Technophobe

Sitting on my balcony studying on this beautiful day I see a young boy with his gran and granda on the path below. They have a set of walkie talkies and the gran and granda are in front trying to talk through them to the grandson. I can hear the young boy shouting “you’re not pressing the button down; you need to press it down when you want to talk”. This made me smile and got me thinking, we often talk about what kids can learn at school and from there parents and other adults in their life but we very seldom think about what kids can teach the grown-ups. Thinking about lockdown and how everyone moved online I can’t help think about how older generations without access to, or knowledge of technology must have suffered. I know how much time I’ve spent online during lockdown, whether this be studying, keeping in touch with friends or seeking mental health support. Although I feel the pandemic has had a negative impact on both my studies and mental health and can’t bare to think how much worse things would be if I didn’t have access to my laptop and a wifi connection.

Its’s all very well and good us moving with the times and adapting to new technology. That’s easy when you know the basics but what about the people that don’t have the basics? Do they get left behind? Should we pass on our technical knowledge to our parents? Should we get our kids to pass on their knowledge of the latest gadgets to us and in turn their kids to them so that everyone at least knows the basics? Just something to think about….