Recently I have become more aware of people around me who are struggling to transition into the digital age. For example, I was recently introduced to someone who uses email to communicate, only because they have to for work. If it were up to them, they wouldn’t use it at all. What’s worse is that this person prints a copy of every single email they receive, not for recording purposes though. They print a copy just so they have something to hold. Those printed email messages then go in the garbage a few days later. What a waste, right? I can’t imagine printing every email I receive, or not using email for everyday purposes like communicating with friends and family.
Other examples of people around me who are struggling to transition into the digital age include those who insist on using cassette tapes or CD’s instead of downloading their music. And then there are those who are still convinced that it is completely unsafe to be making purchases online, even from big name companies like Amazon. With the holidays right up the road, and terrible weather in the Chicagoland area, it’s been wonderful to be able to order gifts online and have them delivered to my door. It has eliminated the need to fight traffic and snow-covered streets trying to get to the stores.
There are SO many benefits of taking advantage of the technology available around us that it’s hard to understand the reasoning behind those who prefer the “old” ways. Know anybody who is having trouble transitioning into the digital age? Tell us about them…
“Other examples of people around me who are struggling to transition into the digital age include those who insist on using cassette tapes or CD’s instead of downloading their music.”
Well, until very recently, I was among them. I continued to buy CD’s long after most of my friends were buying their music via downloads for several reasons, the main one being that it was impossible to buy DRM-free downloads, and all of licensing models were draconian in their restrictions. Now that Amazon and others are offering DRM-free downloads in standard open-format MP3, I am starting to buy most of my music in that format.
The biggest person I know who has trouble with this transition is my wife. She grew up at a time when there were no computers and she pretty much fights the transition every step of the way. She is getting better though since she works at a radio station and needs computers for her job and is married to me, a network administrator. She just thinks the old ways were better because they had a human touch that can’t be replicated with a computer. Maybe if I introduce her to web cams and video messaging she will change her mind?.
When I got a digital camera a few years ago, my dad would still use his old Olympus camera (with film) to take pictures. He felt that with digital, if it’s on the memory card and computer, he won’t be able to put the photos into an album and show friends when they came over. But I kept telling him that I archive a copy on my hard drive, I can put the photos on Flickr for friends to see, and I can use any one of 100 services to print the photos and have them delivered. So a few days ago he told me one of his friends in another country wants to see the photos he took (with the older camera) and he only has physical copies (no memory card because they were on film). I told him it’s a hassle to scan every photo and then send it over (or upload to Flickr) but I guess we’ll get that done sometime soon. I think he finally understands that digital cameras are better.
In our university, some classes offer the use of e-books. This is great since most students carry around a laptop and often complain about “how heavy” their books are. Some of the e-books offered are much cheaper than the actual textbook in the bookstore. BUT. The problem is a lot of students usually print off chapters or sections of the e-book since they prefer reading something tangible. True, its much easier to read something on paper, but, why buy the e-book in the first place?… I personally prefer the e-books, since I always have my laptop with me and use it during class and I’m not the type of student who reads the whole textbook to study.
I’m surprised she hasn’t gotten into Facebook yet.
I couldn’t imagine having my images in a non-digital format anymore. I always thought that I’d print a lot more photos than I do, but I’ll go for years without printing any of them. As you mentioned it’s just so much easier to share photos when they can be emailed or uploaded.
I think eBook adoption is going to be the next big thing. The Kindle is a step in the right direction, but eBook readers still haven’t gotten the attention they deserve.
My wife is totally allergic to computers. As of this day she will not use any computer. Since she works attending a sick lady at her home, she doesn’t need a computer to do her work.
All the technological aspects of our home is done yours truly. She uses the cellphone only when the numbers of her friends and/or relatives are stored on the phone by me. If not, she would be very happy to use the land line which we have at home thanks to her.
I can understand your post very well. I’m just the opposite. I’m 62 years old and like to read everything I can about new techie stuff just to know what is going on. For example, I read your blog everyday to keep current. You and Ryan are excellent technological sources.
agree Ashley,
i try to concince my father to use evernote for collecting stuff (version 2 of course, new version sucks) but no no, he uses word and print everything
most people in my age though use the computer in one way or the other, but purchasing stuff online seems to be very freightend..there have been som headline news (here in sweden) the last days about an internet camera shop fraud..but it seems that every common sense for people get totally blocked online..no checking no nothing.. 
i’ve been netshopping for 10 years now..have never been any problem..and this christmas, i ordered all gifts online, so no stress this year 
the one thing i don’t agree of is buying cds..it’s so damn expensive buying “downloads”, DRM and low bitrate..i like flac and be able to rerip..but thats me 
merry christmas
Omar – I always thought you were a tech-savy twenty-year old! My hat goes off to you!
My parents still use AOL.com for their personal emails and print every one. They like having a hard copy (which gets trashed after they both read it). It’s also because their computer is INCREDIBLY slow, and they only start it up every few days.
My girlfriend deletes every file on her computer that she doesn’t absolutely need because “it makes it run faster”. I work for a hard drive company and delete NOTHING. I’m thinking about changing my password.
Andy, thanks for your kind words. Age is a state of mind. I feel like a kid with a 62 year old body. It’s like the Tom Hank’s movie “Big” in reverse.
“Recently I have become more aware of people around me who are struggling to transition into the digital age.”
This and the following comments remind me of my 80 year-old grandmother’s doctor’s advice to her to stop smoking after 65 years. My response to him was “Why?”
These people are not “struggling” they have adapted the technology to suit themselves and functioning quite well without any further changes than necessary. A recently retired executive, asked me if he should finally break down and buy a computer. I asked him “To do what?” He didn’t want to do anything it made possible. He donated his cellphone, threw away his answering machine, and went about life as he chose to do.
There are others, both young and old who are eager to climb into the newer technologies. But, if you have been around awhile, you quickly see that is an endless treadmill. Many of the comments above sustain this endless pursuit of the latest and greatest new device or technology. If you old tapes still provide you pleasure, why replace them. Better is a relative term.
These “struggling” people you refer to simply prefer different choices, neither better or worse than yours.
Have a great Christmas, folks.
I don’t like to read ebooks or likes on a screen. When some techy gadget become more “usable” i’ll be totally converted.
I also prefer physical CDs or DVDs to digital content. Because … most of the times i will be paying around the same and a physical media is something “seeable” so the little diference compensates the “extra”.
On the digital photos … i fully adapted a very long time ago. I already bought a lot of digital cameras, and intend to continue. I rather print any photos, and those i remember we’re to make large posters.
My boss wastes full loads of paper as he can’t read almost anything on screen. Sketches of works, emails, everything must come printed in paper and they also archive copies on paper. And we’re talking about a person who spent this year about $2500 (in euros) in a Desktop pc … to gather dust around … as he barely can use a mouse.
I see the same happening around me, where quite a few often shy away from using new ways to do things. They try, but many would rather stay with the old ways as they don’t have to learn anything new. I can understand this though. For example, managing your photos on a computer more or less means you have to learn to deal with several types of hardware, several types of software, learn how to prevent to lose them (backups), how to share them and how to print them. That can be quite daunting, especially if you’re not used to the whole digital concept of things. Much easier to just go to the store and let the “experts” deal with getting the photos in your hands
It really depends on what people are willing to invest time in. If you’re not interested, it becomes very challenging as you don’t use new technology every day. Especially if you want to do it well. Not doing it well could mean losing your emails, pictures and online bought music due to a hard drive crash – the people this happens to are very likely to be discouraged from going digital again imo..
I think our civilization as a whole is getting both easier and more complex, complex not complicated. Applied to the Digital Age that means that if you haven’t started transitioning at its birth (let’s say in the eighties?) and that you have a previous experience of “past” ages, then it might get tougher as time goes by.
I had a friend who wouldn’t even touch a mouse device, as if it where the sword of Damocles
This topic is most interesting, one of those paths which gets you to wonder…
EDIT : “as if it were” or “as if it was” … English is not my mother-tongue, should be mentioned?!
My 82 year old father has always had a computer, ever since the Timex Sinclair days (which he gave to me, and I still have somewhere in a box). He loves using email, but never quite figured out what this Wide World Web thing is. He also loves digital photography, and plays around with Adobe endlessly. What we notice is that if he can figure something out on his own, then he’s fine with it, but it’s quite useless to try and teach him anything beyond what he’s comfortable with.
My mother, who’s the same age, has always been a technophobe, refusing even to get a microwave long after they were common household appliances. The only thing she does on a computer is type her letters on an old DOS machine running Wordstar which my Dad set up for her. It’s set up so that a batch file runs and starts up Wordstar for her automatically. Recently the machine went toes up, and there was a minor crisis in the family to try and find her an old 386 machine. Thank God for eBay.
I am middle aged, but have four computers, one a Mac, one running Vista, and two XP machines. I live alone but have wireless set up, with a printer and a DVR on my network. I’ve hacked a DVD player to play Region 2 disks, figured out the bittorrent thing, and have posted videos to YouTube. I’ve played around with HTML, enough so I can set up a website for a group that I belong to, and have two blogs. I frequently try new software just to see if there’s anything I can do with it that would make my life easier or more fun.
Of my siblings, I definitely use the most new technology, but they all use computers and digital media in some fashion or another. Only one of them is a technophobe, using his computer only for email, word processing, and web surfing. He gets easily shook up when he’s got to learn a new operating system — even though the changes from 98 to ME to XP to Vista have been for the most part, only cosmetic. I had to send him step by step instructions for how to add an attachment to an email, which he tells me he refers to all the time! I would have to say, however, that he, like my Mom, is slow to learn technical things, and without any obvious reason to try new things, just doesn’t see the need to make an effort.
For example, I figured out how to use HTML because I needed to make a website. I figured out the bittorrent thing because I was keen to see a BBC show that wasn’t available on these shores. I figured out how to hack my DVR so that I could take its recorded shows and burn them to a DVD. I must say, however, that there are three things one needs in order to do this: a strong desire to want to do them, time to spend searching for software and explanations of how to do these, and patience to be able to sort through vague or poorly written how-tos and to put up with snotty remarks on user forums. Not everybody has that amount of time and patience, even if they might have the desire. I would argue that youths have plenty of all three ingredients, whereas older folks are either busy with their day to day responsibilities (raising a family and earning a living to support them) or have long since learned that all things new and shiny aren’t always neat, and they certainly aren’t the most important things in life. It’s all a matter of perspective, and those who would laugh at older people for failing to “keep up”, are only demonstrating the eternal truth that only with age does one get wisdom and maturity.
As for eBooks, well, I’ve used them, but still prefer to read something printed on paper. I agree that it is a boon to be able to get college textbooks as ebooks that can be readily stored on a computer, however, I could not imagine trying to grasp the material in them solely by reading it on a screen. I still haven’t found anything equal to the portability of the printed sheet, and the ability to page back and forth when trying to comprehend a complicated concept. For example, trying to use references when reading a text that’s heavily annotated with them is a pure pain in an eBook, even if the references are all linked. It is too easy to lose track of where you started from. It’s not all that easy in a printed book, either, but as long as your don’t run out of fingers you can always retrace your steps to get back to where your original question started.
When I really need to study out an equation or a proof, I need it printed on paper so that I can put it right in front of my nose and stare at it, and scribble notes in the margins. eBooks cannot replace this experience, which seems to be the only way I can learn things. Reading a novel, by comparison, is pretty much a linear progression from one end of the text to the other, and apart from the constant need to recharge batteries, is a reasonably adequate experience on an electronic device.
At work we all refer to the National Electric Code frequently. We have it both in eBook form and in a hard copy. Although the eBook version is easier to search in, we use the hard copy when trying to page back and forth between widespread sections as we try to interpret exactly what some of its obscure or opaque text is trying to say in a practical sense, and how it should be applied to our real life situation.
Computers have revolutionized engineering drawings, and no engineering shop would dare be without AutoCAD (or something like it). However, there still isn’t a computer screen big enough to properly display a complicated drawing allowing those who are looking at it to take in all of the information it contains. Whether several people are discussing a design at a meeting, or whether the construction tradesmen are trying to assemble a piping run or wire up a control panel, there isn’t a computer screen that affords the scope or the portability that a single paper copy of the drawing provides. And you certainly can’t scribble notes on anything displayed on a computer screen.
I prefer “Mini Disc” over any other medium for my music! By far the best medium out there, better quality then any MP3!
@grapeshot:
I enjoyed reading your comment very much. You have the ability to absorb your readers into your subject. If you are not a writer, you should consider the possibility. Great post.
I really enjoyed reading all of your comments —
A minor correction, Omar. I believe it should say “I’m 62 years young.”
I also must send props your way — it’s great that you are willing to learn new technology. My dad is your age and has no interest in technology, whatsoever. He doesn’t even have an email address.
As I have mentioned before, part of my job entails teaching 5th graders Math. Even the text book companies for elementary students have made the books available online. I always encourage my students to access the textbook online versus lugging their heavy textbook home when needed. I think e-books, as an option, are a great idea.
I like the point you make about how it’s useless to try and teach your father something beyond what he’s comfortable with. I think slowly exposing people to technology, and then giving them hands on experience, can help them become more comfortable with and thus more willing to learn.
“There are SO many benefits of taking advantage of the technology available around us that it’s hard to understand the reasoning behind those who prefer the “old” ways.”
It is “hard to understand” — all the more reason to make an effort. There are some “old ways” that are significantly different in outcome as well as in action. E.g. I have a friend who writes me letters by hand and I return correspondence in the same manner. I have found it slows me down and what is written is very different than it would be if I typed. It takes more time but it is time really spent with the person I’m writing to and with myself thinking and writing slowly. What ends up in the mail reflects that and I often discover stuff in the process.
Everything else I do is digital, and it is not the same, and it is not necessarily better.