6) Interview three people from three different generations, 18-35, 36-60, 61 and up. Discuss with them how they use the internet. What are their primary uses of the internet? How comfortable are they with communicating on the internet? Has technology changed the way they live their lives, for the better or worse? In general, what do they think of the internet? Summarize your interviews on your blog. These may be posted as one blog or three separate blogs (though this still only counts as one week’s worth of entries). What do you learn from comparing the three generations.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
18-35 : 7/28/08 (Over the Phone), Ashley Read –
For this age range I interviewed my friend Ashley Read. Her primary use of the internet was for school. She does a lot of research for her papers she writes for all of her classes as she pursues her Biology Undergraduate degree. As a side note, I chose Ashley because her desire is to be a scientist. In Chapter 9 of Technopoly, Postman goes into great depth about how technology and science can be “misapplied and falsely trusted in,” (161,162).
When I shared with her about my readings, she was very interested. She agreed that in a lot of ways science with all of its theories and hypotheses is a hope…a faith. She said that being a Christian allowed her to navigate around some of these issues, particularly the moral ones, but at the end of the day she too struggled with how science and technology often produce false hope and shaky ground for humans to stand on. She also leads a group of college-aged people for her church group Remedy. She said that she uses social-networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook a lot to keep in touch with her group during the days when they do not meet. She also uses the sites to get in touch with friends she has not seen in a while. When I asked her whether or not techonology has changed her life for better or worse she said both. She is a people person so she hates that she has to primarily keep in contact with people over the computer, but she loves the fact that she can use it as a tool, because otherwise she would never talk to some of her friends. Ashley said she is pretty comfortable using the computer and the internet, though she keeps in her circle of influence who are much better at it so she does not have to become an “expert.” She likes that she can use the social sites to send out mass invitations to events, this is a very useful tool for her. In general she thinks that the Internet is scary, mostly because she knows very little about it and is afraid that if it in not kept in check some how that it could easily become something that is, “too intrusive with long-lasting negative effects.”
36-60: 7/30/08, My mom (Terry Armstrong) –
For this age range I interviewed my mom, Terry Armstrong. Currently she is not working, so the internet is primarily used to search for jobs, email regarding job interviews, and for shopping online. Mostly she shops for things like concert tickets and the occasional piece of clothing. She likes that she can view the Register Guard online, this makes it easier than thumbing through all of the job placements in the Sunday paper. She likes that she can specify the type of job she is looking for and all of the available listings “pop-up” immediately. My mom said she was not that comfortable with using the internet. She just discovered that there is a thing called AdWare and SpyWare and dealing with that on her computer has been hectic. She is only comfortable using her email account with MSN and does not know how to get an account elsewhere. I imagine she will be the type of person who will keep this account for the rest of her life unless something horribly drastic happens. In general, she thinks that the internet is “far beyond her mental capabilities.” She said that she rarely gets on because she does not like the hassle of trying to “figure things out.” Overall this technology has made her life better. She is able to communicate with people who live long distances from her and she is glad that she does not have to rack up a horrendous phone charge to “speak” to them. She thinks the internet needs to be monitored more and she mentioned she was really saddened by the case where the young girl took her life because of people acting “foolish” on the MySpace.
61 and up – 7/27/08 (Rod Haney-My husband’s stepdad –79 years old)
For this age group I interviewed Rod Haney, my husband’s stepdad. He knows about the internet, but that is about it. He does not own a computer. The only interest he has in the internet is Ebay, because he is an avid antique dealer/collector. He asked me if I could help him out, but showed no interest in learning how to do it himself. He also was interested in having me email a missionary in the Philippines whom he is donating money to. He gave me the missionary’s email address and now it is my job to be their liason. Again, he showed no interest in learning how to do it himself. =) When I asked him what he thought about the internet he said it is like, “the television these days, full of a lot of garbage.” He clearly is not comfortable with or knowlegable about the internet. He thinks we should go back to the 50′s, he recollected with me about his life in the 50′s and how it was so nice back then. I think he is comfortable with limited technology, ie the television and the land-line phone…as he stated, “no cell phone for me…no way on God’s green earth!” Evidently, Rod is not nor will he ever be a follower of what Postman refers to as scientism, “a comprehensive belief system based on faith in science,” (147).
I find Ashley’s view on science to be very interesting. If we were to apply this to the internet specifically, it makes me wonder about the implications of false hope and shaky ground. Creating a brand new internet architecture that will do this and that better probably makes sense in theory today, but could very well collapse on us in the future. Maybe in the future finding a job is only possible on-line. This in of itself can be a bad idea because it’ll limit the unemployed population.
Great post! Very thought provoking.
HAHA I could so relate to your interview with your mother and Rod. Both my grandmother and mother(whom I interviewed) are very scarred of the internet as well. I think Both Rod and my grandmother could be apprehensive about using the web because it is completely new to them and new things aren’t so appealing at a certain age.
I am also using the internet to find a job right now too, just like your mother. Monster.com is a new discovery for me and it is really great! Just upload that resume and spread around to the employers and hope to get a bite. But I think it’s pretty hard to b successful in getting a decent job connection through monster because most employers really want to judge people in face-to-face communication(understandably). Have you ever looked over monster.com or another job finder website?
OH and we both named our blog post with the same tittle…interesting
You’re husband’s father sounds a lot like my grandfather: they are afraid of the things that they don’t know about. I wonder if the world experienced the same sort of learning curve with the television, or the washing machine.
As for science and technology, I would agree. The internet definitely provides people with a false sense of truth. What was once reliable, “If you saw it in print than it must be true,” now holds a whole different meaning since anyone can’t post something and call it fact.