My a-ha for this week started off a little sad. I lost one of my grandparents this week. Moving through the motions of the funeral, and hearing all the stories that people had to talk about, I started thinking about how my grandparents spent their time. My grandparents LOVED the Internet....but in a different way than I do. My train of thought then veered off to thinking about how different generations use the Internet and what it means for them. I'm going to discuss my interpretation of generational Internet use...this is based from my point of view only, and not taken from any facts or research.
1. Grandparents - my grandparents use the Internet as a tool for forwarding chain e-mails. They spend hours clogging up people's e-mail accounts with pictures of dogs in costumes, words of enlightenment and promises of fortune (if you forward the e-mail to 10 people in the next 2 minutes).
2. Parents - my parents have recently discovered Facebook. My father is not so much attached, but my mother is obsessed. She had to go out and purchase a top-of-the-line laptop so she can get on Facebook from anywhere in the house. She has found the majority of her high school class, and proceeds to to comment on every post they make. She has now taken to posting old pictures of me and my family. My parents will accept texts and respond, but never initiate them.
3. Me - I use my Internet for necessity, as well as to keep up with friends. I take online courses and do research online. My job has me using IM, e-mail and online training on a daily basis. I am on Facebook to keep up with what my friends are doing, but do not post that often. I often wonder what I would do without texting. I am not very fast at it, but love that I can communicate with my husband while he is at work and not able to take calls.
4. Everyone younger than me - They are insane. The amount of technology that the younger generation is using is mind-boggeling. They text as fast as I type and have an entire language for texting. Technology has become a part of their lives, and it is ingrained in all that they do. My four year old son is able to play Star Wars Legos better than me. He asks me to play with him and then has to teach me how to beat the levels. (I felt really old when that happened)
I really have no point to this blog other than showing differences between generations. Hopefully someone finds this interesting.....
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Shayna's Week 3 A-ha.....
Posted by Shayna at 7:21 AM
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3 comments:
Terribly sorry for your loss Shayna. I found your post most interesting and it made me realize the generational differences in my own family's online usage. Thank you for sharing such a difficult post.
Sad to hear of your grandparent's death. I found your assessment of generational differences right on target -- I've noticed several of those same characteristics with freinds and family of different ages. --Scott
Shayna, my condolences on the loss of a grandparent. You say you have no point to this blog other than shoing the differences between generations. It is GREAT! You point out a different role each generation plays in this digital society. Like you, all living generations of my family are use the Internet and Facebook as well, except the very young toddler and infant age family members. It is amazing to look at how we all interact and use technology and digital resources. Great post!
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