[WEB4LIB] "Generation shifts" and technology

[Steve Cramer SMCRAMER]

It's easy, imo, to get into stereotypes about technology use and age.

I was a volunteer trainer for the local freenet in the mid 1990's, and my
college library hosted users meetings. Consistently, half the folks there
were retirees, or at least grey-haired; there was also a large number of
young adults and a few high school kids, but not too many folks in between.

Why were those seniors so involved?

Many enjoyed keeping up with their families and grandkids via email while
snowbirding (we were in Michigan), and many also wanted to track their
portfolios they used as part of their retirement income.

Ten years later, I bet those older netizens give tips to their grandkids
(if they will listen) on searching the web or customizing their browsers...

--Steve
_________________________________________________
Steve Cramer
Librarian for Accounting, Business, Economics, & Textiles
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
smcramer at uncg.edu, 336-256-0346, AIM: crams828

Ask us! Phone, chat, email, or in person:
http://library.uncg.edu/depts/ref/askalib/


-----web4lib at webjunction.org wrote: -----

To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
From: "Sloan, Bernie" <bernies at uillinois.edu>
Sent by: web4lib at webjunction.org
Date: 01/05/2005 05:52PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] "Generation shifts" and technology

In the earlier "Wikipedia" thread, Bill Drew seemed a little skeptical
about the "generation shift" concept.

It's been discussed a lot recently, e.g., the Abram/Luther "Born with
the Chip" piece in the May 1 issue of Library Journal.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not sure I buy into the "generation shift"
concept entirely. The idea seems to revolve around each new human
generation being more technologically adept, or integrating technology
into their lives more completely, than the preceding generations. But I
see evidence that this isn't so cut and dried.

I have two kids in their early twenties, and the degree in which they
each have integrated technology into their lives varies remarkably. One
is really wired (or "unwired" in the case of using wireless
technologies). The other recently was without Internet access for at
least six months, and it didn't seem to bother him a bit. On my
generational level, I have a brother who told me over the holidays that
he checks his e-mail about every nine months on the average (this is not
an exaggeration), while another runs some really cool digital media
classes for high school kids. On the next generational level, my mother
worked at a newspaper that was one of the early pioneers in automating
newspaper production, and she's been an avid home computer user since
the days of the Apple IIe (and maybe earlier than that...my memory fails
me a bit here). She's almost 80 years old.

I guess my point is that every generation has members who take to
technology like a duck to water, and every generation has members who
aren't particularly technologically adept, and who couldn't care less
that they aren't.

Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant, ILCSO
University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
616 E. Green Street, Suite 213
Champaign, IL  61820

Phone: (217) 333-4895
 Fax:   (217) 265-0454
E-mail: bernies at uillinois.edu