Do You Feel Old, CNN Article

[Undertow]

Geez, 30 and still trying to figure out how to program the bloody VCR. I feel like a fugitive from the paddocks in Jurassic Park...

lol :eusa_clap

I had a really good laugh at this. I'm most definitely in the same boat.

 

[CherryWry]

I work on a college campus and every year, it's astonishing to look at the incoming class and realize how different their life experience is from mine and how their points of reference have shifted. I work at a Catholic college. We have nuns living and working on campus. Some of them are in their 80s and are still very active on campus - it's interesting to see how the students connect with them and start to understand how things have changed in the last 10, 20, 40 years.

I remember when our street was supposed to get cable television. And when the U.S. was going metric, and learning to write in cursive. Some days I feel old. Then I get carded for wine at the grocery store and don't feel so bad any more.

 

[W4ASZ]

They are modern, and obsolete !

Here's a link to the famous live Jay Leno Morse code vs. texting competition :

http://videosift.com/video/Ham-Radio-Morse-Code-vs-Text-Messaging

 

[HepKitty]

Thank G-d, there may be hope yet.

To Argee's point on speed, unbeknownst to most of my co- workers and guys I do business with, it is actually faster to check a wristwatch for the time, look up a written down phone number and call it, write down dates and look them up on a paper calender, and call instead of text. Modern technology wastes time and annoys people. Especially me.

I'll return to my cave now.

it's true, it does waste time. and whatever happened to memorizing phone numbers?

I try to avoid reminders like this. I get enough reminders in the few times I get hit on by 25 year olds thinking they're older than I am, then they run away screaming when they find out I'm almost old enough to be their mother

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... I get hit on by 25 year olds thinking they're older than I am, then they run away screaming when they find out I'm almost old enough to be their mother.

Crikey. How do those 'cougars' we keep hearing about snag 25-year-olds, then?


.

 

[ScionPI2005]

With all their emphasis on speed and convenience, pulling out your phone to check the time is so much slower than looking at your wrist. The band on my watch gave way the other day and it was painful to have to pull out my cellphone to check the time. I kept looking at my bare wrist. I was so relieved to get it back on my wrist. Funny thing is, if I was carrying a pocket watch I wouldn't have a problem with reaching into my pocket to check the time.

I agree. That is one big reason I never cared to use my cell phone as my watch, although I see this from others pretty much everyday.

I winced when I read the class of 2014 was born in 1992. Like the others here, I already feel old. If all this behavior is true for the new college freshman, they truly must be a different generation than me, and I'm only 25.

 

[Undertow]

I've always believed our current society (US, UK, Western) walks the edge of a razor.

If this is our future, how terrible it would be for technology to come crashing down!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I agree. That is one big reason I never cared to use my cell phone as my watch, although I see this from others pretty much everyday.

Wristwatches take too much work; you have to turn your wrist toward your eyes as well as look down. I just look at the position of the sun, or the constellations. It worked for vintage Neoliths.


Pocket watches may be politically correct among vintage types, but they're as much a hassle to look at as cell phones are.

.

 

[Dewhurst]

About 8-9 months ago I switched to an electronic calendar and retired the old paper calendar. I thought, "Wow, this will makes things so much faster, and my calendar can e-mail me reminders and everything!"

Well, let's just say things did not work out quite as I had hoped. The electronic calendar is so slow compared to a good old fashioned paper calendar to which I can simply avert my eyes while sitting at my desk (which I am doing now) and find all of my dates. With the electronic calendar, if it isn't all ready running, I have to start the application first which already extends the time it takes to look at the calendar beyond what it would take to simply avert my eyes. True, I can add and remove things unlike with pen, and it will remind me, but I'm used to looking at the calendar daily so that is a mute point. Oh, and if the computer is off or a device is not synced with the mother ship and the calendar is not up to date, well, that is a world of hurt as I wait a minute for my computer to turn on (just to check the calendar!!!) or look at the device calendar and think, "I'm pretty sure I haven't synced this since yesterday." It's all very annoying.

Next year, I'm going to get a shiny new wall calendar. A nice one!

RAM and physical Space have become synonymous in modern life. In the past, we had to decide how much desk space we had and where to put the wall calendar, the flip calendar, the index cards, the stack of papers, the filing tray, etc. Now, we have to purchase as much RAM as we can afford so that we can fill that virtual space with the things we need "out". Keep your e-mail program running or you'll miss stuff, keep your calendar running or launching it is inconvenient, etc.

The digital stuff is marvelous, but we will reach a point where we decide some of the old fashioned stuff is actually more efficient. Just 'cause it's digital doesn't mean it is always faster and better.

 

[ScionPI2005]

Wristwatches take too much work; you have to turn your wrist toward your eyes as well as look down. I just look at the position of the sun, or the constellations. It worked for vintage Neoliths.


Pocket watches may be politically correct among vintage types, but they're as much a hassle to look at as cell phones are.

.

lol
Very true regarding pocket watches, Marc! It's just that they're so much more classy!

 

[The Lonely Navigator]

Well in my life it's gotten to the point that it seems like my mom, who is nearly 60 has outpaced me. She texts me, and I'm too lazy to - I prefer voicemail...the heck with working out putting in all those letters when I can just flap my gums to the recorder.[huh]

I got to agree with some others here though...I'm 30 and, it seems like at this point in my life...I just can't keep up with technology. Now it's those zip drive things...and I'm still on CDs...

[huh]

 

[Yeps]

lol
Very true regarding pocket watches, Marc! It's just that they're so much more classy!

I got out of the habit of using a wristwatch because, during my ten or so years of dancing and occasional sports, I had to remove my watch so often that I kept losing them.

At this point I no longer feel comfortable wearing a wristwatch, but I do love carrying a pocketwatch.

 

[HepKitty]

Crikey. How do those 'cougars' we keep hearing about snag 25-year-olds, then?


.

it's this area actually. 25 is considered old to be single so there is incredible pressure on them to find someone "eligible" and get married. the cougars (I'm not there yet!) bagging the 25 year olds in normal areas are looking for playtime only, same for hte 25 year olds

 

[Beaubeau]

It has been my experience that every generation gets an article that completely overblows the differences between the generations, and pretends that there is never any room for improvement in anything anywhere. People, as a group, don't do everything like a complete Luddite OR technofab spaceman from outer space. They pick and choose how they will do things with technology in ways that will suit them as a person and their needs. It's never either-or.

A great deal of college students where I attend (and sometimes teach) wear wrist watches and use their cell phones to take calls, take notes using paper notebooks and pens, use email like one would use a letter, know who Ludwig Beethoven is, know that some toothpaste tubes don't stand on end (most of the ones I've seen don't, unless it's Aquafresh or for small children). I'm not even that much older than them, being born in 1989. The children born in 1992 lived through a part of their lives when the internet and home computing were special new things in most people's lives.

Pop culture references change because time changes and people keep creating new things. Other things fall out of favor, like stereotypical representations of minorities, so I hardly expect most people to know what The Bitter Tea of General Yen or Birth Of A Nation are about. Sometimes, the lost of certain pop cultural references can only be to us and our future generations' credit.

Nostalgia, by definition, is an idealized view of the past and pretending that all things don't have warts isn't bad in and of itself, unless you decide to accept your vision of the wart-less past as complete and utter truth. Even in the 1950's America, there was the Cold War and the constant threat of a communist nuclear burnout takeover.

ETA: Yeah, basically what I'm trying to say is this article is full of it.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

EXCELLENT post, Beaubeah. Thanks!

 

[Beaubeau]

EXCELLENT post, Beaubeah. Thanks!

You're welcome.

On the other hand, there is always room for people to yell at other people who happened to be born extremely recently to remove their ragmuffin selves from the aesthetic and recreational land planted with grasses which belong to the yeller, for no other reason than it's fun.

 

[Mav]

know that some toothpaste tubes don't stand on end

There are toothpaste tubes that stand on end?!?!?!?!?

 

[Beaubeau]

There are toothpaste tubes that stand on end?!?!?!?!?

There are. They're mostly for small children and tend to cost a lot more than regular toothpaste because they're blazoned with popular children's cartoons.

 

[W4ASZ]

A Mellow Median

There was a day earlier this year during which I was given the senior citizen (over 50) discount at one local store and carded for my beer purchase at another.

No, I don't feel especially old at 56 simply because of the externalities.

 

[ScionPI2005]

It has been my experience that every generation gets an article that completely overblows the differences between the generations, and pretends that there is never any room for improvement in anything anywhere. People, as a group, don't do everything like a complete Luddite OR technofab spaceman from outer space. They pick and choose how they will do things with technology in ways that will suit them as a person and their needs. It's never either-or.

A great deal of college students where I attend (and sometimes teach) wear wrist watches and use their cell phones to take calls, take notes using paper notebooks and pens, use email like one would use a letter, know who Ludwig Beethoven is, know that some toothpaste tubes don't stand on end (most of the ones I've seen don't, unless it's Aquafresh or for small children). I'm not even that much older than them, being born in 1989. The children born in 1992 lived through a part of their lives when the internet and home computing were special new things in most people's lives.

Pop culture references change because time changes and people keep creating new things. Other things fall out of favor, like stereotypical representations of minorities, so I hardly expect most people to know what The Bitter Tea of General Yen or Birth Of A Nation are about. Sometimes, the lost of certain pop cultural references can only be to us and our future generations' credit.

Nostalgia, by definition, is an idealized view of the past and pretending that all things don't have warts isn't bad in and of itself, unless you decide to accept your vision of the wart-less past as complete and utter truth. Even in the 1950's America, there was the Cold War and the constant threat of a communist nuclear burnout takeover.

ETA: Yeah, basically what I'm trying to say is this article is full of it.

I agree with the others, very nice post!

I think this article could be a good example of news media, in that one of its functions is to capture readers' attentions and entertain. NEVER believe all of what you read. There may be some facts in what you read, but they're usually mixed with fiction in an attempt to make the subject as controversial, captivating, or interesting as possible.