It's interesting to see how people's attitudes change over time. Many elderly citizens today find it difficult to adjust to the new times and to the new technology. "Back in my day," they begin, as the recall older times that were much simpler.
As I applied this attribute of elderly citizens to the presidential election this year, I thought how younger voters were more likely to be democratic voters, with a willingness for change. Now that the election is over, I applied this attribute in a new light: how will we, as the younger generations, cope with the changing times? Will we accept new technologies and inovations? Will there be computerized homes with robots operating inside them?
It's nearly impossible to say what the future holds in store for society, but it's obvious that modern society is progressing there. How will older generations handle it?
Since we were already born into an already technologically advanced society, will new progressions flatter us, or provoke us?
Will technology become so advanced and complicated and widespread that we will wish things still were the way they are now?
It may seem to be an absurd idea presently, but when you open your mind to the possibilty we may not be happy with the future, you start to understand where I'm coming from.
I don't know but I think we will behave as any other generation has towards new tech....with scepticism. They thought they were pretty advanced with the invent of cars and TV and radio and thought they were ready for more but sometimes things happen so fast that it gets scary. I know I would be weirded out by a robotic house...even if it were cool.
Love is like a box of chocolates; if you chose wisely you won’t be disappointed and have to spit it out. ~T
This is how we will handle it.... by death.
As I applied this attribute of elderly citizens to the presidential election this year, I thought how younger voters were more likely to be democratic voters, with a willingness for change.
There is nothing new about this phenomena. I was a highschool product of the 70's and we were a fairly jaded generation disillusioned by things like Vietnam, Watergate, oil shocks and stagflation. But I was a kid during the 60s and I remember the idealism of the older flower power kids. When I read on this forum what the majority of you younger folks believe it is like traveling (progressing?) back in time.
Young people have always been filled with idealism and think they have all the answers and the solutions to the world's problems. As they age, they realize that much of their idealism was unrealistic and that most of the problems they were sure could be solved are totally intractable and, most importantly, that most humans don't behave in anything close to an idealistic manner. In short, experience makes them wise. And then they start being required to pay serious taxes ....
I believe it was Winston Churchill that is often quoted: "If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain,"
I can't remember ever being anything but being conservative so I guess you could say that I am a heartless bastard. Or I preferred to think of myself as precocious and wise beyond my years. lol
I have little worries about older folks adapting to change. My late grandfather was born in 1900 before the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. He got his pilots license on his 50th birthday in 1950 and continued flying up until a couple of years before his death in 1991. During the years I knew him (1958 forwards) he was a tech junkie. He always owned the latest camera. He bought one of the first 4-banger calculators on the market in the 1970s. He loved typewriters and bought a new one every couple of years. His last one was a very advanced IBM Selectric with very advanced (basic by todays standards) word processing capability. He adapted right along with the times.
My Dad is a Harvard trained electrical engineer. He is in his late 70's now but is fully adept at using a PC and the internet. The difference between him and most technologically adept young people is that he actually UNDERSTANDS how the stuff works and can fix a lot of it when it breaks. Believe me there are no worries there.
I'm 50 and spent a good part of my life as a software engineer and I was a pioneering dial-up internet ISP. Again I think I'm going to be able to adapt to whatever technology brings. I am really looking forwards to advances in robotics and can't wait until that technology comes of age. I wrote a blog about it last year.
Welcome to the Brave New World of Robots
I think that technology is going to be great and is going to do wonderful things for our standard of living and our overall wealth. But it is also going to have some profound negative impacts particularly on under-educated and unskilled workers that are really going to give you idealistic yourth with liberal leanings some dilemas to wrestle with.