re: Why can't old people grasp technology?

Why can't young people do jack shite except dick around on their phones and whine about everything despite being the most privileged generation in all of human history?

My dad still balances his check book.... Poor guy.

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and I bet he has health insurance too.

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What does having health insurance have to do with wasting time doing something that you can check in tow seconds with an app?

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I balance my checkbook and credit card accounts. Is that wrong?

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Why don't you just check your balance with your phone or computer? Just seems like an outdated task.

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Why don't you just check your balance with your phone or computer?

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I do. Part of it is habit. Part of it helps keep my spending in check.

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Why don't you just check your balance with your phone or computer?

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I've discovered errors by balancing. Also, I annotate significant purchases, which allows me to search for when I bought something, which I do a few times a year for various reasons.

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Just seems like an outdated task.

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You could always call the bank to get your balance. Nothing has changed. People have just gotten lazier.

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My dad just is completely oblivious to the fact we have the technology to where he doesn't have to balance his checkbook anymore.

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What is this technology of which you speak?

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I'm 57

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I am one of your contemporaries; go figure...

I would consider myself 'handy' with technology but I've never been a so-called tech geek or first adapter type. I have friends who are, though.

I think the primary technology gap between generations exists for two reasons:

1. Younger generations see things like new technology (and language and politics and fashion and popular culture, etc.) as harbingers of their group's ascendancy over previous orders. This creates a self-interest in focusing on new technologies, even if they aren't really that new, and insisting that they are fundamentally changing human existence in ways that only they can fully understand, for example.

2. As one gets older and gains more perspective about time and change, there is often a realization 99% of younger generations' take on technological determinism is mostly wrong and that you can get along just fine, and in some cases excel, with technological accoutrements that younger generations view as passe.