The Minds of a 60's and a 90's Kid

(Photo from: bestthinking.com)

"Come gather 'round people wherever you roam. And admit that the waters around you have grown. And accept it that soon. You'll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you is worth savin' then you  better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone. For the times they are a changin'." This famous Bob Dylan song said it better than anything else about how people have changed in the course of technology advancement.

I was browsing through different TV channels the other day, trying to get away with the usual channels I watch, and looking for an unusual discovery. I stumbled upon a TV channel that only plays movies from the 70's and  80's. I could not go on with the movie without stopping to comment on how fake the background looked to me in the "ride scene" and the moment when the main characters were interacting with the dolphin. For sociologists, people experience "cultural shock" when they travel to a country with existing beliefs about the country but the reality was different. I guess for me when I watched the movie, I was experiencing what I called the "generation shock". Those 70's and 80's movies looked like they were produced with a low budget, or simply with unprofessional tools, such as outdated camera and chroma key. 

I found Douglas Adams' quote very interesting. 

He said,

"1. Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

2. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things," (Adams, "The Salmon of Doubt").

I think Adams' quote is very true. I am pretty sure my grandparents was just as shock to see a computer when my parents were in elementary school as my parents when they see smartphones today. Cellphones are revolutionary because when my parents were my age, home phones are only just making their debut. My parents told me that home phones were not even common. It is not until later when they started to work that semi-cellphone-like device called the "B.B. Call" came to existence. I never used a B.B. Call before because I grew up in the age when most adults own a cellphone. By the time I went to junior high school, almost everyone of my classmates own a cellphone themselves. 

On this what my parents called the "revolutionary invention", they told me they never would have thought that everyone would be able to afford a cellphone. They said an average adult could not even afford a cellphone with his wages back then. It is hard for them to imagine a 5-year-old carrying an iPhone around these days.

The concept of everyone owning a cellphone/smartphone today seems paradoxical to me. It benefits the society in the way that people around the world can stay in touch via phone calls. Social media made it easier to connect with family members on the other side of the world with little to no cost. On the other hand, I think the introduction of smartphones might have decreased personal connections in real life between people of my generation. It is normal to find people texting each other when they are at the same dinner table and to feel awkward making eye contact with the person you are talking to. It almost feels like people might think they are connected to their friends, but in reality they are not.

Work Cited:
"The Salmon of Doubt Quotes." The Salmon of Doubt Quotes. Goodreads, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.