Why millennial's easily adapt technological changes?

1. 41

   Apprisiaposted 6 years ago

   What are the reasons millennial's adapt technology easily whereas mid age & old ones do not.

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   1. 96

      theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I'm really old, I bought my first PC in 1984. I taught computer applications at a college. I don't have any trouble keeping up with technology. I suppose because I'm interested in it. I used to wonder why more kids weren't keen on IT and all the new developments.
      
      Having said that, I hate mobile phones, even though I use one, and some aspects of the internet pass me by. Not keen on social media because I don't see why anyone in their right mind would publish every detail of their lives on a 'world stage'.
      
      While 'millenials' (no apostrophe, by the way) may be able to use their tech. Some of them have no idea what to do when something goes wrong. No clue. Mama has to step in and fix it for them. Broadband stops working, I'm the one who has to make it work.
      
      So I think you are making rather a sweeping judgment. We're not all tech-illiterate, you know.

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   2. 88

      NateB11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Young people grew up with the prerequisites to our current technology; they had a head start with a lot of it, like second nature to them.
      
      I also agree the younger generation is more open minded. I can't stand people from my generation, a generation of backward bigots no matter where they belong on the political spectrum. I feel way more comfortable among younger people, they aren't all hung up on the old divisions and are more logical and understanding.

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      1. 96

         theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah, well, we all started off idealistic and ready to change the world. Those young liberals will also grow up to be "a generation of backward bigots no matter where they belong on the political spectrum." 
         
         It's just the way of things.
         
         Thanks for the compliments though, Nate, much appreciated. I love knowing I'm a backward bigot, illogical, and incapable of understanding. Nice one.

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2. 41

   Apprisiaposted 6 years ago

   I agree with you @theraggededge. The main thing to adopt any of the new development can the the "interest" or the "willingness" to learn new things.
   
   Also many a times millennials likes changes and always ready to try things, whereas mid-age or old age people think twice while adapting new changes.

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   1. 96

      theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      You keep saying that... yet I see my contemporaries taking on challenges, undertaking new experiences all the time. Maybe you are judging based on people you know? I taught a class once where most of the participants were retired and looking to learn something new. Willing to try to come to terms with new technology. The oldest was 82.
      
      You really must stop making these generalisations. We may 'think twice', but that doesn't stop us doing new things.

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      Chriswillman90posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      If you want to make generalizations then why are young people so obsessed with smartphones and social media to the point that they value getting likes on their pictures or posts rather than actually make real friends.
      
      Why are millennials so narcissistic and feel the need to post every minute of their boring lives online?
      
      How does that make you feel?

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3. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 6 years ago

   Like Raggededge, I don't agree with your basic premise.   Many middle-aged and older people adapt easily to technological changes.   Remember, computers first arrived in the workplace thirty years ago - can you imagine what a huge change that was?   Many of us have continued to learn and use new technology since then.   I'm in my sixties and have been running my own websites and blogs for the last ten years or so.
   
   I think the difference is that millenials don't have to "adapt".   They've never known a world without these technologies, so there's no adaptation required - it's just normal.   Whereas older people remember a world without technology and we don't always feel the technological solution is the best one.  Just because something is a new way of doing something, that doesn't mean it's always better.

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4. 90

   Kylyssaposted 6 years ago

   I'm an early adopter. I owned an e-reader and cell phone in the nineties as well as a server. I don't use paper books and I sometimes write my own search algorithms. My art has been a combination of digital and physical for the last twenty years and I grab onto useful new programs the second they become available and I can afford them. I hardly know how I survived without all the technology I use every day before it existed. I'm currently designing a DIY 3d printer built of old computer parts and hand cut pieces because I can't afford to buy a really nice big commercial version.
   
   My brother, who is even older, teaches millennials in the military to use the latest counterintelligence computer technology in DC. He creates drones from scratch as a hobby.
   
   Millennials believe older people can't use technology because they don't understand that older people invented the technologies. They are unwilling to value people older than themselves as human beings and equals.
   
   Here's the flip side that I see- most millennials I know have no idea how computers work and couldn't build one if their life depended on it even if they had a pile of components and tools in front of them.

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5. 96

   theraggededgeposted 6 years ago

   +1000 Yes! Perfect response, Kylyssa.
   
   I have built several websites, own two laptops, two tablets, an Echo, wireless/smart devices, etc. I know how to get stuff connected. I know how to fix things. I've reinstalled hard drives, set up computers with no operating systems. I like new tech. This assumption that everyone over the age of 50 is technically illiterate is quite insulting.

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6. 86

   Terrielynn1posted 6 years ago

   That statment and discusion is very insulting. I hook up our tv, stereo and even prograqmmed our satillite for internet and located our satilite tower mysellf. I programe and fix all our electronics and own a macbook that I programmed myself, an Ipad and I fix and control all our iphones. I am not sure why you think millenials are smarter and adapt better. I have even taught my grandchildren and others how do these things themselves. I do not have any formal training. I think this assumption will insult more people.

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7. 92

   blueheronposted 6 years ago

   People of any age like to stay in their comfort zone. For millennials, technology for day-to-day use is well within their comfort zone. Millennials are as likely to resist learning things outside their comfort zone as older folks--as for example replacing a breaker in their breaker box, or replacing their breaker box. (I've done both--and felt very resistant to the latter.) How do millennials feel about replacing their own spark plugs or brake cylinders, repairing a brake lines and bleeding out brakes, or replacing brake shoes and rotors? They probably feel uncomfortable about doing these things and will resist learning to do them. People simply prefer to do things that they find familiar and comfortable.

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      That is a very good point.
      
      I remember in my youth, reading books about a dystopian future where all our modern technologies and mankind had gone back almost to the stone age.  I always thought such a scenario highly unlikely - surely humans would get a semblance of civilization going fairly quickly?
      
      But now I look around and realize that if there was some kind of cataclysmic disaster, the vast majority of the population would have no idea how to prepare the ground for a garden or find seeds to plant, how to sew together a basic garment, how to build a shelter etc.  Whereas I would at least have a basic idea where to start - and my parents would have known how to tackle all of those things, and my grandparents even more so.
      
      As for technology - if all our tech was damaged, who would know how to rebuild it? Not many.

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8. 60

   Travis Kaoullaposted 6 years ago

   Chriswillman90, because they learned those traits from their parents.

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9. 65

   SoaresJCSLposted 6 years ago

   Yes!

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10. 90

    Kylyssaposted 6 years ago

    Looks like the OP is just trying to promote their company as their profile does. They didn't get the response they wanted (bashing of humans over thirty by everyone here), so they likely aren't even reading responses anymore. Or they were just paid to spam x number of fora for pay. They must be an older person because that's so 2007!
    
    People are people and trying to build divisions for profit is a jackass thing to do no matter your age.
    
    Millennials are no better and no worse than anyone else. Old people are people and, if millennials are fortunate, they'll be old themselves one day. It's not very forward-looking to see people only a few decades older than yourself as useless if you plan to not die in a a decade or so yourself.
    
    How will this kind of age discrimination stand up in the actual future if people live to, say, age 200? I'll bet our descendants will think it puzzling that some humans once valued people for only a small fraction of their lives.

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11. 92

    FatFreddysCatposted 6 years ago

    
    
    
    
    "I used to be 'with it'! Then they changed what 'it' was! Now what I'm 'with' isn't 'it,' and what's 'it' seems weird and scary to me! It'll happen to you too!"

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12. 72

    thranaxposted 6 years ago

    The majority of people don't adapt easy to technological changes. Thats why they always become easier and easier for people. A part of the reason why that illusion exists is because once humans learn something they are creatures of habit, and its 5-30 year olds habit to use the tech thats around them. The powerbutton is the powerbutton, it doesn't change, it powers on the machine. The changes that come out today don't actually change the basics and if they do its minor enough to be used to it almost instantly. I used Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, 7, and 10 and they all work the same, some have more features and shortcuts, but all work the same to the end user.
    
    The ability to transfer skills and knowledge from application to application is an advantage younger people have and older people have a hard time grasping.  In a mechanical world, sweeping the floors, installing a car part, and cooking food are all different skills - on computers using an operating system is just using an operating system. Apple OSX, Windows, Andriod - it doesn't matter, they are all the same purposed thing that link and do things differently internally not externally.
    
    The ability to learn how to do things is also widespread now. To install a car part in 1950 you had to ask your father, ask a mechanic, or read a magazine or guide that you had to first find then buy. In 2017 you do a youtube search and get a step by step video guide and can copy it just like a monkey. The major difference is the "learning" network younger people have now compared to old days. We ask "The World" how to do something, older people had to ask "Experts" or "Librarians" or "Static Books".
    
    The skillset older people tend to have is finding accurate information, where today the skillset millennial's have is determining if what they find is B.S. or not, if its the absolute easiest or cheapest way, and if they can carry out what is required.

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       theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       More generalisations.
       
       Anyway, I started with MSDos, then 3.1... Windows 10 is a doddle compared to word processing in DOS. I learned Visual Basic, a bit of Pascal and a ton of applications. So how come I don't have a 'hard time grasping' new applications?
       
       Your last paragraph is utterly confused and backwards, by the way. It's like you just made it up.

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       1. 72

          thranaxposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          You don't have a hard time because you cared enough to learn how computers work. If you used MSDOS then you learned the building blocks then grew with the technology overtime. To most people technology is like the Wizard of Oz, all they see if the big green head - they don't know how behind the scenes works. Change the head or the head color, and the general public go ballistic.
          
          Im young and love computers more then the people around me. While I am not much of a programmer I do know HTML enough to make websites, use various creative suites to create images and content, and enjoy piecing together and building computers from components. From my current first hand experience my aunts, mother, and even my cousins who are all between 20 and 35 don't even know 1/10th of what I do about what makes computers work, how to do things on operating systems, or even that there now exists ways to do the things they always wanted to but didn't know how.
          
          Texting and talking on a cellphone is a whole different world to my oldest aunt in her 70s. Even though she used a traditional computer at work for more then 25 years. Various stages of her life she was fluent in "current" technologies starting with IBM Key-Punch Card machines. Even though she can type on a traditional keyboard better then me, has used phones and computers from start to present, she still can't easily grasp using a cellphone or in fact any computer older then windows 98.
          
          My mother as an example was a secretary for the president of Eastman Kodak's film department for 28 years and used a computer the entire time yet has an inability to understand even the basics of modern computing. Its been 8 years now i've been trying to get her to convert her bill proofs from being print outs on a printer to PDF's saved on the harddrive+a back up USB drive. Which she doesn't understand usb drives no matter how many times I explain and show her how to use them.
          
          Another clear example of how far behind some people are is that both my aunts the month after I graduated High School brought me in person, in their minivan, to the UPS dispatch center and told me to walk in and just get a job application. I told them that they are only online and they didn't have any. I walked in, asked the gentleman at the counter for a job application. He laughed at me and said go to the website. When I went back to the car and told them it wasn't until then reality hit them that the world is different now.
          
          The final paragraph that seems confusing to you makes sense to me perfectly. In 1950 you learned from books written by "Experts" in the field. If I wanted to learn Gardening I would buy a Gardening Book published by Bob Vila because of his "reputation". I am not saying everything in the book is written perfectly, but what I am saying is its been reviewed and tested before publishing and had to hold up to some kind of "standard" so his reputation wouldn't be tarnished.
          
          In comparison, I could read the Hub "How to grow the biggest tomatoes" by User8405 and there is a good  chance that none of the content will work and that they are trying to sell me Miracle Grow. Thats because User8405 doesn't need to be verified in any way, shape, or form.
          
          Also, in college you cannot site sources like "Wikipedia" because of there ability to be edited by anyone. It is not a "scholarly" reference backed by verified means. Thats what I mean by "Older people find factual and true information, and current day youth need to be able to not be bullshitted by random online people."
          
          The conclusion I came to on the subject of my personal experiences shouldn't be undermined fully by your experiences. Thats what a forum is - a place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged. I no way condone that older generations can't learn or use technology the same way younger ones can. I also don't condone making them a "target market" but I do support the facts that I personally have experiences with.
          
          While im happy you don't fit the stereotype that doesn't mean the evidence on why the stereotype itself doesn't exist. In a perfect world, no generalizations or stereotypes. In this modern world, there are more then ever before.

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             Kylyssaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

             Let me guess, your family wasn't big into science or technology, ever? And that maybe they are kind of conservative, not necessarily politically, but in their choices?
             
             Most of my family, friends, and associates fall to the progressive end of things, not necessarily always by the political definition of the word, but by the "being into progress" end of things. I literally only know one older person who is no good with technology. All my friends and family members but that one can, at the very least install new programs and apps on their phones and tablets and use social media and Skype so much it's almost embarrassing sometimes. They can make, edit, and upload videos and download media. Several of them, like me, sometimes even write their own code and build new things. I learn something new every day online. Almost everyone I associate with is forty or older except for the children and grandchildren of old friends who are also friends. The millennials I know are also not like you; they value their elders as people no better or worse, no smarter and no less smart than themselves. They're also pretty good with grammar.
             
             See, you know a bunch of people in your family who aren't good with tech and I only know one in mine. Neither of us can judge the billions of humans over thirty based on such information, just like I can't assume your entire family doesn't know the difference between 'then' and 'than' just because you don't. There are programs to help with your grammar. It's not even a particularly new thing.

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                thranaxposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                Well, that must really string a cord with you. I didn't know that localized self observation and experiences could be challenged because they are observational facts known uniquely to me through my personal point of view. You could argue that my sample size is too small to make an assumption, or that my situation didn't accurately depict the conditions that you were a part of and know to be true. What you did though is attack me three times on my grammar and once on my overall knowledge of computerized literary programs. Neat.
                
                Personally, I type with between two to five fingers without  looking, I just know where the keys are in memory. I grew up with Microsoft Word Auto-correct and while it attempted to correct grammar often times it failed. While I have no particular interest in extensively studying English, I did achieve solid A's in the course. While my overall grammar is ghastly my use of words to convey ideas - specifically about art as it was an art description themed course, still allowed me to be dramatically advanced over my classmates to a point my teacher personally told me that the work was excellent and that she would personally help me if I choose to craft a defense and go for my masters degree. There are a lot of literary masters here at Hubpages who carefully craft sentences, have perfect grammar, and know caveats such as "then this happens" and "I'd rather have this than that." Sadly, I grew up in a time where grammar just isn't important outside of business or schooling. I used to type whole sentences in "leetspeak" 1337sp3ak, replace whole words with letters or numbers "u, u2, lets go 2 the store", and worst of all and still do use currently meaningless slang to anyone outside of the current culture "swag, fam, yolo." The main point is, wrong or not, regardless of what version of "then" I use the majority of people can understand the message which Is all I am striving for, abet negative response from what my generation would call a "grammar nazi." Just incase you never heard the phrase before, this is what it means:
                2. a – A person who believes proper grammar (and spelling) should be used by everyone whenever possible. b – One who attempts to persuade or force others to use proper grammar and spelling. c – One who uses proper grammar and spelling to subtly mock or deride those who do not; an exhibitor of grammatical superiority.
                
                I answer forums, questions, and create comments on Hubpages as a hobby. While I enjoy debating, the exchange of ideas, and the betterment of people overall - I do not enjoy people who slander directly on how they communicate regardless of type-o's or blunt English ignorance. Even if my quoted, grammar incorrect post offended you in some way, I worded it correctly to be solely my point of view and conclusion based on a tested method (observation overtime). I didn't go out of my way to falsify information or directly "attack" anyone.
                
                And this:
                
                
                I have the up-most respect for my elders. I never once said I de-value them in anyway. I do everything for my mother, my aunts, and in my family. You should literally be ashamed to even make this outrageous cynical remark. I literally pointed out my point-of-view on my families current ability to understand and use technology based on the question - I never once slandered them or showed a sign of disrespect. Two things you don't know about me:
                
                1. I was a Hubpages Elite member here helping out literally hundreds of people directly in one-on-one's of how to create articles, edit images, and join the community as a whole.
                
                2. At the age of 21, I was a Certified Home Health Aide, the youngest person the company ever had, and took care of elderly persons from everything from hygiene and cleaning to cooking and companionship.
                
                You can attack my grammar or observations but can you at least refrain from attacking my personal morals as a human being?

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                   Kylyssaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                   That's a pretty high horse to be on when your thread was created to disparage everyone older than yourself. I attacked the grammar because you attacked billions of people as less than yourself. I was pointing out the irony of the kind of person who uses words like 'upmost' calling most of the people older than themselves intellectualy inferior. Your sample size is ridiculous, but your hypothesis was pretty foul to begin with so it really doesn't even matter. It's like claiming the most important reason the Wakefield 'study' didn't prove vaccines cause autism was the sample size was too small and poorly selected. The hypothesis was bull no matter the sample size.
                   
                   If you wish to proclaim your belief in your own superiority you pretty much have to prove it to maintain your credibility.
                   
                   Did your feelings get hurt because there was blowback for bashing billions of living humans based on your sample of just your family? I'm only a grammar Nazi to people who claim to be superior beings.

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13. 92

    blueheronposted 6 years ago

    I had a recent conversation with my 30-year-old daughter about the way most people view the world. She has mentioned several times that, before we moved to a dilapidated "fixer-upper" house, she had no idea that walls were made of 2X4s on 16" centers, covered with sheetrock. They were just "there." Many, if not most people's perception of the world is as a "hologram" that's just "there." The biggest downside to computer technology is that it tends to reinforce this view. It seems to be making it harder for people to differentiate between words (symbols) and the concrete world of objective reality. The more people are immersed in this world of symbols, in which they see all things as "holograms," the greater the difficulty. It's as if a sense of reality has been lost.

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    theraggededgeposted 6 years ago

    Looks like the OP achieved their aim

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    Kierstin Gunsbergposted 6 years ago

    I'm a millennial and I'm actually having a hard time adapting to recent technology! My toddler children on the other hand, know how to work my iPhone better than I do. Hmmmm....

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    shon1121posted 6 years ago

    There are exceptions for sure and some amazing young people, millenials.  Think my biggest issue is ignorance, lack of manners or respect.  It is the same and true of young people throughout time, they have not lived enough and so forth.  However, technological reliance is isolating and the fact that people in mobile shops and so on are trained in such a way- the falesness and pouncing on you as soon as you cross the threshold...doing their job, yes but reading from your script you do not listen to needs of others.
    
    My friend and neighbour is in her late 60's and is a very clever lady, she has a trouble to adapt to new things and was sold an ipad and a smartphone.  She had to take these back.  Technology has moved on very fast, it is good and bad.  Like most things.

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17. 90

    Kylyssaposted 6 years ago

    And yes, it strikes a chord. People have labeled me and many of the people around me as "less than" since my earliest childhood and I'm damned tired of it. If your point were to praise millennials rather than to bash elders, you could approach the issue from an entirely positive direction. You could talk about the genius level of adaptation you've witnessed instead of voicing your feelings that, with a few exceptions, most of us who've survived a few more trips around the sun are just not very smart or adaptable.
    
    Your tone is patronizing and I'm sick of over forty years of being patronized by people who see me as less than themselves because I'm younger than they are, differently-abled, female, non-heteronormative, unattractive, or older than they are.
    
    No one is less than you. Ageism is no more acceptable than racism, sexism, or homophobia.
    
    Yes, chord struck. Bash the young and you'll hear it again.

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