The Smart Phone Generation

https://www.kqed.org/pop/25280/millennials-monthly-
basement-dwelling-snake-people-who-cant-find-stamps

     It is a changing world. Often times in many different fields, we are reminded that the pace of change is accelerating. Things change quickly, and that change comes at us faster and faster with each passing year. It seems this has been the opening lines of any and every text on quality and management I ever picked up. I am certain it applies to all fields of study and endeavor.
     Mostly, this change is paced by technology. Just consider how we have listened to recorded music. I have seen us go from 78 rpm records to LPs and 45s, which gave way to 8-tracks and cassettes, only to be usurped by CDs which were rendered to the trash bin by MP3s which we no longer have to worry about because with have streaming services that learn what we like and play more and more of those genres over time. We went from listening to music on phonographs which there was one or less of per household to everyone having their own device on which they devices. We went from phonographs to boom boxes which gave way to walkmen to disc players to iPods. The life span of each of these technologies seemed to be half of its predecessor. Now all of this happens on our phones.
     Our phones? We each seem to have one and they are full of functions that just a generation ago seemed like science fiction. Besides listening to music and, duh, making phone calls, we can take, edit, and enhance amazing videos and photos on our phones. We can share those videos and photos with anyone we know via text or email. We can share it with the world in general by any number of social media apps. Whatever we might be able to watch on our TVs at home, we can do that and even more on our phones. Students can access the full resources of their libraries from their phones… after hours… while seated in an easy chair wherever they may and do all the research for and even write a term paper on their phones. It still boggles my mind.

Note: I could do everything except write a paper on my phone… the small screen and writing with only my thumbs are just too limiting. I did try using voice recognition to dictate a Blog Post Using Voice Recognitiononce. I did that back in 2014 and have not tried it since. It might be a good way to get a draft down as this is now available on lap and desktops. Will we soon be lamenting about the no longer writing by typing the way some of now miss handwriting?

     So, change is inevitable, and it happens faster and faster. What doesn’t change? What is constant? What stays the same? I believe it is us… we people, we human beings, and how we act, react, and think to each other. It is our constant coming to grips with what happens regarding how and why we fall in love. What happens if the object of our affection does not see us in the same way? What happens if they do? Of course, all of religion is based on why we even exist and, most certainly, what happens when we pass. This just seems to be part of life. I am not a scholar on this, but these seem to the same things we have grappled will all throughout the history of mankind. I am not sure the smartphones, yoga apps, Instagram, snapchat have had any real impact answering these big questions to any greater satisfaction.
     To some degree, every generation seems to think that the younger generation behind them are not as dedicated and hardworking. To the same degree, every generation looks to their parents’ generation as being stodgy and stuck in their ways. Actually, I do think the millennials are not all that different. Smartphones and social media have made communication amazingly fast. For sure all our lives, and perhaps more so for the millennials, are more congested with communication and diversion because of these amazing devices. These young folks I see are juggling home, school, work, and the constant staying in touch with everyone they know. Most are great young people and working hard on all fronts for their future. To me it seems like they are juggling way more than I ever had to when I was their age. The down side is that they, in large part, will only do work if the task will earn them points i.e. have a direct impact on their grades. These young folks are constantly prioritizing and re-prioritizing and many of them do it with style.
     It will be interesting to see what my grandchildren’s generation will be like.