Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y

The time after Christmas is tough for us Baby Boomers. It's the time when your modest understanding of technology is laid bare, when your memory is tested and found wanting and when the differences between a modern Christmas and those of long gone years become so much more apparent.

Growing up then was pretty simple, even though you didn't think so at the time.  Perhaps you got a new bike for Christmas, or a cricket set. Whatever it was, one thing was almost cetain. It came complete. (For Gen Y, that means it didn't need putting together, a difficult concept to grasp, I agree). Now, I confess I'm a Chartered Accountant. This puts me well behind the 8 ball when it comes to completing anything technical or practical, although I am gradually mastering the difficult task of 'cutting and pasting'.

We used to get a cricket set, complete, bung the stumps up in the street and play.  Occasionally, but not often, you'd have to stop for a car (we are talking side streets, here), before resuming play.  Presents now are different. 'Insert nut A into left handed reverse threaded doowocky B'. It takes a Chartered Accountant some hours to complete any of these productions and it's never satisfying.  Perhaps this is because I'd run out of bandaids, but more likely that feeling of worrying dissatisfaction that is always there.  You eventually decide that the extra 'Nut A' you finished up with probably wouldn't make much difference.

Probably.

Instruction sheets for even the most complicated presents were relatively brief.  Instruction booklets now rival 'War and Peace' in size. That's for a potato peeler.

The thing that hasn't changed is that they are still written in 'instruction language'. Only a select group of Chinese opium addicts who have had a few English speaking customers have mastered this special language. They are related to the special group who ensure that at least one of the crucial parts of the assembly will definitely not fit where it's supposed to fit.

Technology. I confess that I have several 'smart' gadgets. Phone, IPad, etc. I have studied the instruction booklets for most of these for several years and can now proudly state that I am able to use them to 7% of their 'smartness'.

Enough for now, but I'l have more to say a bit later.

Happy New Year.

I put together a toy kitchen for my daughter this year. Opened the box to find it had 40 odd parts and a WHOLE TRAY of various nuts, bolts, screws, do-hickies and thingamywhatsits.

3 hours it took me. I guess that what we deserve for consuming cheap products made in sweatshops in developing countries.

The 'Allan Key' would better be described as the 'Demon Key to Hell' IMO.

Episode 2 - Passwords.

We almost never needed paswords then, unless you were in the army, returning to your lines.

Now you can't do anything without a password. Banking, IPad, every possible account you run with anyone, even football forums.

'Have you forgotten your password? Enter your email address and we'll send it to you."

Oh good. Oh.... What email address did i use for that account. Of course, the home one (when you're at work) or the work one (when you're home).

Confessions of a Baby Boomer. I can't text with my thumbs at 280 wpm, but I'm getting there, up to 7 wpm with the right index finger.

Privacy. We didn't have privacy legislation then. You'd ask a question and generally get an answer (mind you, it was usually 3 weeks later). Today I rang an energy company (we used to call it electricity, or ETSA) about my account, but they couldn't tell me anything (privacy provisions).

Apologies if this is late,but I forgot my password.

redandblack wrote:Episode 2 - Passwords.

We almost never needed paswords then, unless you were in the army, returning to your lines.

Now you can't do anything without a password. Banking, IPad, every possible account you run with anyone, even football forums.

'Have you forgotten your password? Enter your email address and we'll send it to you."

Oh good. Oh.... What email address did i use for that account. Of course, the home one (when you're at work) or the work one (when you're home).

Confessions of a Baby Boomer. I can't text with my thumbs at 280 wpm, but I'm getting there, up to 7 wpm with the right index finger.

Privacy.  We didn't have privacy legislation then.  You'd ask a question and generally get an answer (mind you, it was usually 3 weeks later).  Today I rang an energy company (we used to call it electricity, or ETSA) about my account, but they couldn't tell me anything (privacy provisions).

Apologies if this is late,but I forgot my password.

Interesting you should mention passwords RB
At work we have to change our log in password every month . Still I can not understand why   
The credit union on the other hand as long as you go online once a month you don't need to   
Would have thought credit union you would need to change not a password to say your at work at such and such time   

Ahaha - love this thread!

I can't text with my thumbs AT ALL - I sit there and watch 'A children' and wonder how the heck they do it/and so fast   

Excellent thread mate.

My offspring (17 and 13) no longer have small complicated items that need assembly at Christmas. The small complicated items they negotiate for throughout December arrive already assembled. Phew.

One did however purchase a new queen bed recently. I opened one package of assorted nut/bolt combinations and read the instructions. My eyes were drawn to a certain nut/bolt grouping called F1/F2. Namely the 120x next to the mildly similar sketch. Long night.

Passwords and emails. Very interesting topic.

Same/same for everything or this and that here and there?

My theory is repetition of email and assigning a few passwords to accounts that are linked, cryptic or not, to the account.

Say, a boating forum might be a yacht name you own.*

* I don't go on boat forums or own a yacht.

I use variations of the same password. It's a strong one (letters, numbers, capitals, symbols) and I've never been hacked, so I figure it's okay.