By David Stenhouse, Data Mutz

The technology locomotive has never been blazing harder and faster down the tracks, and it accelerates every mile. Like a Bullet Train buzzing through a station, passengers awaiting a ride may not have the agility to jump on and go because if you didn’t punch your ticket at the origin, it’s harder to catch it the farther it has gone.

It Started With The Space Shuttle

I have been fortunate. My love for technology started in grade school when I watched the Space Shuttle detach from a 747 on its initial test flight over the Mojave Desert. Experiencing that moment and knowing that huge aircraft would soon be headed into space mesmerized me. Even at such a young age, I knew that computers were jammed into the cockpit with astronauts pushing the buttons, reading the digital screens, and talking to Mission Control. If it had a digital screen and a computer behind it, I was intrigued.

In middle school, my love was an Atari 2600 console that transferred me into a digital world where I could be someone with superhuman skills. It was “cool” when Activision made games that could also be plugged into the console just like the stock Atari versions, with more flashy titles. Calculator watches and Coleco handheld football. The world for me accelerated in the early 80s and has never stopped. I landed right in the middle of a personal technology boom.

If you have ever been frustrated reading an application’s help index or tried registering information onto a website form that makes zero sense, then you may have wondered to yourself, “I’m a technical person and I can’t even figure this out!”? Imagine your parents or grandparents attempting that same task. This is a subject that is dear to many. Older family members requesting help setting up their email so they can communicate with grandkids. Dad’s flip phone finally went up in smoke and your sister just gave him her old Samsung Galaxy S5—he needs help learning how “this texting works”.

A Digital Divide Between Generations

The older generation is being left behind by technology that is evolving at an alarming rate, and this is separating us. I believe those in society just now in the dawn of their lives will need to not only use technology but have a general understanding of what is happening under the hood. Those that don’t will eventually be subjected to those that do. I have been in a technical field that requires me to keep up with operating systems, the latest apps, and how each store data. Every morning with a cup of coffee, I am reading up on the latest news on what’s out in the world, and what is coming next. This is not easy for me and I’m “techy”.

This gives us “geeks” an opportunity to be the good and patient people we may believe ourselves to be (true or not). The next instance of a family member requesting assistance in something technical because they truly don’t understand it and want to learn may be that open door to be the IT help desk for them. That’s not an easy task for us.

Many of us have been fortunate where our use of technology began in grade school and we have evolved with all the changes. If you are pushing 60 years of age, then you were entering college or the workforce when this growth in technology was suddenly changing. This is very important timing because you didn’t go through school with it and your job either allowed you to move towards it or it didn’t. While my junior high years exposed me to the Radio Shack TRS-80s computers, many of those already in the workforce would never see one in their field. Employment forces a person into situations to which they are not familiar, creating a fight-or-flight scenario. Learn or don’t. If you can’t catch up, then you’re out finding something else to make a living. It is what it is. Being skillful in technology for most of us is the result of repetitive use in the workplace.

My Dad went out on his own and entered the workforce in the 1950s. Technology at that time consisted of the latest kitchen appliances, radios, and there was that lucky family somewhere that had a TV. At work, the latest technologies consisted of all analog items, such as Rolodexes, intercoms, and the new delivery trucks with a better radio. Around 2005, he started actively using a computer to book flights and research topics of interest—and, of course, email. He represents the outer edge of age groups and technology use. This is the same generation that is trying to understand Facebook, Twitter, and using an iPhone to FaceTime.

A Wide Canyon To Traverse

For many, the change from the analog to the digital world has been more like a trip over the Grand Canyon. Older generations grew up on the well-established analog side, where the digital realm was inhabited only by a few mostly in research fields. As time moved on, a small number of individuals decided to make the long trek to the digital world, no matter how hard it was on them. As the digital side has grown, there now exist many who were born there, never visiting the analog side.

I don’t offer solutions to this gap, as I believe it will work itself out just as the horse and buggy gave way to the automobile. However, the technological advances we have witnessed since the 2007 iPhone release can be as decades of advances in our parent’s and grandparent’s lives. In the workplace, we use Zoom and Microsoft Teams to look into each other’s kitchens and spare bedrooms attending our “meetings”. For generations before us that spent their entire careers in brick and mortar offices, warehouses, and factories, FaceTime doesn’t represent a true social connection. This is just a reminder that each geek can bridge the spreading technology gap a bit.

I know I have painted a picture that doesn’t apply to all. There exist outliers that grew up in the 1960s with engineers as parents, or other scenarios that exposed many of those now in their 70s to tech in their childhood. However, I’m confident in the general assessment.

Some may say, “So be it. That’s the way it goes. Not my problem”—thoughts that have crossed my mind frequently. As an alternative, this scenario provides an opportunity for compassion and patience on our part for those in an older generation who request help. Technology will continue to grow and so will our gap of competence. Many of us who are techies now may eventually find ourselves on the wrong side of a newer, unforeseen technology canyon.

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