The new generation gap

“Raul etta, caan v play jumpin motrcycl game in the compooter?” no, nothing is wrong with my spelling. These are the words of my 4 year old cousin brother. This made me sit back and think about the impact of the new age technology on the younger generation.

The first time I heard about computer was way back in the late 1990’s. I would have been 13 then. The first time I used the computer was when I was 15. Computer was a luxury then, a luxury unlike the present day luxury which every one can afford. Only one student in my batch owned a computer then, and he was rich. He was so rich that he made sure he had an internet connection also. Mind you, at that time our district did not have the facility to support the internet, so he had to dial to Cochin to get the internet connection, and that was an STD call. I remember being in the audience at his place once where he was showing off his internet facility. Had I known the importance of internet, I swear I would have been flabbergasted. But unfortunately I did not know about it, and so did many of my peers. The situation was synonymous to a blind guy trying to admire the beauty of sunrise.

I owned my first desktop when I was in my 11^th grade. I bought the desktop as it was a necessity for I had computer science as a subject. It was the best in the market, and yet the Chandler in me took control over me and I spent the time watching movies and trying to play few games (I was miserable). Had I spent the time and effort in a diligent manner, I may have owned an enterprise like the google. I happen to read The Google Story, and it was clearly stated that the initial promotion that google got was by word of mouth. When I look back, it was same in my case also. I was referred to google by a friend of mine. I was one of those kids who did not understand the power of internet and often spent the time searching for porn, and trust me; there is lot of porn in the net.

Back in the good old school days, assignments and project mainly involved many laborious hours from our side. If the project involved pictures, then the time spent on it would be even more for I was really bad at drawing. We had to go through so many books, papers and also hunt for few picture charts in the market and finally took the aid of parents if possible to complete the work. I felt snug about having to do a project for it made me feel that I had done something and also because I could spend less time studying. Now the case is different, every project is available at your finger tips. The list goes on. The first time I made a bank transaction, the first time I booked a railway ticket, air ticket, and so on. Everything may sound mundane, but it did have one thing worth treasuring. The innocence attached to every act of the first timers. You do not get that these days.

In contrast the present day kids are way different. I had a hard time differentiating between hardware and software when in 10^th grade, and dot matrix printers where miracle, whereas the present day kids get accustomed to the computer world rather swiftly. My 3 year old cousin knows how to switch on a laptop and also knows that he can play online games thanks to the search option in google. He knows how to use a cell phone, especially the ones with camera. St this early he is adept in taking snaps with the same. On the other hand I got my first handset at the age of 20 and I happen to own the camera phone much later. I am marveled at the pace with which technology is seeping through the younger generation. I may not be a historian or a wise aged, but I still treat this particular pace with much skepticism. Do not ask me why.