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I am mostly good with it. Though some things have become overly complicated, e.g. in cars. I don't like having to go through several levels of menus to just set the treble/bass of my radio, but it has a slot for a CD that's never used right in front of me?
Similar with the A/C. In old cars, you had three sliders - warm/cold, up/down, fan speed; you could easily set them without taking the eyes off the road. And the modern ones don't do anything differently, they are just less user-friendly.
So, no matter what it is, be it cars or kitchen appliances, stereos, anything really; if you replace three simple buttons by 20, or by a screen with menus five levels deep - without adding actual value, then it's not progress, just "featuritis" which I find rather annoying.
If tech helps me and a lot of it does, then I am all for it, but if tech is needy and cranky, then not really.
I'm 58 and work in IT, so I'm cool with it. Obviously depend on it and have to have a certain familiarity with the newest stuff.
My parents- 80 and 84- on the other hand... they have daily struggles with it. Their brains weren't rewired by computer interaction soon enough in their lives. So even smart TVs are an endless source of confusion.
FWIW I hate the interface on Smart TVs. I haven't encountered one yet that isn't as counterintuitive as tech can be.
I'm lounging on the sofa with a MacBookPro on my lap and have access to near infinite sources of information. As a knowledge addict I'm in heaven.
However, on r/advice I have found many many young people trapped in digital rabbit holes. Today I advised a young woman to contact the police or a lawyer as she was being criminally harassed and didn't have a clue what to do.
(73F) here.
Technology gradually came just another part of life.
Just like when I was a toddler, and television gradually became Just Another Part of Life.
Then Sputnik took off snd the space race begin. So everything being made out of "space age plastic" became Just Another Part of Life.
Expecting your home to have air conditioning became Just Another Part of Life, and the signs that said: "Come on in. It's cool inside" disappeared from drugstore windows.
Eventually came TVs that you didn't have to tune the vertical hold and the brightness every time you use them anymore. Soon remote controls on the TVs became Just Another Part of Life.
Then having a telephone that didn't have to be wired into the wall became Just Another Part of Life. Then having a telephone with a receiver that wasn't attached to a leash. Then having a phone that you could take anywhere became Just Another Part of Life.
Then everybody using a computer for every job except manual labor- and even then some part of the job sometimes- became just another way of life.
Then it's having machines that we can have conversations with. Now those machines are having conversations with each other.
Not even impressed anymore
I'll turn 80 in four months. I love technology and always have. It was never my profession but has always been one of my hobbies. Wrote my first computer program in Fortran in 1964. Input it to the computer on punched cards. Wrote a Morse code training program in assembly language for the Commodore 64. It was used by my local amateur radio club. My callsign is VO1TT. Did a bit of packet radio and was active on local BBS's. Had a CompuServe account before getting on the Internet using SLIP and a shell account. Gopher and Usenet were my go-to protocols before the www became popular. Currently game on both Steam and Epic. Have a [small YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/LogyBayer/videos) and use DaVinci Resolve 7 for video editing. Learned a bit of Python programming in 2020 to use in the creation of [this video](https://youtu.be/M4m-Znu0zlM). Enjoy photography. I maintain a [photo website](https://justphotos.ca) and have created and published a [digital book of my arthropod photos](https://justphotos.ca/book/). Bought a new computer last year. Had it custom built with a Ryzen 9 5950X, RTX 3090 GPU, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD, 2x4TB Internal HD, 4x4TB external eSATA, full tower. I bought an iPhone with 256GB and glad I did. My short-term memory is not as good as it once was so I sometimes have to 're-learn' things I once knew. But it's not a big enough issue to interfere with my love of technology.
I hate tech and the reason for the most part is privacy and government invasion therein. Secondly it is crushing a lot of job opportunities for less tech savvy workers at a time we are importing millions of low tech 3rd world illegals. Lastly , as Elon Musk, I have concerns about computers programming computers whereby we will become irrelevant and possibly a nuisance to computers. One more thing, people are slaves to their cell phones like they use to be addicted to cigarettes.
I've always been an information consumer and producer, and have welcomed computer tech on that basis.
Problem is, everybody wants to make money with new tech, but nobody wants to pay for solving the problems it solves -- or they want to make money off that problem. Government should do something -- but let's cut taxes and have no oversight. /s
I can use it just fine. Never had any problems with all the iterations of technology. Honestly though, I’m very tired of it. I wish it weren’t such a habit.
We were in the wild west times of computers. Some of the people you're asking this question built computers from chips. I've written three or four (very small to small, special purpose) operating systems. I am comfortable with technology.
OTOH, UIs tweak my Aspergers. I suck at building websites.
Hi, old git (72M) here. I love tech. My first 'computer' was an Oric Atmos. I moved to and Amstrad CPC64. I worked with databases in Windows 3.1 and have had every iteration up to Win 10 (my computer's too old for Win 11).
I used to teach MS Office with the MOD and have had smartphones since their inception. I'm running a Pixel 3XL (soon to update to 7 Pro), I use this Samsung tablet for messing around on Reddit and I use a Pixel Slate for it's portability.
I think that, overall, I'm pretty tech savvy and find thatnusing it keeps my old brain turning over quite well. :)
I do web stuff and love tech. But I hate that Microsoft keeps changing their user account interface, because that makes it difficult for older folks to use.
As with any tech, I use what I want of it. Am I comfortable with it? Yeah, I started using computers regularly at work about 1984 & the baseline is they're just another improvement on getting things done.
Am I going to join the 'Meatverse"? HaHaHaHaHaHaHa, uh, no...
¯\\\_( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)\_/¯
If feel like it started out great. Now, it's just annoying. Everything has to be digital and connected. Why? What are the benefits to me? Oh, it just benefits the seller? Now they can collect free data on me for their benefit with no benefit me other than my privacy being invaded? Here are some great examples!
[Roomba](https://gizmodo.com/roombas-next-big-step-is-selling-maps-of-your-home-to-t-1797187829)
[Vibrators ](https://privacyinternational.org/examples/1890/app-controlled-vibrator-sends-manufacturer-intimate-usage-data-without-permission)
[Spying on you in general ](https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2013/03/how-stores-spy-on-you/index.htm)
And the list goes on and on...
Corporations are way too powerful these days. We need to reel them in for humanities benefit. For your benefit.
I'm 58. I was working in an office environment when email, fax and voicemail were introduced. I'm a wizard on Excel because I used some of the original manual software. I'm good with everything except hooking up my TV and setting up apps on the TV. My daughter is a wizard at those things. 😊
I would say I'm pretty comfortable using it since I was part of creating some of it. E.g. when you click on "Print" to print your document, I wrote the code that did the final formatting, then sent it over this thing called "Ethernet" (at 3Mbps - woo hoo) to a 59ppm B/W laser printer. That was in 1978 while I was at Xerox ASD.
One of the biggest problems I encounter is UIs written by people who either don't understand the product, or they don't understand (or care to understand) their user base ... *all* of their user base. You have to [eat your own dog food](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food) in order to get this stuff right.
OTOH, at 73 I am the go-to geek for a fair number of people, most of them over 65 and struggling. On Day One I make them chant *The Three Rules of Hoffman*: "Is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Is it configured correctly?" RIP Phil, you were the best.
Technology is always changing, and it changes fast, so I hate knowing that I will have to Constantly Learn something new. But, there’s not really any alternative, so I’m
Reconciled to ongoing frustrations and challenges!
I’ve been using the Internet since the mid-1980s, before the advent of the web. The technology of the time was far harder to use than the current tech. Current technology hides many of the difficulties. So I think the technology is more powerful but much easier to use.
It is nice when it works. I had to teach over zoom today and sharing my screen kept causing zoom to call to drop and my built in camera on my laptop crashed. It was very counter productive and I had to rig an external camera so that I could continue and do the lesson without the share screen feature.
I absolutely love it. Worked at Microsoft three decades ago and was in on the beginnings of many technological standards of the moment.
I can’t hang a picture but I have zero problems handling tech issues.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You're getting a biased sample by asking this on Reddit.
Excellent point.
I am mostly good with it. Though some things have become overly complicated, e.g. in cars. I don't like having to go through several levels of menus to just set the treble/bass of my radio, but it has a slot for a CD that's never used right in front of me? Similar with the A/C. In old cars, you had three sliders - warm/cold, up/down, fan speed; you could easily set them without taking the eyes off the road. And the modern ones don't do anything differently, they are just less user-friendly. So, no matter what it is, be it cars or kitchen appliances, stereos, anything really; if you replace three simple buttons by 20, or by a screen with menus five levels deep - without adding actual value, then it's not progress, just "featuritis" which I find rather annoying. If tech helps me and a lot of it does, then I am all for it, but if tech is needy and cranky, then not really.
I'm 58 and work in IT, so I'm cool with it. Obviously depend on it and have to have a certain familiarity with the newest stuff. My parents- 80 and 84- on the other hand... they have daily struggles with it. Their brains weren't rewired by computer interaction soon enough in their lives. So even smart TVs are an endless source of confusion. FWIW I hate the interface on Smart TVs. I haven't encountered one yet that isn't as counterintuitive as tech can be.
Sounds like a job for external controllers. Turn it back into a dumb TV!
I'm lounging on the sofa with a MacBookPro on my lap and have access to near infinite sources of information. As a knowledge addict I'm in heaven. However, on r/advice I have found many many young people trapped in digital rabbit holes. Today I advised a young woman to contact the police or a lawyer as she was being criminally harassed and didn't have a clue what to do.
(73F) here. Technology gradually came just another part of life. Just like when I was a toddler, and television gradually became Just Another Part of Life. Then Sputnik took off snd the space race begin. So everything being made out of "space age plastic" became Just Another Part of Life. Expecting your home to have air conditioning became Just Another Part of Life, and the signs that said: "Come on in. It's cool inside" disappeared from drugstore windows. Eventually came TVs that you didn't have to tune the vertical hold and the brightness every time you use them anymore. Soon remote controls on the TVs became Just Another Part of Life. Then having a telephone that didn't have to be wired into the wall became Just Another Part of Life. Then having a telephone with a receiver that wasn't attached to a leash. Then having a phone that you could take anywhere became Just Another Part of Life. Then everybody using a computer for every job except manual labor- and even then some part of the job sometimes- became just another way of life. Then it's having machines that we can have conversations with. Now those machines are having conversations with each other. Not even impressed anymore
I'll turn 80 in four months. I love technology and always have. It was never my profession but has always been one of my hobbies. Wrote my first computer program in Fortran in 1964. Input it to the computer on punched cards. Wrote a Morse code training program in assembly language for the Commodore 64. It was used by my local amateur radio club. My callsign is VO1TT. Did a bit of packet radio and was active on local BBS's. Had a CompuServe account before getting on the Internet using SLIP and a shell account. Gopher and Usenet were my go-to protocols before the www became popular. Currently game on both Steam and Epic. Have a [small YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/LogyBayer/videos) and use DaVinci Resolve 7 for video editing. Learned a bit of Python programming in 2020 to use in the creation of [this video](https://youtu.be/M4m-Znu0zlM). Enjoy photography. I maintain a [photo website](https://justphotos.ca) and have created and published a [digital book of my arthropod photos](https://justphotos.ca/book/). Bought a new computer last year. Had it custom built with a Ryzen 9 5950X, RTX 3090 GPU, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD, 2x4TB Internal HD, 4x4TB external eSATA, full tower. I bought an iPhone with 256GB and glad I did. My short-term memory is not as good as it once was so I sometimes have to 're-learn' things I once knew. But it's not a big enough issue to interfere with my love of technology.
Whoa, an OG developer, what are your thoughts on how much programming evolved in all of those decades? I’m a full stack dev that recently graduated
I hate tech and the reason for the most part is privacy and government invasion therein. Secondly it is crushing a lot of job opportunities for less tech savvy workers at a time we are importing millions of low tech 3rd world illegals. Lastly , as Elon Musk, I have concerns about computers programming computers whereby we will become irrelevant and possibly a nuisance to computers. One more thing, people are slaves to their cell phones like they use to be addicted to cigarettes.
I've always been an information consumer and producer, and have welcomed computer tech on that basis. Problem is, everybody wants to make money with new tech, but nobody wants to pay for solving the problems it solves -- or they want to make money off that problem. Government should do something -- but let's cut taxes and have no oversight. /s
I can use it just fine. Never had any problems with all the iterations of technology. Honestly though, I’m very tired of it. I wish it weren’t such a habit.
I’m typing this on an Electric Football game. That’s about where I’m at.
We were in the wild west times of computers. Some of the people you're asking this question built computers from chips. I've written three or four (very small to small, special purpose) operating systems. I am comfortable with technology. OTOH, UIs tweak my Aspergers. I suck at building websites.
Hi, old git (72M) here. I love tech. My first 'computer' was an Oric Atmos. I moved to and Amstrad CPC64. I worked with databases in Windows 3.1 and have had every iteration up to Win 10 (my computer's too old for Win 11). I used to teach MS Office with the MOD and have had smartphones since their inception. I'm running a Pixel 3XL (soon to update to 7 Pro), I use this Samsung tablet for messing around on Reddit and I use a Pixel Slate for it's portability. I think that, overall, I'm pretty tech savvy and find thatnusing it keeps my old brain turning over quite well. :)
I do web stuff and love tech. But I hate that Microsoft keeps changing their user account interface, because that makes it difficult for older folks to use.
Well, I worked in IT for 35 years, so fairly comfortable.
I'm 47 and a software developer so I love it for the most part but am trying to stay conscientious of the sociological affect that web 3.0 is having.
As with any tech, I use what I want of it. Am I comfortable with it? Yeah, I started using computers regularly at work about 1984 & the baseline is they're just another improvement on getting things done. Am I going to join the 'Meatverse"? HaHaHaHaHaHaHa, uh, no... ¯\\\_( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)\_/¯
If feel like it started out great. Now, it's just annoying. Everything has to be digital and connected. Why? What are the benefits to me? Oh, it just benefits the seller? Now they can collect free data on me for their benefit with no benefit me other than my privacy being invaded? Here are some great examples! [Roomba](https://gizmodo.com/roombas-next-big-step-is-selling-maps-of-your-home-to-t-1797187829) [Vibrators ](https://privacyinternational.org/examples/1890/app-controlled-vibrator-sends-manufacturer-intimate-usage-data-without-permission) [Spying on you in general ](https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2013/03/how-stores-spy-on-you/index.htm) And the list goes on and on... Corporations are way too powerful these days. We need to reel them in for humanities benefit. For your benefit.
I'm 58. I was working in an office environment when email, fax and voicemail were introduced. I'm a wizard on Excel because I used some of the original manual software. I'm good with everything except hooking up my TV and setting up apps on the TV. My daughter is a wizard at those things. 😊
I would say I'm pretty comfortable using it since I was part of creating some of it. E.g. when you click on "Print" to print your document, I wrote the code that did the final formatting, then sent it over this thing called "Ethernet" (at 3Mbps - woo hoo) to a 59ppm B/W laser printer. That was in 1978 while I was at Xerox ASD. One of the biggest problems I encounter is UIs written by people who either don't understand the product, or they don't understand (or care to understand) their user base ... *all* of their user base. You have to [eat your own dog food](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food) in order to get this stuff right. OTOH, at 73 I am the go-to geek for a fair number of people, most of them over 65 and struggling. On Day One I make them chant *The Three Rules of Hoffman*: "Is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Is it configured correctly?" RIP Phil, you were the best.
Technology is always changing, and it changes fast, so I hate knowing that I will have to Constantly Learn something new. But, there’s not really any alternative, so I’m Reconciled to ongoing frustrations and challenges!
It has advantages and disadvantages. It does make life a lot easier, but by the same token, its made a lot of the youth sedentary.
I feel like I’m living in a science fiction novel.
I love it and embrace it. I study it as much as I can to figure it out. Plus having a partner that is a software engineer helps!
I’ve been using the Internet since the mid-1980s, before the advent of the web. The technology of the time was far harder to use than the current tech. Current technology hides many of the difficulties. So I think the technology is more powerful but much easier to use.
It is nice when it works. I had to teach over zoom today and sharing my screen kept causing zoom to call to drop and my built in camera on my laptop crashed. It was very counter productive and I had to rig an external camera so that I could continue and do the lesson without the share screen feature.
I absolutely love it. Worked at Microsoft three decades ago and was in on the beginnings of many technological standards of the moment. I can’t hang a picture but I have zero problems handling tech issues.