[Ipg-smz] Why I love Apple?

[Mitch Wagner]

My introduction to the peculiarities of digital immigrants (our generation)
vs. digital natives (the young people) was 10+ years ago, in two incidents.

Our neighbors across the street had their granddaughter, then aged 14,
living with them for a few months while Mom dried out, and they asked for
my help setting up WiFi. Sure, I said, and configured their laptop and WiFi
router. A simple operation, took me about 15 minutes, and yet the
14-year-old digital native was completely bamboozled by it.

I also advised the grandddaughter that it was not a good idea to have
Facebook as her home page. Not if she wanted privacy from Grandma and
Grandpa.

Second incident: At about the same time I joined Facebook myself, and one
night, troubled by insomnia, I was in my home office doing random browsing
through Facebook's "Suggested Friends" list. This was about 3 am. My niece,
then a college freshman and 17 years old, came up on the list. I gave it a
microsecond of thought, said "sure, why not?" and sent a friend request.

This set off a MAJOR FAMILY CONTROVERSY. My niece went to her mother who
went to my wife. My niece was concerned I'd be spying on her and reporting
everything to her Mom.

I said to my wife. "Weeeeeeeelllll if it's just college bullshit, of course
I wouldn't report it. If she said she got drunk last night and was puking
and was sooooo hung over, well, kids do that in college and I wouldn't
report that either. But if she says she met a 46-year-old man and they're
soooooo in love and getting married tomorrow, yeah, I'd be on the phone to
her mother so fast that it'd break the lightspeed barrier."

P.S. I lost track of the neighbor after both grandparents passed away. That
family has had hard times and struggled with addiction; I hope the mother
and little girl are doing well. As for my niece, she's a doctor now and
runs a medical clinic in Baltimore!


-- 

Mitch Wagner <http://MitchWagner.com>  • Twitter
<http://www.Twitter.com/mitchwagner> • Facebook
<http://www.facebook.com/mitch.wagner>


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