21st Century Family

What does a generation gap in the 21st century look like? Does it look the same as one would have looked back in the 1800’s? How about 5th Century BC? Does the rate of current technological change affect this gap? If technology helps broaden this gap, then are modern “less technical” societies less affected?

As I watch kids that are 10 carrying an iPhone that their parents really think is just a “phone.” How is the generation gap changing with technology? First, I have to acknowledge clear trends that show huge numbers of older generation men and women getting involved with social media and newer technologies. However, just because they have it and use mean they are playing at the same level. Let’s use the cell phone and social media as examples. A grandmother may very well use a cell phone to place calls and then fire up the old Dell to log into Facebook to see pictures…thus making her “technical” for her age. On the other hand a young person today generally insists on having a mobile device on them that is always connected to the cloud and can provide instant access to friends/family/games/music/etc. They are super comfortable with the technology and willing to share and create all kinds of information. Privacy is just a thing old people talk about. They use their cell phones to both create media (text msgs, pics, video,etc) and they have all type of social media sites (FB, Twitter/Twit pics, etc) to connect with each other and they do it like it’s second nature.

In the business world the differences are even more profound at times. There are “old school” leaders (even C-Level IT leaders) that don’t understand shifts in current movements of social media like many young people do. Although they might get up to speed on certain technologies they don’t necessarily eat/sleep/breathe it like many young people do (of course there are always examples). In fact, many that will probably read this will be surprised at e-mail commonly being referred to as “old school” by younger crowds. Now it’s all about always on, instant information: micro blogs, real time search, etc.

It’s natural to have generation gaps as technology pushes forward…the question I’m chewing on now is this: “does the generation gap grow on the same curve as the technological growth curve?”

Perhaps the gap will actually do the opposite as older generations get more connected? Will opening up more ways to communicate with younger generations actually create greater understand and therefore narrow the gap?

At this point I think the jury is still out but I would enjoy hearing some other people’s opinions on this!

UPDATE: Here is a perfect case-in-point…the Supreme Court of the United States has trouble with a “sexting” case because they are not up to speed with what most consider “basic” technology: http://holykaw.alltop.com/supreme-court-befuddled-by-sexting-case