Andrew Leahey

English 121

Generation Gap Essay

Final

"Generation Gap"

Each generation has their spectrum of technological advances that they

keep up with. Each generation also has a ceiling that once hit, stops their

advancement or picking up of any new concepts or ideas. My Mother can't

set a VCR clock, or work a DVD player. My Grandmother can't read a digital

watch. My Great-Grandmother was unable to work a non-rotary style phone.

With each successive generation's progress, the previous one falls further

behind.

As well as the addition of entirely new devices to the market, existing

ones are becoming more complicated, and require a better working

knowledge of technology to operate. So as time moves forward, not only are

previous generations not catching on to new advancements, they're actually

losing their grip on old ones. What happens to Aunt Millie, who could work

the answering machine that had a tape in it, but now finds they have been

replaced by tape-less solid-state recorders? Or Grandma, who could work

the television when it had a knob or one remote, but is now confronted with

a separate remote for the television and cable box? How many people over

the age of 50 understand the universal symbols for "Play/Pause", that have

replaced the words themselves on virtually all devices? There is an inherent

danger when an entire chunk of the population is allowed to fall behind to

such a degree, that they are incapable of existing in the world they live in.
 The danger here is we have an increasing amount of the population that

is unable to work devices that have become integral in our society. As more

of these devices move from analog to digital, be it terrestrial or satellite

radios, televisions, home-telephones or even kitchen appliances, these

groups will only fall further behind. What help is a cell phone to a senior

citizen unable to use it? The entire purpose of technological advancement is

to improve the quality of life of people as a whole. The cruel irony here is the

fact that the elderly are not "keeping up with the times" and this is the very

demographic who could most benefit from technology, if only it was made

more accessible to them.

There is simply no reason for a company to develop a cell phone with a

large screen, keys, and perhaps a panic button if there is no market to sell it

to. From the elderly persons point of view there is no reason to purchase a

device with buttons they are not going to be able to see. In this way, the

cycle continues and one generation is lost to all of our progresses. Likewise

there is no consideration given to the elderly when other devices are

created. As the number of buttons on a remote increase, the buttons get

smaller, without a second thought given to the elderly who may be unable to

see smaller details. Other demographics considered "handicapped" have

provisions in place that allow them to use most any technology a so-called

"normal" user can. Text-to-speech software opens up the world of the

Internet to the blind, most cellular telephones have small braille

place-markers to help a person with poor vision orientate themselves on the

keypad. The deaf have closed captioning programs and even persons

paralyzed are able to control a computer cursor using their eye movement.
The only group being ignored, and coincidentally the only one we will all

eventually be members of, is the elderly.

It may all sound trivial, "So what if elderly people can't work their

televisions?", and perhaps it would be trivial if the scope was limited to these

"luxury items". However think of the elderly house-bound man who, not

knowing how to use a portable telephone, never bothers to buy one. Instead

of having something he could carry with him in his pocket, he has no

connection to the outside world should he fall or have any other distress that

doesn't allow him to reach his wall-mounted corded phone. These sorts of

technological advancements that might allow the elderly to remain at home

and out of convalescent centers further in to their lives are not being

utilized. Likewise, since the elderly are not a marketable demographic in the

technology industry, limited funding for research and development is set

aside by corporations to develop products geared towards them.

In addition to these mentioned effects, there is an effect rarely

considered: the greater the divide between older generations and younger,

the less the two have in common, and the more strained any communication

becomes (Bruemmer). As text messaging becomes more prevalent, one can

only imagine, if you could see a graph, calls to grandma have gone down. As

younger generation's time has been split between new technologies, and

new methods of communication, it will be the members of society who do

not adopt these technologies that are left out. Speaking strictly from

personal experience, the people who would most enjoy and get the most out

of being in contact with friends and family more often, are elderly family

members. How cruel it is that these are the people not being brought along
for the ride.

So the next time Aunt Esther calls you over to fix the clock on her

microwave, take the extra time and explain to her what you're doing,

instead of just pushing her aside and doing it yourself. For Christmas, maybe

get grandma a small prepaid cell phone for emergencies, and show her how

to use it. Even small introductions to new technologies can be a boon to an

older person's confidence in their ability to remain a part of the active world.

These generations took the time to pass on to us what they knew, do they

not deserve the same consideration from us?