Generational Gap - CS 012 - "Growing Up Online"

Mankind distinguishes itself from other animals by usage of tools. Some may argue that this theory has been proven to be wrong since even a chimpanzee can use a stone or a stick to crack open a coconut. Tools by definition are devices that will ease our lives. A chimpanzee only has a desire to satisfy its basic need, which is to feed. Humans on the other hand, has more sophisticated needs than to simply feed themselves. Hence the tools humans require have to be more artistic than that of a simple stone or a stick. This level of sophistication is what differentiates humans from other animals. However, this severnece does not only exist between animals and humans, but even amongst the humans. Each generation has its own unique sense of identity they can relate to but the most recent one requires a lot of learning and it's known as the internet. Internet, although arbitray in existance, is just like a stone or a stick, but it has so many more means of usage. The older generation fear internet because they are not fully aware of its capability - just like a knife or a gun, an internet is a tool that can be very useful or dangerous depending upon the knowledge of its handler.

What PBS documentary 'Growing Up Online' focuses is to provide a wake up call for the adults who are not familiar with the usage of internet. It is impossible for the adults to close the generational gap between the parents and the children without being fully aware of what internet can do. Internet is a new social gathering ground where people can socialize and mingle. The adults fail to see this or accept this as the new reality because all they see are kids sitting in front of a flat screen clicking their mouse away for all day long.

What the adults have to realize is that internet is like a language or a philosophy - it's arbitrary. One may not be able to touch things in it or smell them, but it still allows one to imagine it vividly and close whatever gap they are misssing through imagination. Also, just like learning the first language, the children 'acquire' the ability to navigate themselves through the internet with greater ease than adults. Adults have to learn internet as if it was a secondary language, hence it won't be in their comfort zone. The children are well aware of the fact that they can outmanuever the parents when it comes to internet, so it's silly to use devices such as parental monitor programs. Although parents are older in reality, they are far more ignorant when it comes to internet. The word 'control' reiterates itself over and over in the PBS documntary, but how can adults 'control' the children when they don't even know how to use internet with proper ease? It's like a 2 year old toddler trying to teach and control 15 year old how to walk.

What the parents have to realize is that the best they can do is to try to understand where the children are coming from and back off a bit. The trust is essential and forced regulation will only result in excessive efforts that will bring about no real fruit of results that they desire. They should, however, acknowledge that things aren't what they used to be, and what's conventional today will never be conventional tomorrow.

According to the "How Obama Did It", while Obama hired a young MIT drop out to manage his internet campaign while Hillary Clinton hired Peter Daou who had completely different idea of what is 'convention'. The Clinton Campagin 'relied more on conventional tactcs like big fund raise', according to the article, but who is defining what is convention? The fact that they have failed to reach out to a great deal of the general public clearly denotes that what they thought was up to date and most efficient method was no longer the case. Fund raising is what Bush and Bill Clinton did more than a decade ago. Hence this article can also be read as 'What Clinton Did Not Do".

Today, parents would ask their children for what button boots up a computer or how to do this and that online. While some children may be patient with their children, some may get irritated and annoyed that they have to explain something that is so obvious to their parents. Tomorrow, the same children who were pouting for teaching their parents how to use a printer will ask their own children how to use something else that their children would go 'What? You don't even know how to use that?' It's a vicious cycle of life and the sooner people accept what's not within their control, sooner they would enjoy repose and tranquility in their life.