Baby boomers...are you baffled by new technology?

[ikojo]

"News" channel 5 in St Louis is doing a report tonight at 10PM on baby boomers and new technology. Seems they found some boomers who are wary of all the gadgets out there.

I was a gadget head when I was a kid and I am moreso now that I earn my own money. Not intimidated in the least.

[supernova]

1. Nope, I feel at home in the techno world

I just set up a new phone system for the house, programmed it and everything. :toast:

I love playing around with new gadgets.

[MrScorpio]

2. I want to beat some any copy technology

That shit bothers me

[MuseRider]

3. No.

51 here and still able to do stuff. It may take me awhile when my kids could do it in half the time but I still get it done.

I don't think I know anyone my age who is wary of gadgets.

[Nite Owl]

4. Not here

I love techie toys!

Bad for the budget though.

[ikojo]

6. Very bad for the budget....one thing I have going for me

is that I don't have a car so I have no car payment.

I do like the techie toys though.

[Reverend_Smitty]

5. I kid you not...

my father actually woke me up out of a sound sleep because he accidentally turned the TV off via the cable box and did not know how to turn it back on. (He's even called me at school when he's done that as well) That and he has immense trouble programming a VCR, and the computer...forgetaboutit! No matter how many times I explain that stuff he will never get it and because of that I get frustrated and start yelling. If he's this bad at 48, I can't even imagine what he will be like at 70! oy!

[ikojo]

9. My mom bought herself a computer when she was

62. While she does get baffled about some of the software, she's pretty adept at surfing the Internet.

[Nite Owl]

10. Well Windows

can baffle the best! I really think it's Bill Gates whole reason for being.

[enlightenment]

7. Not baffled, but I don't see the need to "enhance"

my life every other week. I belong to the small (but growing) minority who don't own or desire to own a cell/mobile phone; didn't own a vcr player for years and just purchased a small, extremely basic dvd player (forced into it, if I want to rent, these days). I'm not entirely certain that I know what TIVO is -- and don't feel the loss.
With the exception of my computer (and there I am a techno-junkie -- though a rank amateur compared to many), I simply don't see any reason to clutter up my life in such ways.
I do love my spinning wheel . . .
:P

[Karenina]

14. I can manage it

when it's in my interests to do so, but I find all the bells and whistles a bit much. Mark Morford nails it for me...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3656122&mesg_id=3656122&page=

I'd rather be a dumb pothead. :smoke:

[enlightenment]

16. Totally!

Thanks for the link -- Morford always says it better than I ever could. It was funny to me, a number of years ago, when I looked up from my comp sci and history degrees (I teach college history, now) and realized that I, a techno-geek from the days when they still used cards, had turned into a neo-Luddite.
It isn't just the rapidity of change, where new gadgets become obsolete before they're out of the box; it's the insidious nature of the change -- something Morford put his finger on so well.

I'd rather see money spent to develop technologies that truly benefit humankind, not just provide an illusion of benefit.

But it's late, and my maudlin streak is setting in.

Thanks again for the link,
E.

[SmokingJacket]

8. My boomer parents are way more into new gadgets than I am.

I'm generation X -- I was in elementary school when calculators and digital watches got popular, and in middle school when personal computers showed up. All the damn gadgets started showing up soon after that: Cd players, etc. I remember the brief bright flame of video disc players in the late eighties...

The bloom is off the rose for me. I hate buying The New Thing, because I know it'll be obsolete in in few months. I don't even own a microwave or a dishwasher. I hate new technology, but I'm hardly intimidated by it.

But my boomer parents obsess over it.

[benburch]

11. Not at all. I design new technology...

Or used to before I started running http://www.WhiteRoseSociety.org/ for a living.

[ThoughtCriminal]

12. I create new technology

So you would think it would come easy. But my kids can send 50 text messages in the time it takes me to enter one.

[biscotti]

13. I love it

I evolved as it did.

[mr_hat]

15. I'm OK with the stuff I know about. But when I pick up >

Wired Magazine, I realize how much is out there that I don't have a clue about.

[Floogeldy]

17. I've kept up enough to know . . .

. . . I know there is a lot of techno shit out there that would serve no purpose whatsoever in my life, like palm pilots, camera cell phones, and iPods.

[SoCalDem]

18. Me..Me.. I have a stereo that I cannot even use because

I lost the manual, and I cannot figure out how to change the stations.. It has a remote, and nothing I try works..

I will NEVER EVER have a cell phone..

Never had a pager.. held out for years on a message thingie for the phone..
I would dump the phone if I could.. I HATE to talk on the phone

But I DO love my computers and I always figured out how to work every VCR we ever had, and i love my digital camera..

That's all I really need anyway :)

[bookman]

19. I'm a hi tech boomer.

I've had a computer since '81 (well, many in fact. :) )

My current tech toys:
3 computers on wireless net
TIVO
DVD Recorder
Satellite Radio
Digital Cameras, Scanners (flatbed and film)
VCR (does that even count now?)
Programmable phones
MP3 player

...and I can read! :)