Are you old enough to remember crank wall phones and party lines? Do you remember life without TV? How about life before computers and the Internet?
If you answered yes to those questions, welcome to my world. You and I have witnessed a lot of changes in our lifetime, and it's only just begun. I read that much of the technology college freshmen learn today will be obsolete by the time they graduate. That's how fast technology is changing. It's a scary thought, especially for older people. But, we have two choices... try to ignore it and hope it goes away, or jump in with both feet and enjoy the ride, even if it is a bit wild and intimidating for many of us.
All this came to the forefront when I attended the Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association's convention. Several of the speakers addresses the changing face of communications. It was an eye-opener for me.
One speaker showed us the changing habits within each age group, starting with the Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Then Generations X (1965-1979), Y (1980-2001), and Z (2002-). As I looked at the data, I realized I was off the chart, and not even relevant to the marketing approaches of many companies. I was born in 1944, which makes me a World War II baby... a member of the Silent Generation. I'm off the radar and don't exist in the minds of young marketing execs. It may be a changing world, but I've got news for them, don't count us old buggers out. As the song from Spamalot says, "I'm not dead yet!"
Lets take a look at some of the items used to communicate with other people in the world today. These things weren't even in people's vocabulary when us war babies were born.
Cell phone, iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, Microsoft, MAC, Blog, Podcast, Google, eBay, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, SecondLife, web page, email, text messages, teleconference, and the list goes on and on.
Television viewing has also changed. We got our first TV when I was around ten years of age. The picture was black and white and was often like watching a program through a snowstorm. We only had one station out of La Crosse at first. Later we were able to receive Rochester if the atmospheric conditions were all in alignment with the moon and stars, and someone climbed up a ladder to the roof and manually rotated the antenna. Oh, one more thing. You had to get up and turn a knob on the TV to change the channel. All those inconveniences, but we thought it was great.
Now we get 150 channels in color, some in high definition. No more watching it through the snow, and there's even a remote control to do your channel surfing. You never have to get up from your recliner to change channels or climb up the ladder to the roof and move the antenna for better reception. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, we used to deal with vertical and horizontal hold problems too in the good old days. When was the last time you had to deal with that?
All those improvements in TV reception, and yet we bitch and complain if we get some temporary blocking of the picture for a few seconds. We've really been spoiled by modern technology.
The younger generations have completely embraced the fast-changing technology in the communications world. But some of the things I learned from the presentations at the convention concern me. Are those young people in danger of losing the ability to communicate face to face? Are some of them even losing touch with reality? If you're sending and receiving over 10,000 text messages a month, and watching TV "reality" shows, how much time is left for living and experiencing life around you?
A lot of time is also spent on Facebook and other sites to show and tell what you are doing and thinking. A word of warning; be careful what you post on any site. Anyone can Google your name and come up with photos and information about you and what you've written, including potential employers.
It's a very different world we live in now, compared to the one I came kicking and screaming into. We've come a long way from the old party line when neighbors could "rubberneck" and find out what you were doing. Now through the Internet, the whole world can "listen in" on your conversations and find out what you're up to. Even this column ends up on newspaper websites where anyone with a computer and an Internet connection, anywhere in the world, can access and read them. I have relatives and friends in Norway who read the column online each week. Is it any wonder that many newspapers are losing subscribers when people can read a newspaper online for free. That mode of communication has also changed.
I wonder what changes the children of today will experience? We can't even imagine how they'll be communicating. It's an exciting world, full of changes. I hope I can be around long enough to report some of those changes to you!
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