"The people in their 50s now are the most educated, most tech-savvy generation in our country's history," says William Frey, a demographer and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Of course they are tech-savvy, our generation essentially created the media we all communicate in every day--the internet. Tim Berners-Lee who created the world wide web, Bill Gates (Microsoft), and Steve Jobs (Apple) are all boomers. Those two companies and the WWW are a huge part of our every day lives at work and home and have changed our lives in ways we could not even imagine when we were young.
As a boomer early retiree, I have a bit different view of our tools of communication. When you work, you have a built in social group that you interact with every day. When you retire, you no longer have immediate access to that group (some of whom you are probably happy to never see again) and the number of people you communicate with is greatly diminished. Unless, of course, you are a blogger in which case you now have the opportunity to communicate with many other people all over the world. As Pam said in her TV interview you can meet (virtually) women from all over the world. This is a wonderful way to learn that no matter what country we live in, color of our skin, religious views, or age we all have a lot more in common that we might have thought previously.
I think as more Boomers retire, they will be turning even more to social media to communicate with each other and with their children and grandchildren. Facebook has reunited me with a lot of my former high school classmates. If not for the internet, we would only be able to see each other at our reunions which are years apart.
Our grandparents world was very small in comparison to ours. They communicated via telephone, written letters, and personal visits. We have so many more instant methods of communicating, learning news, and viewing the lives of our friends and family. Many of us grew up in the time where a photograph had to be taken on film, developed, and then shared. Now you can almost instantaneously share any picture or video with someone on the other side of the world.
Some of our online communication has been for the better and some has definitely been for the worse, but that is a conversation for another day. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for all of us. What a wild ride we have been on and hopefully will continue.
Please share your thoughts about this subject with me. You don't have to be a boomer to share!
You will see from today's outfit that I don't wear accessories every day. I went to exercise and then spent the rest of the day at home with the dogs.
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A day at home with the dogs sounds like heaven!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you post about technology and our age group. Our cohorts did invent the web and PC's. Now it's so easy to communicate, and I'm grateful for it.
Where was the 'net when I had to write term papers in 1976??? : >
I sometimes run into friends/acquaintances/relatives who feel the need to tell me about why they aren't on Facebook. So many reasons!
ReplyDeleteI've found it to be a social plus. I still see friends in the flesh, but now I know something about what's going on with them. It keeps our relationship more current.
The Boomers may have borrowed the nation into the poorhouse we'll all be able to keep in touch while we're stuck there.
After highschool, I definitely went through an isolation period. I graduated 6 months before my graduating class, so I was out of that situation that forced interactions. Then I spend another year before deciding to go onto college. I turned to the blog world during that time, and I have made many many friends through it. I keep meeting people everyday and I am thankful for the internet with each new friend I make.
ReplyDeleteI love your blouse. The colors are insanely cool. I love anything with bright colors mixed with black.
That blouse doesn't need much help, accessory-wise. It stands on it own.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Boomer (my parents are) but the internet has really helped me stay in touch with my old friends scattered around the world, at least a little. I don't call, I don't write letters... I'm a rotten correspondent. Facebook helps me out a ton!