The Digital Divide Among Generations

                                           The Digital Divide Among Generations




Back in the eighties, cell phones were the size of of cordless house phones, and if your friend's parents had a phone in their car, they were considered fancy and well-to-do people.  Nowadays, that is an antiquated notion, no longer a novelty.  Flash forward to the present day, where just about everyone has cell phones, laptop, or some sort of device that can surf the internet through wireless data options.  I personally don't even have a single friend that actually has a landline, except for those that have children.

Beyond the digital divide that is affecting the more impoverished sector of our peers, there is also a generational divide.  As a Korean-American, this is even more true with people like myself who have parents that immigrated here many years ago.  To us, and other foreign born parents, there is a great sense of confusion swirling about all of this new digital technology.  My parents often times say that its hard enough trying to keep up with the things in english, and that they just don't understand how a smart phone or computer works, besides the basics of looking at photos and listening to music.  Also, many people of the earlier generations would rather read a physical newspaper or book, rather than "squinting their eyes at a tiny screen where the battery could die on you."

My mother sees my iphone as a pollutant and threat in my environment, always paranoid that i'll be playing a game on the phone and be hit by a car, hating that I will occasionally text at the dinner table.  She seems a but frightened, because technology is moving too fast, and she can't keep up.  Even though I've tried putting the language setting to korean on an ipod for her, she still insists that she doesn't know the steps on how to go about listening to a specific song or radio station, and that the pictures I loaded on there are small, so whats the point.  A cd, you just pop right in she says, why go out and buy new music when you already have some right there and all you need to do is press play.  Also, I know that countless people have been guilty of bringing their phones everywhere they go.  According to the Laws of media, it can end up reversing our social connections, because we have this superior sense of connection at all times, but the cost may be that we actually lose our sense of listening and comprehending things, by buying into what isn't actually truly important in our lives.

Attached is a video that I found amusing because it's so stereotypically amusing.  An asian girl has three iphones, knows her treble clef music, has a cute cat, and is americanized in her music choice....