Study: middle-aged people unimpressed with modern technology
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted December 31st 2009 5:32PM
posted December 31st 2009 5:32PM
posted December 31st 2009 5:32PM
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@joelaf
Steped on it with my slipper, OUCH
Most middle aged people most certainly couldn't do better now.
I am unimpressed with this stupid poll ...
Unimpressed. totally.
We are being held back.
We invented anti-gravity in the 1950's and no floating cars dude.
1. this is not a "study," it's a poll.
2. John Zogby is neither feared nor respected. He's a hack. He's a terrible pollster with dubious ethics.
Topolsky, you fail twice.
We took a step back in terms of air travel after Concorde and that was like 30 years ago; imagine what we could have now if concorde's were updated and still built.
Hmmm....this post seems to be implying that someone 35 years old is middle-aged.
??
@tomberarducci
If I recall correctly humans live to around 70-80 something 35 is half of that which would make it the middle between 0-80 so 35-40 is middle aged
@Xoy
According to Wikipedia [ http://bit.ly/4OscUj ] ,three of the 4 possible definitions they give for middle age start at 40. But one does start at 35. So you are one-quarter right. I stand corrected :|
Http://www.whatnottodothebook.com
So being 42 myself I'm part of the old crowd? I think not. I am truly amazed at how far we've come since my first computer back in 1981 (The Commodore Vic-20 with a whopping 20k of ROM LOL!). 29 years ago we didn't even have cell phones, now we've got 'smart phones'. That to me is probably the biggest breakthrough in technology; The ability to grab a phone out of your pocket and call anyone in the world at anytime is almost mind blowing.
It makes me wonder what criteria they used to conduct the poll, because I know of at least 100 people older than me that still talk about how far we've come.
@cherryboom
Damn, get jaded much?
Well, I'm 47 and started in IT many years ago when I was 18 and the greatest things around were TRS-80 PC's and IBM big iron like the VM/370.
Guess what? I'm not very impressed with the current rate of modern technological advances.
Yeah, we've got faster processors, better graphics. point and click GUI's and more HD space now. But it's still all pretty much much for muchness really.
Give me mindblowing cybernetic interfacing, thought reading, everyday space processing wearable PC's with ocular implanted full colour HUD's, cheaply and safely, and then I'll be impressed.
Same age. Started out on mainframes with 640k of core memory and punchcards. A lot of the electronic tech we have now is amazing, but banal. I want jet packs and flying cars dammit! (at least a car that drives it's self) Computer wise, we are ahead of the curve, but transportation and energy wise, way behind.
What I hate about the "new technology" era is:
1) getting nickle and dimed to death for everything, and
2) the new entitlement attitudes with people assuming that my time is theirs, and that I need to be at their beck and call. There were no cell phones when I was growing up and if you wanted to talk to me and I wasn't around, tough shit, leave a message, I'll get back to you when I feel like getting back to you. If I'm out doing something, I don't need to interrupt what I'm doing to answer your call or return your text message. My time is more important to me than making you feel connected every minute of the day.
my professor in computer science is 69 years old but I hate him as he said Windows Vista has a lot of problems.
@mikmik111
I'm sorry to say it, but I experience them on a daily basis. BSOD's for no reason, and Microsoft Update not updating automatically. A crapload of common software just crashes for no reason (such as Outlook).
PS: It works pretty well on good hardware. But it should work on cheap hardware as well, like Win7.
@Very Powerfull Codfish Vista worked quite well on my VAIO SZ. (I utilize the past tense because I have since upgraded to 7.)
Well, its like this. Im 51 yrs old. I started out with black and white tv. Party lines on the telephone, 45's and 33 albums. Went to 8 track tapes, then cassettes, VCR's then CD, then MP3, computers, cell phones,Flat screen tv with cable, it goes on and on. IM not saying i dont like these things but when you get my age you have spent a small fortune keeping up with the technology. The stuff you bought 2 yrs ago is irrelevant now. See what i mean?
@steveoman
Since you're 51, you should remember a little event called the Vietnam War right? Well, I had the honor of spending an entire year traipsing through the jungles of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos trying to identify the remains of our MIA/POW's from that war. Living in villages that don't have electricity, running water, etc. is a humbling experience and made me appreciate the advances our society has achieved. It sounds like a bunch of whiny bitching to me when I hear that we haven't progressed fast enough yet.
At 57, during a recent vistit to Ankor Wat, shared a long cab ride with three nice Canadian college students studying in Asia, and was able to recognize from personal experience the origin and evolution of all the technology they blabbered on about. I was studying IR (search) theory at Berkeley in the '80s when BIll Joy was working on BSD, and Eric Schmnidt and Peter Norvig (the real brains behind Google) were finishing their PhDs in management and NLP. I had built my own rigs since 286 and knew that Apple was a great design, marketing and investment (rather than technology) house, though the Knowledge Navigator has come to pass, with no special help from Apple, except as above. I had overheard the inside buzz about Twitter in the VC and developer communities long before its' popularity (as you know, it's technically trivial), and facebook is just the mass market version of the vanity page from 1995. And they mean very little, just v0.2 of something that will take another form as the technolgy becomes invisible.
The big question is when and how all the kinds of information that will be available will be applied to serious problems at a social scale. So far, you engadgeteers remind me of the PC 'homebrew' enthusiasts of the '70s, which is good, but there is also the stench of burned-out consumerism in the air. "Smells like 'de feet'".
BTW, do see Ankor - a vast Buddhist circuit board where you get to play electron.
Damn, other people in my age range are rather jaded around here. I'm in the National Guard and was deployed to a location that doesn't have anything in the way of tech. A lot of you people take these things for granted because you are exposed to them every day. Try living without tech for a while (like I did for 1 year) and see just how dependent you are on technology.
When I was a kid, I was sure I would own a flying car in my lifetime. I never imagined anything like the internet. Given the choice of the two, I would take the net.
I'm sure the government will find a way to make driving flying cars just as miserable as driving our current ground-bound models.
millions of flying cars, driver stupidity, patchy DIY home repairs, software viruses and software failures would have these things dropping out of the sky like flies. It's never going to happen.
Technology has certainly come far, but I've been waiting for magnet-rail hover cars for a decade now.
Missing the point--it's not what you think of high tech--it's how you *relate* to it. Most of the 35-50 folks (and older) invented the tech that you 16-29 year olds are using. Sure, you're creating cool stuff that runs on the actual tech. Twitter is not tech, it's web code running on something that some old guy created! That's why most younger folks take tech for granted, as a computer or network is like a tv to them--it's a given. For them, the passion is in the web 2.0 type stuff and the gaming.
Another perspective--Geeks are even different depending on age--To most older geeks, tech is a tool to get something done. (art, business, whatever). To young geeks, it's the tech itself that allures. That's why (example) the young geeks have to have the lastest processor, but the older geeks know that it won't matter--they know that practically i/o bottleneck negates any observable difference. Maybe that's just experience and better technical knowledge, or maybe older geeks have just seen it all before....
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@arby
Yeah that too. There's too many spec peepers on the internets.
Once you get older you realize there are alot of marketing forces whose business is to inflate the magnitude of differences between iterations of products and standards to make each new iteration as attractive as possible.
And sites like this are part of that system.
Experience means you take it with a grain of salt.
I showed my dad, who's forty-five, the adamo xps. he just stared at, and said, yeah, so? what does it do?
@cherryboom
I'm with you. That's about how us middle agers feel.
FYI: Barbarella introduced Sleeper to the Orgasmatron.
I am 43 and I am in awe of some tech but certainly not impressed at the rate of overall change. The two most important developments in my lifetime are the internet and the pace of miniaturization. I am a pharmaceutical research scientist. Despite having all the info tech in the world, there has been a decrease in the number of new drugs being approved by the FDA. We have an information revolution when we really need a knowledge revolution.
were were all supposed to be in flying cars and able to teleport by now. What the hell happened.
My grandfather has a cellphone, computer, email address, and a facebook account. All of which he uses in at least a semi-competent manner.
All he needs is an iPod for the universe to explode.