I grew up in a log cabin on a mountain no fewer than 3 miles away from the nearest paved road. We had a land line for phone calls, but didn’t have cable. When it snowed, we stayed indoors for days at a time and never expected anyone to come plow us out. We had winter tires and still put chains on them if we wanted to go out and the only time ‘we’ tested this was when my mom delivered me during the blizzard of January ’86.
Finding out you had a snow day as a kid was so different than it is now. I remember begging my mom to let me go to sleep later because school was going to be closed tomorrow… then waking up super early in the morning to watch my school closing to scroll across the news screen. My county started with a W, so I had to wait a really long time to catch a glimpse of the official closing. If a commercial break came while my school was scheduled to be announced or I blinked for a second and missed it, TOO BAD, I had to watch all the A-V schools be announced again.
While I understand that that was almost 20 years ago, it’s still amazing to think about how much has changed since then. During last week’s historic storms, I got 99% of my information from the internet (mostly on my cell phone) moments after announcements – closures of metro, government, or businesses – were made.
My office goes by the federal government’s snow policy, so if they’re closed, we’re closed. Well, Office of Personnel Management closed the government four days in a row last week. Unlike growing up, they did so promptly – almost every night before 8pm. The first day or two, I kept refreshing the OPM website anxiously hoping they’d update the site. Then, I discovered that following the right people on Twitter gets me the information much quicker!
While I was reflecting on the differences between snow days as a kid and snow days as an adult, I thought about this incredible article I recently came across in The New York Times about the rapid implementation and integration of technology and cyberspace in our daily lives. The article discusses how quickly generational gaps will develop, and how small those gaps will be among age groups. Conceivably, vast differences could be seen when comparing say my little brother’s first grade class to the kids in his elementary school’s Pre-K program.
I don’t see myself personally falling victim to this new digital divide at this point in my life… I mean, I did find the article online because I have Google reader that picks out articles like this for me to read. But, I do notice my friends falling behind already. Practically none of my close, personal friends are on Twitter or Facebook and, while they understand the value of what I do with my life and how I do it, they have very little comprehension of what goes into it and how it can be beneficial to my organization. Also, this sentence rings true for me already:
“They’ll want their teachers and professors to respond to them immediately, and they will expect instantaneous access to everyone.”
I absolutely want instant gratification when I send an email, @message to someone on Twitter, or a Gchat message. Sometimes, I’ll get it, but not always.
I recently had a conversation with someone where I basically got all my online neuroses out, verbally… for the first time. These are some online pet peeves I have:
- You should be on Gmail. If you’re not, why? There’s really no web-based alternative that is superior to Gmail. I promise.
- If you’re not in highschool, your screen names should be your real names or something close. Everything you do can be found online whether you want it to be or not, so you may as well put your real name on it. Try something out, Google your “Firstname Last name” (in the quote marks like that) and tell me that your first few results aren’t your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (assuming you have those… which you should!).
- Don’t act like privacy settings will actually block people from seeing information you publish online that you don’t want them to see. Yeah, no one reads the fine print and it’s generally accepted that no one will. For all we know, we’re signing away our first-born to send out messages in 140 characters or less, but don’t expect the information to not be indexed by a search engine or republished by the platform you’re using to publish information. Also, don’t expect someone else you’ve deemed suitable to read your information to not republish it. Online publishing and conversation isn’t about controlling the conversation you’re involved in, but being a positive part of it.
While I have, and recognize, these online neuroses, I think the most important thing is that I still have the foundation to go out and find the information on my own. Technically, I may sit back and wait for things to come to me, but it’s because I’ve signed up for a newsletter or an update to be sent to my email address as soon as breaking news occurs or because I’ve figured out the best news sources to follow on Twitter (@welovedc and @DCist_Updates).
My dad and stepmom might not be the most tech-savvy people, but my little brother still gets the coolest electronics for Christmas and his birthday (this year he only got a Wii and called to let me know he opened just a few presents). Every year, I make a stringent effort to buy my little brother as few “tech” toys as possible so he gets a lot of handmade things and books so that he still has a thirst for things he can touch, feel, and investigate himself.
When I think about things like this, I do think I’m being a little old-fashioned (or an old fogey as the article so kindly terms those of us in our mid-to-late twenties). But, as much as I love working with the internet and the interesting way you can communicate via this forum, I still love to create things with my hands, repurpose items in my house, and explore things without using the Google Maps app on my iPhone.
Maybe he won’t be helpless as the article suggests, and maybe the internet and over-connectedness of my little brother’s generation will spark more insightful ways to discover new information than Googling and Tweeting. Only time will tell. This old fogie will be sitting back and watching from the comfort of my computer the whole time.
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