When I was trying to decide who I wanted to talk to in the 36-60 age range, I wanted to chose someone that I knew could use to internet but that it didn’t consume their life. That person was my dad,I taught him back when I was in middle school, how to set up an email account and how to get on the internet. He still is not the most technology savvy guy, that must be where I got my lack of tech skills. He will get on the computer to send out a couple emails but that is his extent to surfing the web. My dads computer is so old and slow that I am pretty sure the thing is as old as I am.
My dad doesn’t have time to sit on a computer wasting time browsing websites for hours at a time. He works for union pacific and he doesn’t need the internet to do his job, it would be weird seeing him working on the train cruising the internet. He has no need for the internet, but he chose to set-up an email account so that he could talk to his friends and receive messages from some family members who live out of state. I have never sent or received an email to or from my dad. We are the type of people that need to speak to the person over the phone or face to face. We show a lot of emotion when we talk and emails do not show our emotions like we would want them too. The internet hasn’t really affected my dad in a positive or a negative way, His life would be pretty much the same whether he had an email account or not. He realizes that the internet is a useful tool for people like my roommate and I because we are in school and need to access large amounts of information to write papers and complete projects.
The major differences between Gen X-ish and Baby Boomer that I chose to interview is that the outcome is different than what many people would think. I chose my people based on that fact that I know my dad doesnt use the interenet on a regular basis and I wanted to see what he had to say about it. I wanted to hear him talk about how he had to learn how to work a computer so late in life, same with my Great Uncle Bob, they both had to face learning how to adapt to this new technology when they are both over the age of 50. I have a hard enough time knowing what to do and I am only 23 years old. A big difference between these older age groups and their young counterparts is that many of us younger people had a computer in our houses growing up and we were taught basic computer skills in elementary school or more in depth skills in middle and high school, and even in college they will take the time to show you how to work certain programs if you struggle with them.
Heather,
I totally interviewed my dad (and mom too kinda) for very similiar reasons. I assumed my dad used the Internet, but wasn’t online all the time. But I was surprised to learn that BOTH my parents (my mom thinks the size of the computer is the monitor screen size!) use the Internet DAILY for at least an hour AND rely on it beyond email. In fact, they don’t really like email. They like to surf the web and do their banking, etc online. My dad downloads podcasts and my mom watches music videos on youtube. This is was crazy to learn! They also have biases toward the Internet that stem from new stories. Did you find your dad also had fears of the Web from the news?
Anyways, I wanted to check your site first because I know you get frustrated linking the readings to the blog posts. This week was especially difficult I thought. What do you think?
By: corinnefisher on February 25, 2009
at 4:34 am