Question of the Day | 11/02/2009 1:00 am

Music was the great divide between ourselves and our parents. Will technology be the dividing factor with the new generation?

And if not music, then what? Join Joan Ganz Cooney, Candice Bergen and Liz Smith in the conversation …

Liz Smith | 11/02/2009 12:00 am

Liz Smith: 'My Gang of People Will Accelerate Into More Exasperation'

Generation divide! Whoever said the divide between those of us still living and our parents was music is very clever and smart. I remember riding in a car with my father and he was absolutely incensed that I wanted to listen to Frank Sinatra on the radio. "You call THAT, music?" He was an Opera aficionado.

So, I do think we will pass into oblivion one of these days, still complaining that we have to ask our grandchildren or our grown kids how to work the TV, the iPhone, the BlackBerry, the Wii and all the rest of it. And, as it gets more complicated, which it appears it will, then my gang of people will accelerate into more exasperation, confusion and ignorance.

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Joan Ganz Cooney | 11/02/2009 12:00 am

Joan Ganz Cooney on Dressing and the Generational Divide

I don’t think there is such a big divide anymore. The 40-somethings are as devoted to technology as their children are. They play games, use computers for work and fun, have iPods and iPhones and buy all the new stuff as it comes out. Also this generation of parents keeps up with pop culture almost as much as their children do. Add that teenagers and their parents all seem to dress alike. In my generation, kids wanted to dress like their parents (the last generation to aspire to such); now the parents tend to dress more like the kids.

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Candice Bergen | 11/02/2009 4:35 pm

Candice Bergen and Her Daugher Debate the Generation Divide

When my daughter, who is 24, and I talked about the biggest changes in our lives since birth, she said the difference is in travel — the travel experience since 9/11, which has been completely transformed. But I said technology. Specifically, communications. Revolutionized. Utterly.

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Read more about: Aging, Family, Generations, Music, Parenting, Technology

28 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

My youngest is 12. He is a ‘techie’ type kid. He couldnt stand the fact that his mom had a BlackBerry, but was using the computer to check (every now and then) Facebook and Twitter. Soooooo…he downloads (uploads, I dunno) the applications…so now, I can know INSTANTLY updates about stuff I had to force myself to check into (on a good day)…and he (and my other kids) don’t understand that knowing everything, about everbody, all the time…doesn’t really matter to me.

I am amazed that the technologies are what they are, and that they will progress next month beyond where they are today. But that still makes me not care what a friend is having for lunch.

By Mary Quite-Contrary on 11/02/2009 10:48 am

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"Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto" - Styx

By Susan B. on 11/02/2009 10:49 am

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I received a pc for my 74th birthday last May. Oh what a difference it has made in my life. Being connected to the world is awe inspiring. I google,use Wikipedia and keep up with the news. Now I feel like I am a part of my family’s generation. Who knows, maybe a Blackberry is in my future.

By mary burdt on 11/02/2009 1:20 pm

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There is a great divide between my 70 somthing year old father and myself. He has my old iMac. But is not online with it. When he does go online it is with either my brother or myself looking over our shoulders. My sister in law is looking into a used iBook for my father as soon as the lastest semester ends. Kids usually leave computers behind. Last year she picked up one for the kids to use.

By Beth Cornell on 11/02/2009 1:59 pm

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I’m 53. I don’t have children, but it’s clear that none of my nieces and nephews have anything on me technologically. Sure, I would rather listen to Dylan’s latest recording than anything Miley Cyrus is doing, but if she’s around long enough I’ll probably listen to her too. Check out the celebrity playlists in the iTunes store. Even very young celebrities include so-called "boomer" music in their lists. There are generational gaps, but technology and music are no longer what define them. I think the difference between generations has more to do with the stage of life people are experiencing than cell phone usage or musical tastes.

By Livia Jones on 11/02/2009 4:26 pm

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Technology, in my opinion, will not divide the generations as music has in the past and does today. Technology is all around us. We no longer turn on the television without using a remote; we program our ovens; we no longer have mechanics who look under the hood —- they plug the engine into a diagnostic analyser, we use direct dial and e-mail as if they have always been here. The card catalog at the library has been replaced with a PC. Technology that improves our living standard or makes a task easier to accomplish, will be adopted by the older generations as well as the younger. However, the technology that interferes with our privacy will not be used by many of the older generations ….. Facebook and Twitter, for example.

By Bonnie O on 11/02/2009 5:58 pm

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I was extremely lucky that my parents listened to everything and encouraged us to do the same; so everyone in my family listened to classical, R & B, rock, country, you name it! Now that my parents are gone; I find that my siblings and myself have carried on that same spirit with our children and grandchildren (for some of my siblings). I am 57 and e-mail, facebook, youtube, etc. with the best of them. I knew I had arrived when visiting one of my sisters and my nieces invited me to text with them (we are all in one room, but texting each other) I found this hilarious but this is the new method of communication. Keeps the brain cells developing. I sometimes have to help the IT guy at work solve problems! LOL

By storrmi storrmi on 11/02/2009 7:41 pm

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I remember I balked and was indignant when answering machines became ‘in vogue’. For a long time, I simply hung up, rather than leave a message on a machine. It felt far too ‘alien’ to me. Yet, I eventually adapted … and wow! I now enjoy today’s technology. However, I’m discovering that technology is changing far faster than I can keep up. I’m continualy faced with the challenge of learning a new feature when using my computer, or any appliance or tool that has a computer chip [high-tech appliances, navigation systems, and all electronics]. It’s often intimidating. Yet, I’m amazed by how much I learn. And, I don’t mind Facebook because I can keep updated with what’s happening in my sons lives by checking in frequently. In fact today’s technology has changed the way I do everything. For example, I now receive email messages and pictures of my grandchildren sent via iphones and Blackberrys. Also, I like that I can sit and watch a segment of a classical concert [Mozart, Chopin, Mahler] on YouTube, or watch an old YouTube video of Ray Charles, or Ella Fitzgerald in concert. I can also watch a missed television program online … whether it’s a favorite guest on Charlie Rose, or a clip from an old Art Linkletter program. Indeed, today’s technology is a fascinating world, which seems the bridge the generations rather than divide it.

By Maizie James on 11/02/2009 7:42 pm

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I think technology will be the dividing factor. I’m 81 and use my computer, but not too many my age seem to want to use a computer, or if they do they are so "duh" over what to do. As for all the rest, I don’t text message, or do all the other things that are now done by seemingly everyone. I don’t have the time to do much, but everybody else seems to find time, and I wonder what I am doing wrong. My children, in their 50s, say they have slowed down on so much that their own children do, and their grandchildren will be waaaay ahead electronically than any of them at the rate they are developing new things constantly. I was in the Apple store recently and was amazed at the huge number of people there - almost wall to wall. I feel quite proud of all I actually can do for my age, and I really don’t care to text message, Twitter, or go on Face Book, although I actually am there, but not active.

By Lizzie R. on 11/02/2009 10:40 pm

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I find technology a dividing factor with many from my own generation. I have kept up with most of the new technology along with the new generation thanks to my children and grandchildren. However, many my age haven’t done so. Therefore we do not communicate very well. I am in 2009, not the 1950’s.

By Carol Legarra on 11/03/2009 8:39 pm

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Mr. Wow loves the immediacy of information on the web, and the ease of e-mail. However, what was once a ten minute professional conversation, has turned into a day-long back and forth of e-mailing. And, let’s face it, e-mail has made us all more lazy and casual and.. touchy! How often have we written something in haste, only to have the recipent respond with a "what did you MEAN by that?" An actual peron to person converation is less likely to be misunderstood.

The one area Mr. Wow struggles against is cell-phones, texting and tweeting. Now, I know for sure I’ll end up in some emergency situation, sans cell, and kicking myself for it. But I still seem to get along without one very well. I certainly will never become a texter or tweeter or join Facebook. Mr. Wow’s life is not so big or so interestiing that he needs to share each and every moment with good friends or total strangers. I don’t want to be "friended" Bah, humbug!

I think technology, the Internet, especially, has been a godsend to many, opening up their world, and for others an excuse to withdraw from life. There’s no fighting it, and most of what we use (or abuse) is, or has become, vital. But I miss…anticipation. There’s little sense of anything being truly special in a world where everything you want is at your fingertips, and within an instant. Now, you never "miss" anything. And there’s something to be said for not getting what you want right when you want it.

Then again, YouTube has delivered a world of classic performance clips to a whole new generation. And even old generations. Mr. Wow recently spent two hours on YouTube looking up Edith Piaf appearances on American TV. Perhaps anticipation is overrated.

By Mr. Wow on 11/04/2009 3:41 pm

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I think technology might be the great divider factor here. But there are some up sides to it. If we didn’t have technology, how would women get together to talk like this? But kids just want to go to their rooms and go on the computer all the time. We still need some family time!

By K T on 11/04/2009 4:10 pm