Boss Hatch - Entrepreneurs in the Making

Old People Playing with Technology

by Jim Gordon on February 20th, 2008

I was casually strolling through the internet when I tripped, fell, hit my head on a rock, picked it up, threw it angrily on the ground, looked up at some sound, and found myself watching a video discussing age and technology (I always find some way to drag these sentences out, don’t I…).

Technology Gap Video

This video points out that each age group has the potential to grasp (namely computer) technology, but the necessity of keeping young employees still exists.

Alright, here’s what I think:

The younger generation uses the internet for recreation far more than its counterpart.  By proxy, tech knowledge is gained.  For example, your connection is going slow - how do you fix it?  Well first you have to figure out if it is on your end or your ISP’s end.  If it is on your end, you have to find a way to fix it without breaking it.  After that, you need a way to prevent it from happening again.  You will find preteens doing this process - most people just don’t understand that 99% of computer problems can be solved by typing in the error message or issue into Google and hitting “Search” (generalizing is fun!).

I think the main difference lies in how each generation uses new technology.   The internet often doesn’t seem as populated with the older generation because many of them are not using it to write blogs, play online games, or use instant messaging systems (not that I can necessarily speak for them).  However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t tech savvy.  You just won’t see them bragging about their new quad core processor on any message boards.

Share This

Related Stories

• Something You Wish You Had
• Identifying Your Audience - Part 5 - Ages 30-49
• Build Social Networking Tools
• You Gotta Take Action Or Else
• Growing Business Awards Names Young Entrepreneurs of the Year

POSTED IN: Age