Baby Boomers and the Internet

[ballpoint]

In an essay titled "How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet", Douglas Adams tried to explain it with these three rules:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

Apply this list to movies, rock music, word processors and mobile phones to work out how old you are.

 

I can't say I agree with him though.  I'm in my 50's and love new technology, (some) new music, and new phones with all the latest bells, whistles, apps and cameras.  I do see others to which these rules seem to apply though.  Personally, I think it has more to do with what state technology was when you were in your childhood and teens.  Those of us who lived through the earliest home computers in our formative years seem more likely to adapt to new ones, and the tech that goes with them, than those who grew up in a pre-PC (perhaps in both meanings) world.

 

 

[Kanada]

28 minutes ago, ballpoint said:

In an essay titled "How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet", Douglas Adams tried to explain it with these three rules:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

Apply this list to movies, rock music, word processors and mobile phones to work out how old you are.

 

I can't say I agree with him though.  I'm in my 50's and love new technology, (some) new music, and new phones with all the latest bells, whistles, apps and cameras.  I do see others to which these rules seem to apply though.  Personally, I think it has more to do with what state technology was when you were in your childhood and teens.  Those of us who lived through the earliest home computers in our formative years seem more likely to adapt to new ones, and the tech that goes with them, than those who grew up in a pre-PC (perhaps in both meanings) world.

 

 

I tend to agree “somewhat” ????

I think it’s more of a personality and confidence matter....a lot of people don’t like anything new....period end of story and fight that all the way!

so many others have lost their confidence and this is a big one with so many of my friends back home!

anything new scares them and causes stress just thinking about it!

I worked with a good friend teaching her about her new iPad (her old one was 5 years old or so and she never updated because she did t want anything to change)!

She just went blank....and she told me “the minute you start talking a wall goes up and there’s nothing!

I was there a month or so waiting to come back to Thailand so we slowly got it so she was comfortable and her daughter talked her thru a lot of things via video!

One day it was like a vile had been lifted and she was ok...no techie but she had some confidence!

it was nice to see but many don’t have patient people they can work with so more difficult to learn the intricacies of social media!

 

I go crazy filling out forms and they won’t accept my phone number or birth date because they have a unique way of entering...go crazy have a tantrum and then I sit down and read and it becomes obvious

clear as mud my Grandmother used to say????

 

By the way....”this” is social media just one site of hundreds of thousands and most aren’t any more difficult than this!

 

[frantick]

Boomer here. It's all just 1's and 0's to me. How many 'youngsters' would get that?

 

None not in IT, that's for sure. And most of those in IT are just configurators (System Admins) or hardware assemblers (PC Techs) not knowing s..t about how they actually work. I DO admire the few bright ones though.

 

But, I've always tried to follow the practice that you can learn something from everyone, young and old, smart and not so smart.

[covidiot]

11 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

Harvard is still Harvard, Yale is still Yale, Oxford is still Oxford.

 

I 100% disagree that young people are a lot smarter and Thailand is a good example. 2021 Thailand has no space program, no advanced manufacturing and are the slave labor for Japan.  The country has not advanced education at all for the longest of time. 

 

Looking something up on Youtube does not make a person smart.

 

University programs are bloated and full of useless theoretical garbage that only serves to keep people on a payroll. Most university programs can be cut down in half. 

 

Oxford is only accessible to rich kids. Making classes available to anyone with a device means poor kids from Isaan can access the highest levels of education. Which seems to be where the tech is headed.

 

There is a lot of very useful information on Youtube and other sites that is not available in any formal school.

 

If education is preparing for a job, then a formal school still wins. If education is lifelong learning for personal growth, then the internet wins. 

 

 

 

 

 

[micmichd]

On 5/12/2021 at 8:58 PM, Jingthing said:

Baby boomers invented the internet! Of course we understand. Silly millennials. 

In fact, American DARPA invented the Internet, based on a programming language called C with an integrated TCP/IP stack. Because they were afraid of a nuclear blast followed by a complete blackout - so they invented the "data packages find their own way" principle (IP = Internet protocol) 

The World Wide Web with Google etc was invented later, in California and Geneva. 

[Brierley]

12 minutes ago, micmichd said:

In fact, American DARPA invented the Internet, based on a programming language called C with an integrated TCP/IP stack. Because they were afraid of a nuclear blast followed by a complete blackout - so they invented the "data packages find their own way" principle (IP = Internet protocol) 

The World Wide Web with Google etc was invented later, in California and Geneva. 

It really depends when you define the start of the internet, for me it was always the UCLA/Stanford interchange:

 

https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet#:~:text=ARPANET adopted TCP%2FIP on,invented the World Wide Web.

[1FinickyOne]

22 hours ago, robblok said:

If you use the internet right you are way ahead of the babyboomers. I think its just too hard for your generation to accept that most of you are just out of touch with the new way of learning and gathering information.

22 hours ago, robblok said:

Must be terribly hard to admit that your outdated.

 

 

Thanks for the interesting posts and perspectives on this subject... I don't tend to be curious abt the workings of the internet but I did see a doc. on the way that people get sent down a "news" wormhole and that is why there are so many conspiracy theorists out there denying reality... and it wouldn't be a far leap to guess that it is people who are relatively new to computers who feel they have 'discovered' some vast hidden truth.. 

 

Well, you don't want to be ahead of the boomers as to ageing.. 

 

Outdated or outdating? Just have me home before 7 pm... 

 

I love the internet for the entertainment aspect... my "feeds" tend to be abt Mets baseball, the stock market, I like emails and being able to skype w/my old friends back home... I like that I can listen to music, watch movies, etc...

 

I don't pretend or even care about being up to date w/the latest terminology etc...

 

I walked into my bank last year and the greeter asked me if I had the app...  ok - short for application? and I could not understand why she thought I might be looking for a job... I told her thanks but I am retired. 

 

[Kanada]

18 minutes ago, micmichd said:

In fact, American DARPA invented the Internet, based on a programming language called C with an integrated TCP/IP stack. Because they were afraid of a nuclear blast followed by a complete blackout - so they invented the "data packages find their own way" principle (IP = Internet protocol) 

The World Wide Web with Google etc was invented later, in California and Geneva. 

Even tho’ it was there and operating it really wasn’t until later in the 90’s that www actually really hit the public  and the frenzied .com wars began!

 

[1FinickyOne]

14 hours ago, Kanada said:

she never updated because she did t want anything to change)!

I understand this... I have taken the time to learn how to do the few things I enjoy on the net... 

 

And I am really happy with that... make changes [and for no reason that helps me] and i have to waste my time re-learning and often they use terms I am not familiar with and I lose the functionality I had before... it can be lose/lose sometimes... 

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

 

Thanks for the interesting posts and perspectives on this subject... I don't tend to be curious abt the workings of the internet but I did see a doc. on the way that people get sent down a "news" wormhole and that is why there are so many conspiracy theorists out there denying reality... and it wouldn't be a far leap to guess that it is people who are relatively new to computers who feel they have 'discovered' some vast hidden truth.. 

 

Well, you don't want to be ahead of the boomers as to ageing.. 

 

Outdated or outdating? Just have me home before 7 pm... 

 

I love the internet for the entertainment aspect... my "feeds" tend to be abt Mets baseball, the stock market, I like emails and being able to skype w/my old friends back home... I like that I can listen to music, watch movies, etc...

 

I don't pretend or even care about being up to date w/the latest terminology etc...

 

I walked into my bank last year and the greeter asked me if I had the app...  ok - short for application? and I could not understand why she thought I might be looking for a job... I told her thanks but I am retired. 

 

The internet or more accurate browsers keep a history of what your searching and steer you in that direction. However i have yet to go to conspiracy websites. If anything one of the DOWNSIDES of the internet is that it gives all the village idiots a place to organise and discuss how the earth is flat and 5G spreads Covid and Covid is a world wide conspiracy to keep the lil man down.

 

To be hones I was more talking about people who constantly seem to put down change. You see it a lot on this website as it caters to mainly older people. I can't say how happy i was when google maps became a viable GPS. Before i had to go somewhere first to put it in my gps app (or work with coordinates given by someone else hard to do). Now people can send locations by whatsapp or line. Most apps have locations too. 

 

I like how there are now food delivery apps (especially handy now during covid) and how banking apps (or even internet banking) works. I love lazada as before i had to take trips out far to get what i needed. Now i can find it online even track when it gets delivered.

 

All those things were not here when i got to Thailand 15 years ago. Sure i used ebay but local is better. 

 

Then you got the people always talking about internet zombies. Though i must say that is a bit of a problem at times. Yesterday I was exercising in my home gym with a friend who was constantly checking his cryptocurrency and other stuff. But I was using my phone too to log my exercise weights and to stream music to my bluetooth speakers. So it all depends how you use the technology that is available. 

 

 

[Kanada]

1 minute ago, 1FinickyOne said:

I understand this... I have taken the time to learn how to do the few things I enjoy on the net... 

 

And I am really happy with that... make changes [and for no reason that helps me] and i have to waste my time re-learning and often they use terms I am not familiar with and I lose the functionality I had before... it can be lose/lose sometimes... 

Exactly what she said too...she didn’t want anything to do with the new updated IPad and really mad at me but I got an email from her just minutes ago where she had looked up information on some hummingbirds she loves and she’s happy as a lark

(she’s 91 by the way and lives in a big old house in the country with her dog)

im a big fan of hers

[Kanada]

3 minutes ago, robblok said:

The internet or more accurate browsers keep a history of what your searching and steer you in that direction. However i have yet to go to conspiracy websites. If anything one of the DOWNSIDES of the internet is that it gives all the village idiots a place to organise and discuss how the earth is flat and 5G spreads Covid and Covid is a world wide conspiracy to keep the lil man down.

 

To be hones I was more talking about people who constantly seem to put down change. You see it a lot on this website as it caters to mainly older people. I can't say how happy i was when google maps became a viable GPS. Before i had to go somewhere first to put it in my gps app (or work with coordinates given by someone else hard to do). Now people can send locations by whatsapp or line. Most apps have locations too. 

 

I like how there are now food delivery apps (especially handy now during covid) and how banking apps (or even internet banking) works. I love lazada as before i had to take trips out far to get what i needed. Now i can find it online even track when it gets delivered.

 

All those things were not here when i got to Thailand 15 years ago. Sure i used ebay but local is better. 

 

Then you got the people always talking about internet zombies. Though i must say that is a bit of a problem at times. Yesterday I was exercising in my home gym with a friend who was constantly checking his cryptocurrency and other stuff. But I was using my phone too to log my exercise weights and to stream music to my bluetooth speakers. So it all depends how you use the technology that is available. 

 

 

????????????

[robblok]

5 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

I understand this... I have taken the time to learn how to do the few things I enjoy on the net... 

 

And I am really happy with that... make changes [and for no reason that helps me] and i have to waste my time re-learning and often they use terms I am not familiar with and I lose the functionality I had before... it can be lose/lose sometimes... 

Usually the changes are not too much, and the more you work with apps and programs the more you will find they are all similar in how they are set up / work. Change just for the sake of change is not good extra things needed to be added that make the program / app better. 

[micmichd]

14 minutes ago, Brierley said:

It really depends when you define the start of the internet, for me it was always the UCLA/Stanford interchange:

 

https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet#:~:text=ARPANET adopted TCP%2FIP on,invented the World Wide Web.

For me, it starts here :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)#K&R_C

 

While HTML, invented in Stanford and also programmed in C, came a bit later. 

HTML's also got a pioneering name : Marc Andresen, Netscape. 

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, micmichd said:

For me, it starts here :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)#K&R_C

 

While HTML, invented in Stanford and also programmed in C, came a bit later. 

HTML's also got a pioneering name : Marc Andresen, Netscape. 

Wow that brings me back.. netscape

[micmichd]

4 minutes ago, robblok said:

Usually the changes are not too much, and the more you work with apps and programs the more you will find they are all similar in how they are set up / work. Change just for the sake of change is not good extra things needed to be added that make the program / app better. 

Yes, apps are object-oriented capsuled program pieces, mostly programmed in Java. While the Java Compilers are programmed in C++ (extension of C structs into classes) 

[Kanada]

7 minutes ago, micmichd said:

For me, it starts here :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)#K&R_C

 

While HTML, invented in Stanford and also programmed in C, came a bit later. 

HTML's also got a pioneering name : Marc Andresen, Netscape. 

Way past me....

It all started for me with Windows ????????????????

[Kanada]

On 5/12/2021 at 6:18 PM, bwpage3 said:

Before the internet, learning was accomplished by reading published books. With footnotes and bibliographies to the sources of the data and information.

 

There is so much mis-information, wrong information, or politically swayed information on the internet, which young person knows for sure what is true and what is not? 

 

Ask any young person what was the last book they read and they won't have an answer because they do not read.

 

Look back to all the wonderfully cool inventions developed before the internet and ask yourself exactly how people developed those things?

 

We sent a man to the moon before the internet!

 

 

Of course they read books....every book ever written is on the Internet somewhere!

your misunderstanding and mistrust of the “internet” itself is exactly what this post is about!

Its where you can go to access all the information ever written on any subject....but you have to be careful to sort thru the “opinions” of the crazies who have there slanted view on most things.

Want solid information on nature...go to National Geographic’s site....that’s all I’m saying

[millymoopoo]

On 5/12/2021 at 6:25 PM, Kanada said:

“echo chamber”

Totally agree with Kanada.

A wise man was once heard to say 'question everything'.....................

[micmichd]

16 minutes ago, Kanada said:

Way past me....

It all started for me with Windows ????????????????

I started with MS-DOS and IBM Mainframe operating (virtual punchcards on studip terminals) 

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, micmichd said:

I started with MS-DOS and IBM Mainframe operating (virtual punchcards on studip terminals) 

Same here and not to forget commodore 16 and 64 .. the amiga and of course zx spectrum 

[Brierley]

4 minutes ago, micmichd said:

I started with MS-DOS and IBM Mainframe operating (virtual punchcards on studip terminals) 

I still remember the Hollerith code and how to correct mispunched cards by wetting your finger and inserting chads back into the holes.

[1FinickyOne]

40 minutes ago, Kanada said:

Exactly what she said too...she didn’t want anything to do with the new updated IPad and really mad at me but I got an email from her just minutes ago where she had looked up information on some hummingbirds she loves and she’s happy as a lark

(she’s 91 by the way and lives in a big old house in the country with her dog)

im a big fan of hers

She sounds cool... I don't get mad but can easily quit from frustration... I love what the net accomplishes for me, a dream come true, and yet, if I already know how to do something and am happy with that... there is an annoyance factor in having to re-learn something that is functioning perfectly well... 

[OneMoreFarang]

On 5/12/2021 at 8:58 PM, Jingthing said:

Baby boomers invented the internet! Of course we understand. Silly millennials. 

There is the internet and the internet. What baby boomers invented has in many ways not much to do anymore with what it is now.

 

This is Tim Berners-Lee the inventor of the WWW. And yes, I know the WWW is only a part of the internet.

 

[Kanada]

22 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

She sounds cool... I don't get mad but can easily quit from frustration... I love what the net accomplishes for me, a dream come true, and yet, if I already know how to do something and am happy with that... there is an annoyance factor in having to re-learn something that is functioning perfectly well... 

I sure get that but I’m a buggar to see what’s around the next corner????

[micmichd]

8 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

There is the internet and the internet. What baby boomers invented has in many ways not much to do anymore with what it is now.

 

This is Tim Berners-Lee the inventor of the WWW. And yes, I know the WWW is only a part of the internet.

 

Yes, Web 2.0, Social Networks and AI changed a lot. But the basics are still the same. 

[wombat]

Like old mate says..

You have to sort the $h1t from the strawberry jam.

[1FinickyOne]

4 minutes ago, Kanada said:

I sure get that but I’m a buggar to see what’s around the next corner????

me too - very much so - just that I find that to be an outdoor in the world activity... I love to explore and meet new people... this has been one of my greatest pleasures in Thailand... new experiences. 

 

I want home to be relaxing... 

 

my earliest introduction to computers was at times involving well meaning friends - - when I would hear "Oh! Why did that happen?" I knew i was in for a boring couple of hours until I could use my computer again... 

[SheungWan]

19 hours ago, Kanada said:

Oh no....not one of those...please not one of those????

Internet technologies developed from the experience of the Apollo project.

[SheungWan]

47 minutes ago, Brierley said:

I still remember the Hollerith code and how to correct mispunched cards by wetting your finger and inserting chads back into the holes.

After shuffling them of course.