Comments on: Why is a lack of knowledge cool?

By: Des Walsh

Des Walsh — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:24:40 +0000

I hear what CommunityGal is saying and I also quote the stats about boomers and social networks. At the same time, from my personal experience I don't have a problem with your generalized comments/questions, Jake. And I'm older than CommunityGal, for what that's worth. With people over about 55 I get three responses when they find out that I spend a lot of my time on social media: the joke thing, the mystified-but-I-don't-want-to-know thing and the “that's interesting, I'd like to know more” – I don't have exact stats, but those in the third category are decidedly in the minority. The others just don't know what they're missing. Be peeved, Jake – boasting of ignorance is not a good look.

By: Des Walsh

Des Walsh — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:02:50 +0000

As a former government employee, it sounds to me as if she was reading from prepared notes. The irony is particularly striking, Jake, when the State Dept had made news by lobbying Twitter (now there's a status switch!) to stay live because of the value of the channel in relation to knowing what was happening in Iran. At a conference on Government 2.0 this week in our Australian national capital, I used that as an example of the significance of social media for government. At the same conference, two Government ministers spoke. One is a blogger and has a page on Facebook: he gets it and would probably find the kind of joke, engagingly self-deprecating as it might be construed to be, embarrassing if it had come from one of his government colleagues: he could have spoken without notes. The other has no presence that I have been able to find on the social web: he clearly needed his notes. Fortunately for us, the one who gets it is the very influential Federal Finance Minister. Hopefully the other minister will get it sooner rather than later.

By: David Parmet

David Parmet — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:38:37 +0000

I'm sure 100 years or so ago, some old fart was similarly grousing about the telephone or the automobile.

Somethings never change.

By: Ike Pigott

Ike Pigott — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:07:40 +0000

Well, at least she didn't say this:

“The Twitter is not something? you can just dump something on, it's not a big truck. It's a series of tiny little tubes.”

By: CommunityGal

CommunityGal — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:44:44 +0000

I hear you CG. And yes, your own 20 year olds are often annoying (only 18 years to go before you live it yourself!). I would, of course, call myself the exception and I also appreciate your making the effort to make the observation. But I am encouraged and really excited by the ever-growing adaption of boomers to new technology. I'm sure everyone's seen the Facebook stats http://boomersummit.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/ba... and my own experience on Eons http://www.eons.com/my_eons and now on Grandparents.com http://www.grandparents.com/gp/home/index.html is very positive. Hey, send the old people our way, we're all about getting folks up to speed!

By: Jake McKee

Jake McKee — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:05:15 +0000

I don't disagree with that. And this wasn't a young = good, old = bad post. There's problems all around.

By: Jake McKee

Jake McKee — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:55:41 +0000

One last point – my issue here wasn't about age it was about being proud of your lack of knowledge. 20 years old do it too, but it's different and now what I was talking about here. At whatever age you are, being proud (and there's really no other word for it) that you don't know what's happening in the world around you is, IMHO, highly annoying. Again, it's my pet peeve.

By: Jake McKee

Jake McKee — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:52:51 +0000

I get your point about making generalizations, but you know, sometimes there's a commonality behind things that IS valid. As the mother of two 20 year olds, I'd venture to guess that you absolutely do find things about 20 year olds that are fairly common and often annoying. This certainly doesn't mean that every 20 year old does those annoying things or even that your 20 year olds do. But there's commonality.

As someone who runs a site called grandparents.com, you have to agree that there are quite a few older people who struggle with tech, and find themselves saying the same silly things that Sec. Clinton did. I hear this kind of stuff regularly and always from people over the age of 40, not under.

Making observations like this is tough: there's always someone who doesn't fall into the observation but falls into the age range itself who then objects to the core premise that there are others in the world who do the observation. So I guess I'd ask: in the world of 50+ year old people, are you the exception or the rule?

By: CommunityGal

CommunityGal — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:31:29 +0000

OK, so I may sound like someone's mother (I am, two 20somethings), but it's not nice to make generalizations. I'm 58 years old and have been an online community manager at two different internet startups since 2006. Yesterday, my daughter, having just returned from the Bonnaroo Music Festival said, “Now I finally get Twitter. I thought it was just stupid, but musicians use it for a good reason!” Adapting to new technology happens across all ages, genders, races, at different rates. Let's remember what “community” really means in the job title many of us have.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:01:55 +0000

Jake, 20-somethings may get the operational aspects of new technology, but I often see a serious lack ability to search for information online, and to understand the sociological and often practical implications of technology.