr. Tucker,
Taking a bit broader view and juxtiposing the natural cycles of generational ascendency and decline (80-100 years) with exponential “S-curve” disruptive technologies (40-50 years), one finds interesting parallels to our times in the recent past.
Potentially more intriguing than these parallels with the past is the likelihood of our beginning to “predict”, with some certainty, the timing and consequences of the next disruptive conjunction. One might even hypothesize the rate of these disruptive events to increase, thereby hastening the “older generations” to adapt or die.
Certainly makes the case for us Boomers to remain engaged with our successors and ensure they understand the nature of generational progression and technological progress. The true nature of man changes little in time.
“The Fourth Turning” by Strauss and Howe, proposes a credible model for generational transitions. “The Singularity is Near” by Kurzweil, does an equally credible job of describing future disruptive technologies and their potential effects.
Your observation is keen and one must take it to heart, irrespective of one’s generational cohort. Happy New Year to all generations and remember…Never Submit to Evil!!!
http://www.fourthturning.com/
http://singularity.com/
The Youthful Eye For The Secrets Of The Universe!
This is true not only for gadgets but for theoretical innovations also!
But the good thing about it is that the young, idealistic, and inquisitive minds will always be with us.
Capital is a perfect proof that this is so! Hence, civilization will always advance.
Comments on this entry are closed.