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Are today's youth getting more involved with current technology?

S

silbeej

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 3, 2007
797
0
As i look back on the past few years of my life, i have realized that kids today are more and more involved with the state of the art technology. Has the way of life for young people changed with the rise in cheap technology, and thus made everyone more in tune with what has just come out. It might just be me, but as i look back on when the first computer was made (don't worry, i wasn't around yet) it didn't seem like a huge deal. Sure i read about when they came out and how everything was advancing, but not too many people thought too much of it. Now a days, with the rise of fuel cell cars and all this good stuff, many many people are involved and interested with it.

Where do you think this is taking us?
 
when i was 15 just seven years ago, i was still on dial up and didn't know as much as 15 year olds knew today about the internet. so yeah, kids are alot more involved with computers today, and i think alot of that has happened in the last 5 years. i think alot of it came with the emergence of dsl as opposed to dial-up. you didn't have to pay by the hour anymore and you can spend unlimited time on the net.

where it's taking us, i don't know. but we could be seeing some really interesting technology in the next 20 years or so.
 
I want an iRobot car and some sweet gadgets by the time i'm married.
 
silbeej said:
As i look back on the past few years of my life, i have realized that kids today are more and more involved with the state of the art technology. Has the way of life for young people changed with the rise in cheap technology, and thus made everyone more in tune with what has just come out. It might just be me, but as i look back on when the first computer was made (don't worry, i wasn't around yet) it didn't seem like a huge deal. Sure i read about when they came out and how everything was advancing, but not too many people thought too much of it. Now a days, with the rise of fuel cell cars and all this good stuff, many many people are involved and interested with it.

Where do you think this is taking us?
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I didnt know what a Mac was until the IMac in 1999...first one i ever got...never knew about macs
 
Youth are more involved with current technology throughout history. It so happens that tech/gadgets are part of the zeitgeist at the moment.

That you're writing posts like this means you're getting truly old :p
 
silbeej said:
It might just be me, but as i look back on when the first computer was made (don't worry, i wasn't around yet) it didn't seem like a huge deal.
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I'm pretty sure that it was very exciting for the people involved at the time but the average man on the street wouldn't know anything about it. I think that as the forces of marketing and the flow of information through media such as the internet increases we will see more hype and people will become more interested in this type of thing.

However, it seems to me that people are really only interested in consumer electronics and a lot of research in the academic world is overlooked by the public. Back when the early computers were being created they were locked away in university buildings. Maybe not that much has changed...
 
While they may know how to use it, they certainly don't know how it works... I ask any 15 year-old (or even those that are 18 just like me) and they have no idea how the internet is put together, or even any remote idea what their router does...
 
Maybe too many kids now are interested in using gadgets based on tech innovation, and too few are inclined to get into the innards of machines, computing, design, etc.

We have become a nation of superb retail shoppers. Who is raising the planet's future product developers?

"Involvement" or "interest" in technology can't just be about wanting a faster gaming machine and being able to parrot off the specs when Dad inquires about what one might want for an upcoming birthday. Someone has to figure out how to build the next great gaming machine (not to mention a better toaster, spacecraft, medical diagnostics machinery, atom splitter).

I think we in the United States may already be a couple generations into lacking a culture that celebrates the skills required for technological innovation. We mostly celebrate --and consume-- the RESULTS of innovation in this country. We may drive a lot of innovation via demand for it, but lacking the inclination and skill to produce it ourselves feels like a recipe for disaster. Not for us but for our great-grandchildren.

Even as a pre-schooler, I used to take things apart if I got the chance, as did all my siblings, male and female alike. I've experienced that dark thrill of reassembling something and having it work but also having, uh... a few parts left over! But I've noticed that my nieces and nephews didn't seem to do anything like that in their toddler years. Their bedrooms were always full of the latest toys from high end down to basic plastic schlock, but I don't think much of it could be dismantled and then reassembled into anything functional. I guess just about everything comes with a f'g warning about electric shock and "no serviceable parts inside" nowadays anyway. I wonder if their toys killed their imaginations and their ability to use their eyes, hands, brains in the service of innovation.

More usually an optimist than I am on this subject, I'd like to think I have this way wrong. Anyway it's been a nagging wonder to me the past few years.
 
When I was my sisters age I was making games, getting very good with Flash and Photoshop. Hardware wise I was wiring up my own big sound systems (even installed 2 Modus speakers behind my bed for no real reason, complete with a switch). All self taught at the age of 13, 14.

My friends have always been a bit behind too so I must be the odd one out :eek:

*It did stop there. I didn't graduate to building my own TV's or out like that :D
 
silbeej said:
As i look back on the past few years of my life, i have realized that kids today are more and more involved with the state of the art technology. Has the way of life for young people changed with the rise in cheap technology, and thus made everyone more in tune with what has just come out. It might just be me, but as i look back on when the first computer was made (don't worry, i wasn't around yet) it didn't seem like a huge deal. Sure i read about when they came out and how everything was advancing, but not too many people thought too much of it. Now a days, with the rise of fuel cell cars and all this good stuff, many many people are involved and interested with it.

Where do you think this is taking us?
Click to expand...
I'm afraid I disagree with your entire premise.

I also lived before the whole "computer age" thing and remember when they first came out. What I see is that then, as well as now, there are a group of interested, intelligent hackers and early adopters (mostly kids) that shaped the industry. But while it's true that kids today are brought up in a computer-filled, technological world, I don't find that they are necessarily more involved with technology at all. Quite the reverse in fact.

While that same group of computer-interested "geeks" still exists today, I would bet it's about the same percentage as it always was. For the majority of todays kids, computers are just devices that they plug in and turn on just like a fridge or a TV set.

IMO you are mistaking the prevalence of technology in kids lives with them being involved with that technology in any significant way.

Just as few people today can service their own car anymore, todays computer users often have less idea what goes on inside the "magic box" than the same group in the 70's.
 
I can't speak on behalf of the entire youth population, but I personally am much more involved than the typical 14-year-old. A little too involved. The iMac I'm sitting on has a second monitor hooked up, (A massive CRT from an older system) I'm obsessed with hacking and modding stuff (My iPod Touch has been operated on) and I'm involved with the development of open source multi-touch. (NUI Group) Much fun, but nobody else I know is on the same level as me. Mainly playing Halo and going on Facebook. :rolleyes:
 
You cannot say that kids today are more involved with technology because these children weren't born in a generation where this technology didn't exist. To them, this isn't "technology"....it's an appliance. You feel the same thing about technology you have always had. Technology and your life is intertwined as much as a "youngster's" life is intertwined with technology. The relative amount of technology used by you and a younger person is irrelevant, if you think about it. The amount of technology at a young person's disposal is much greater in number, but how many of it is so commonplace that they don't think twice? I don't use my microwave and think, "I'm using technology."

The point is that everyone will use as much technology as they're comfortable and familiar with. To a younger person, they're not "more involved" with technology. From your viewpoint, maybe they are because they're using new technology as though it was "just" a television.

For my mum, it means email and mobile phones. Anything beyond email scares her, because she already took the brave step of learning it. For myself, a 27 year old male, my "scare" threshold is higher, and email is no more alien to me than TV is to my mum. My mum always had TV.
 
I'd love to see the people my age and younger survive without cell phones for a day or two.. (myself aside, a cell phone is a tool, not a lifeline) It would be impossible for them... they'd be itching to text someone... Same goes for facebook. Quite sad...

like others in this thread have mentioned, I'm an 18 year old kid who grew up with the "knack." Always wanting to know how things worked on the inside.. I took apart old broken appliances. I couldn't be happier! I enjoy getting under the hood of something and am even happier if I can make it work better!
 
I think they rely on it more then they should. Let them learn the old way first then give them technology. Soon people will forget how to use a pencil.
 
MacNut said:
I think they rely on it more then they should. Let them learn the old way first then give them technology. Soon people will forget how to use a pencil.
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I agree. I've noticed how dependent my peers were on Graphing Calculators, because back in High School, they taught to the calculator instead of teaching HOW to graph... So many of them are screwed now that we're in University, and you're not allowed to use those kind of calculators anymore.
 
MacNut said:
I think they rely on it more then they should. Let them learn the old way first then give them technology. Soon people will forget how to use a pencil.
Click to expand...

Like I (sort of) said before, define "the old fashion way"? Is it only "old fashioned" if YOU didn't grow up with it from birth? To many young people today, a computer is nothing. It's just furniture. To you and me, maybe our first computer was special because it was pretty novel back in the early 1990s when I got my first 486 Windows 3.1 desktop PC.

My professor used the first calculators. He didn't have one, and then all of a sudden, he was cranking this huge machine so that it could spit out the numbers.

There are students are aren't allowed to use a calculator at all, and are forced to learn using maths done by hand. Should we go back that far?
 
ewww....

.... it's all Myspace's fault :p

haha, well...
... I got my first computer when I was 10
All for myself and I knew how to use computers more than my parents at age 12 (hehe).

I just think that it's because kids are growing up with this technology, they live in an age where devices work so much alike that it really comes secondhand to them.

THAT, and the accessibility of technology is even greater, cheaper, and better.

And computers are becoming a BIG part of schools.
 
iJesus said:
.... it's all Myspace's fault :p

haha, well...
... I got my first computer when I was 10
All for myself and I knew how to use computers more than my parents at age 12 (hehe).

I just think that it's because kids are growing up with this technology, they live in an age where devices work so much alike that it really comes secondhand to them.

THAT, and the accessibility of technology is even greater, cheaper, and better.

And computers are becoming a BIG part of schools.
Click to expand...

Your own computer at 10.. wow. I'm almost 15 and my mom still puts Parental Controls on my account. :mad:
 
I remember when I was just about 12 yeas old my parents presented me my first PC. At first time I just didn't know what to do with it besides gaming. :) Time passed and now I can't pretend my life without PC and Internet. Many of us can't. Today we are getting more involved in technology.
When my parents were young the didn't know what is PC at all. And now they need to be involved with technology because it becomes necessary. But it is hard to them being involved because they have another non-technological mentality. And they need our help to get through. This situation illustrates progress very brightly.
 
iJesus said:
LOL, I don't think I've ever had parental controls on my computers.
Click to expand...

I accidentally gave myself parental controls on Duke Nukem 3D. Back in Windows 3.1 when I was 11 or so. I put a password on to remove the naughty bits and forgot it :eek:
 
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