Technopoly's Hold on Different Generations

For this week’s blog post, I interviewed a 29 year old friend of mine, Jason, my mother (54), and my grandmother (80). Jason’s responses were similar to how I would have responded. He uses the internet, which he accesses through his iPod Touch using whatever Wi-Fi access he can find for a variety of reasons: work, news, music, games. Jason runs a warehouse for a sporting goods company, so he often uses the internet to send emails, check stock from vendors, setting up shipments or checking tracking numbers on shipments to customers or from vendors, and scheduling deliveries. For pleasure, he uses the internet to send emails to friends, participate in fantasy sports, read news, watch sports highlights, and download music/games/apps from iTunes. I say that his answers resemble mine because they are what I would consider balanced. He uses it for various work functions as well as a source for the information he enjoys (music, sports, games, news, communication). Jason feels that he is very comfortable with the internet and it has changed his life for the better, making once tedious tasks much simpler.

The second person I interviewed was my mother. She responded that she primarily uses the internet for research, email, and news. My mother falls into the next age category and its interesting to note that her uses, while mostly for pleasure, are more limited than Jason’s. She doesn’t surf the web for music, games, movies (general entertainment). Instead she seeks out other sources to fill those voids. She may rent a movie, read a book, or listen to a cd. I’m pretty sure if I were to ask her to define what iTunes is she would give me the same look a five year old would after being asked to explain the Iran-Contra affair. While she does use email to communicate with family and friends, her preference is to talk to them on the phone. My mother could talk for hours uninterrupted. A typical phone conversation for her would take months to have via email.

The final person I interviewed was my grandmother in Minnesota (she turns 80 later this year). To her credit, she has been using email for many years now, although it took a little teaching for her how to use it. In addition to email, she said she also uses the internet for “searching for information” and, two things that really surprised me, internet shopping and banking. I say this surprises me because my mother has always been skeptical of putting any kind of personal information online, regardless if it’s under a “secure connection.” This surprises me because her comfort with banking and shopping is an interesting juxtaposition to my mother. However, the more I though about it, being 80 years old and in a place where the state flower is snow, it makes sense. The older we become, the less mobile we are creating a bigger role the internet can play in making up the difference. When asked if the internet had changed her life, her response was that all technology has changed her life and that it “probably” had changed her life for the better although her general feeling about the internet was that she wasn’t addicted to it and that she didn’t need to use the internet on a daily basis. Even though she wasn’t prompted about internet addiction or the need to use it on a daily basis, her answer reflects what I assume is a general reflection by older generations that the internet has become some what too pervasive and in that sense has contributed negatively, in some ways, to younger generations.

The responses I received from my three interviewees, I think, aptly define our culture. The younger someone is the more likely they are to use the internet in a variety of manners. In general, younger people are more comfortable with the internet and because of this they are more likely to use the internet to seek out different forms of pleasure. Just like with my mother, I highly doubt my grandmother understands the importance of things like iTunes or Facebook on my generation. My mother and grandmother both appreciate immediate, unmediated communication and therefore are less likely to use the internet in those capacities. Postman believes “computer technology has served to strengthen Technopoly’s hold, to make people believe that technological innovation is synonymous with human progress” (117). My mother and grandmother’s mild skepticism about the internet may be their way of rejecting Technopoly’s hold on our society.