Not fitting in with the modern world

[summerdays]

Another thing that has given me food for thought recently is that I'm already a great uncle and mathematically could well become a great great uncle. All very different from my own upbringing, all but one of my 'greats' were already dead and the one surviving one died when I was 11. The idea of any living 'great greats' is quite beyond me.

I became a great aunt when I married my husband (I've never had the courage to ask by put we presume he was an unplanned accident, 10 years after the others), there is 20 years between him and his eldest sibling!

 

[speccy1]

I'm only 51 but I already feel alienated by the modern world. At least weekly, often daily, I encounter references to things that it seems the rest of UK society embraced several years ago but I'm only now hearing about. At work every communication channel is accompanied by photo's of office scenes (ie. of supposed colleagues) that never depict anyone over the age of 40. I was recently put down by a young colleague when I mentioned a new fangled thing such as Bluetooth. Apparently this is now ancient history. And already I'm suffering 'senior moments'. The other day I went to unlock my bike from the work cycle shed to discover I hadn't locked it in the first place. I can only imagine how much worse this is going to get in the ever increasing number of years I have left before I can retire.
Anyone else feel the same ?

I HATE technology, it tries to control us, but not in my house, when something refuses to switch off because the software won`t let it - it is on a major loser, I AM THE ONE WHO HAS MY HAND ON THE 13A SOCKET

I work with electronic bullshit as a job, and it drives me up the wall, I have no interest in it at home. You are not alone

And I`m 39.....................

 

[speccy1]

Only 84 years away! Not a lot when you think about it.

I`ll be 124 then

Not very likely!!

 

[snorri]

In the good old days the teacher would've launched the board rubber at you.

Thank goodness the children get more protection nowadays from these bullies.

 

[speccy1]

Thank goodness the children get more protection nowadays from these bullies.

I`m sorry but I think those days were better, it`s "the tail wagging the dog nowadays", authority figures have no power

 

[swee'pea99]

I heard on the radio yesterday that babies being born these days will probably be alive in the year 2100.

That made me think a bit ...

I read around the time my girls were born, in 1996 & 1999, that assuming lifespans continue to lengthen at the rate of recent decades, girls born now have a 50/50 chance of reaching 100. Which as I told my wife at the time meant that statistically speaking, the odds were better than even that at least one of our daughters would live in three different centuries.

 

[snorri]

I`m sorry but I think those days were better, it`s "the tail wagging the dog nowadays", authority figures have no power

I was just speaking from personal experience, not all schools were like mine.

 

[speccy1]

If authority figures could only gain their authority by throwing lumps of wood, they don't deserve any.

I`m not talking about throwing board rubbers, I`m talking about discipline

 

[slowmotion]

Hit by a board rubber...? You were lucky...

 

[classic33]

Are you?

The teachers can't say a word to them, and they know only too well.

 

[RichardB]

I sometimes get the feeling that the world is moving on by, and leaving me behind. I keep up reasonably well with the technology - it's the cultural stuff that I feel has moved on and not taken me with it. Partly, I think, it is that the older I get, the less point I see in keeping myself informed on stuff that has no value. Where once I saw important cultural developments, I now see only bread and circuses. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have a television at all.

I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends old and new, and there are some interesting and worthwhile groups I am a member of, so I check FB at least once a day. But I cannot understand the need to keep a phone in your hand and communicating with people 24 hours a day. I quite like my iPhone as a multi-purpose gadget, but it's a lousy telephone, and I keep a Nokia 6310i in a drawer for the day when the iPhone dies. (I checked it the other day, and it had more than half its battery left. I hadn't taken it out of the drawer for almost a year.)

 

[speccy1]

I sometimes get the feeling that the world is moving on by, and leaving me behind. I keep up reasonably well with the technology - it's the cultural stuff that I feel has moved on and not taken me with it. Partly, I think, it is that the older I get, the less point I see in keeping myself informed on stuff that has no value. Where once I saw important cultural developments, I now see only bread and circuses. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have a television at all.

I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends old and new, and there are some interesting and worthwhile groups I am a member of, so I check FB at least once a day. But I cannot understand the need to keep a phone in your hand and communicating with people 24 hours a day. I quite like my iPhone as a multi-purpose gadget, but it's a lousy telephone, and I keep a Nokia 6310i in a drawer for the day when the iPhone dies. (I checked it the other day, and it had more than half its battery left. I hadn't taken it out of the drawer for almost a year.)

I still only use an old Nokia phone, it`s old and reliable. I had a smartphone a couple of years ago on the contract and it drove me mad - one day after about a week it drove me too mad, I put it in the vice a re-designed it with a claw hammer.........................

 

[User32269]

I knew I was officially old when my 8 year old showed me about 16 things I didn't know my phone (I had owned for 5 months) could do.
He looked at me the same way I glare at my 85 year old Dad when he's been messing with their telly remote.

 

[growingvegetables]

The teachers can't say a word to them, and they know only too well.

Ummm ........... try me?

 

[RichardB]

I knew I was officially old when my 8 year old showed me about 16 things I didn't know my phone (I had owned for 5 months) could do.
He looked at me the same way I glare at my 85 year old Dad when he's been messing with their telly remote.

One thing I find quite hard to comprehend is the attitude a lot of youngsters have to the technology. For me, a smartphone is still a bit Tomorrow's Worldy, an expensive and advanced thing that you treat with a bit of respect. My iPhone is probably 4-5 years old, but could pass for brand new because I look after it so well. The first iPad I ever saw belonged to my step-daughter and she shared it with her kids - a few weeks old, the screen was cracked, the case was damaged, and no-one cared. It's just technology, almost a disposable item. They get them in school and they are nothing special. I find that quite difficult. I can hear my Dad saying "you kids don't know the value of things!" and I think I am turning into him. I know I am probably being a bit precious about this, but surely there is a value in looking after expensive stuff that you (or someone) worked hard to afford? It seems to be a generational thing.