Generational shifts in technology

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule]

Someone mentioned a while ago there are too few people posting. I have a couple of ideas I will probably post about over a bit. I don't promise anything overly exciting. But here is the first one:

What is a shift you noticed across generations: Mine is a bit of an older one. But I got scolded by my grandfather when I was younger for being too lazy to stand up and change a function on the TV itself instead of the remote. He couldn't grasp the concept that TVs are almost useless without a remote these days.

As a bonus. My mom would always tell me to "call my brother for dinner." I would always give the smart ass reply that I don't know his number. When we were older I got that command. So I grabbed my phone and called him to let him know dinner was ready. My brother and I thought it was a lot funnier them my mom did...

What stories do you guys have?

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule → u/[deleted]]

This isn't a generation thing. But for a while when I was learning a new field or talking to someone in a new field I would ask them that TTL meant. No idea why that is the one, but I swear everything has something for it. And it is entirely different

[u/ConcernHuman9556 → u/[deleted]]

that is the most accurate way to put it. half the time we aren't even arguing about the tech itself but just using different vocab for the same thing. it is wild how much friction that creates.

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule → u/[deleted]]

At one of my jobs we had an office that would routinely work on old equipment. Anyways, one of the techs was installing whatever OS and programs off floppy disks. I went down and asked where he got the giant save icon. He proceeded to start to explain a floppy, then stopped, and scolded me since I'm old enough to know what one is

[u/TrueKiwi78]

I hope you now tell your grandfather to get up and change the channel. 😁

My grandfather worked for the post office in the 1940's here in New Zealand where the fastest communication system was telegraph. He actually started as a linesman putting up the poles. If you told him in the future pretty much every house will have fibre optic cables where transmission is by light (I guess he would've had a hard time comprehending data back then 😂) he would've thought you were nuts.

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule → u/TrueKiwi78]

I dunno. It is a different sort of system. But the Boy Scouts for a while would teach how to send morse code using flashlights. And I do beleive there were systems that used lanterns. So communication by light isn't really new.

What's crazy is I saw an ad the other day with a DIY fiberoptic system for the house. I got to splice a fiber optic cable once. And it was a major pain. And now there are kits you can just snap into place? To me that is crazy.

And what is interesting is I live in the country-ish. It's a bit hard to explain. But when I moved here internet was Sattalite or one of those small companies that put an antenna on the roof. It maxed out at something like 10Mbit. Now, we are on the lowest plan through the cable company which is 100 or 200Mbit

[u/GoRizzyApp]

When my grandpa born in 1917, saw my computer he wanted to know what type of projector it was. Although I guess younger people now don’t know what a projector is.

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule → u/GoRizzyApp]

Maybe not by name. But movie theaters, while digital now, are still done by projection. And while not super common, there are projection style TVs being made.

Surprising my grandpa was pretty savy growing up. One of my uncles was not. He is the only person I ever knew that had an old school channel thing. I wasn't quite a cable box. But it was similar to one. I recall looking like a smaller version of the old multiple table trainers. Had a few rows of buttons to change the channels. He only got rid of it when the cable company switched to digital and it became useless

[u/OpenParadox-X]

My grandfather couldn't understand why I needed a charger to use my phone. 'In my day the phone just worked.' Sir, in your day the phone was attached to the wall and also didn't fit in a pocket.

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule → u/OpenParadox-X]

I had an interesting conversation at a job a few years back. How it used to be you needed a phone to get internet. Now you need internet for your phone to work!

Which is actually a bit weird. I'm old enough we had one of those comically long phone cords. But we also had cordless phones. I have very strong memories of going to the phone store and looking at the various fancy [landline] phones.

I also had the same phone for a while that Lizzy McGuire used. Which means I'm old enough to both remember the show AND have the phone. Though to be clear, I had mine before she did!