Many of us have had a conversation with a Grandparent or an older family member about our use of the internet. I decided to talk to my great uncle Bob about his use of the internet. He lives in Coeur de lane, Idaho and we communicate mainly through emails. He actively uses the internet for both work and communicating with family that live here in Oregon. I had to use the internet to ask him the questions and so it just showed me more that he was up to date on all the workings of the internet. My uBob (as he is known to me) uses the internet for both work and personal business, he knows how to send pictures through emails, which is very advanced for a man of his age. It is a vast difference between uBob and his brother (my grandpa) I don’t think that my grandpa even knows how to turn a computer on, let alone know where to find the internet. I think with uBob and the internet it has made his life easier, he is able to work from home and when he travels for business it is easier to stay in contact with his family back at home. Also it is easier for him to stay in contact with his son who lives in Arizona.
UBob says that the internet has helped improve his life. We are able to chit chat more often now that we have each others email address, and planning family functions when they come down happens a lot quicker. He likes the internet, he knows that it makes our lifes easier and it has brought us closer together as a family. Before we would only talk when they came down during family gatherings, but now we send emails back and forth every few weeks. I will be graduating this spring and getting them situated with a place to stay and planning the whole trip was a lot easier to do over internet rather than trying to catch each other on the phone with 2 opposite schedules.
In my opinion uBob has adapted very well to the changes the internet has brought. He is one of the few baby boomers that I have seen use the internet, I know people who are younger than him who are more internet illiterate than he is. I grew up with the internet and I still dont know how to use the internet all that well. I am one of those people who just dont understand technology; computers, tvs, surround sounds and cell phones. I recently bought a new cell phone and my 15 year old cousin knows how to use it better than I do, even my 9 year old nephew knows how to text message, I have a hard enough time getting a whole text message out without a million spelling errors. It just shows that the younger generations are more adaptable to the changes the internet brings. Im sure that the Generation Z or iGeneration will know how to use computers at a very young age, definately a lot sooner than we had learned to use them.
