Send to KindleFacebook, iPhones, and Boomers
Recently, I attended a gathering of my in-laws. My wife comes from a fairly large family so these infrequent events are almost like a convention. Much of the time was spent listening to the many tales of adventure and mischief that, as you can imagine with such a large family, were plentiful.
What really caught my attention though was Facebook and iPhones. Let me explain.
First, it’s important to understand the demographics of this family. All together, the members present represented almost the entire range of the Baby Boom Generation. We also had a couple of members from previous generations. Most of us in that room didn’t see a home computer until we were adults and for a couple of people, it wasn’t until they were well into their 40s or even later. As for the iPhones, it seemed that almost everyone had one. There were exceptions, like my Blackberry and a couple of folks with plain cell phones. But what really caught my attention was the discussion about Facebook.
Someone asked if everyone was on Facebook. That started a round of the question “Are you my friend?” It was somewhat comical to see middle aged people, and some a little beyond middle age, asking that question like a bunch of kindergartners. The fun was compounded as everyone tried to figure out how to accomplish the friending task on their smart phones. One person was actually fairly proficient at using Facebook on the iPhone, but had absolutely no idea how to check email on the device.
Besides providing a little comedy to the event, all this illustrated an important point to remember when working with different generations. I call it generational adoption; each generation tends to adopt things from other generations, but with varying degrees of success. Again, I must momentarily digress.
I’ll use the computer to explain generational adoption since this whole discussion revolved around computer technology. The first real electronic computer was built during World War II but Baby Boomers made it small enough to be available to the masses. Current computer capability, while still managed and led by Boomers, is often the product of Generation X, and to some extent Millennials. (Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook is a Millennial)
So, Generation X and the Millennial Generation have adopted computer technology as their own, while Boomers have, to some extent adopted social media from later generations, which is what I was observing. But, generational adoption only goes so far. That point was illustrated by this room full of Boomers struggling to do something that my son does almost without conscious thought. I’ve observed that each generation seems to have a point past which they cannot or will not go. My grandparents, while always willing to consider new things, never came to accept the social norms that have become more common today. Most Baby Boomers can become fairly competent with computer technology to a point, but can’t quite grasp the nuances of how the newer generations use it today. I wonder where we’ll be when Millennials reach middle age and beyond and can’t quite fathom the newest technology.
Each generation seems to have their limit on how far they can go to adapt to new things. So, when us Boomers are a little slow to grasp what seems obvious to the rest of you, be patient. We’re not dumb, but it may take us a little while to figure out how to be your friend.
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