[grovulent]

One of my fears as I hit 35 is just a general fear that suddenly I'll blink and I won't be able to use the essential interfaces that you need to get stuff done as effectively as most of the people around you.

As the OP describes - we all remember our grandparents struggling to use computers with any degree of effectiveness at all. Is that just because they grew up in a time where tech just wasn't evolving that fast? And so weren't used to having to constantly update their stack? Or is it just that their brains no longer could cope.

Even if it is the former - might the rate of change in 20 years time itself dwarf the rate of change that we grew up with such that we'll end up like our grandparents anyway.

This fear sometimes leads me to do stupid things. I bought a nexus 7 tablet - before I knew what the hell I really needed it for. I still don't know where it fits in my life - except for more pleasant web browsing in bed. I've enabled just about every google location, search history this n that - just to see what on earth all this shit does for me. And as far as I can see - I still don't use it as anything other than a web browser.

Is this THAT object that defines my bewildered obsolescence? Are people using these things in ways I can't even imagine that gives them an edge over others in their everyday lives?

I assume I'm not going to be able to tell until some ten year old looks over my shoulder and tells me I'm doing it wrong.

[sosuke]

I think you're on the right track, this new stuff is very different than what I'm used too, and part of it is not just the interfaces, but how people are living differently. I don't get certain new social things, because I don't have the social structure that makes them work. So I don't think it is just age, but in how this connectivity has just been a part of life since the K-12 years. If I were still in that kind of social structure I think it would click faster, but the workplace doesn't count yet.

[grovulent]

Exactly... I would love to just experiment with google latitude. The idea would just to have an open social experience - such that if I'm at a cafe somewhere - and I have latitude enabled then people can just feel free to join me.

But I don't bother enabling it - because none of my friends want to (even though quite a few now have android phones). They'll say it's too creepy. And maybe it is.

But you can easily imagine a culture where it's not. Currently - people probably think it's creepy because they are very protective of their social networks - and don't like the idea of them blending. Largely this is because they don't want to be judged by the standards of one group when in the company of another. So they split their social realities.

A culture that found services like latitude not creepy is one where standards are more liberal or more homogenised - such that mixing social groups is less likely to cause negative consequences.

Ironically - if people mixed their worlds a little more then society would almost certainly become more homogenised and liberal. So it's a bit of a chicken egg problem that probably won't be solved until there is substantive generational change.

[kenjackson]

As the OP describes - we all remember our grandparents struggling to use computers with any degree of effectiveness at all. Is that just because they grew up in a time where tech just wasn't evolving that fast? And so weren't used to having to constantly update their stack? Or is it just that their brains no longer could cope.

I've turned 40 and I already see where my demise will be. It won't be in what I consider tech (gadgets, languages, frameworks, HW, etc...), but rather how to use social networks. I already am like my grandparents when it comes to Twitter (does this message go to everyone or not?). And with Facebook I'm always unclear about who can see what (private, friends, Facebook users, everyone?). And I have virtually no understanding why instagram and pinterest are "must have" apps.

I've seen where I'll be like my granddad and it will be in social networks.

[Udo]

Don't feel bad, it's not your fault. The only thing betraying your true age is the fact that you even think about privacy settings. Most Facebook users have no idea how to limit (or judge) message visibility, nor do they desire to. Facebook also sabotages such attempts on purpose.

For instance, I used to think I got my publication settings down pretty good (by dividing FB friends into groups), but it turns out Facebook ignores and resets your preferences every once in a while for good measure. So even if you belong to the small minority of users who go through the trouble of trying to compartmentalize their message publication, Facebook will override you and enable interesting things like your coworkers commenting on party pictures they shouldn't even be able to see.

[munin]

> And with Facebook I'm always unclear about who can see what (private, friends, Facebook users, everyone?)

it seems cruel to say this is your fault - Facebook's UI for determining this is terrible and basically only .05% of Facebooks users have an idea of where their messages go (probably).

[grannyg00se]

Perhaps part of the age gap is that you actually care to think about where the messages go while a younger audience just assumes it is handled the way it should be, or cares little about controlling it.

[munin]

> As the OP describes - we all remember our grandparents struggling to use computers with any degree of effectiveness at all

I've seen this argument a lot, and I hate it. my grandmother can use computers more effectively than many university undergrads (even computer science students). why? she's been using computers, in one form or another, for forty-five years.

I don't think age has much to do with this. age brings some lessening of cognitive capability but it doesn't make you automatically bad at things. were you good at things before you got older? good news, you will probably still be good at things.

> Are people using these things in ways I can't even imagine that gives them an edge over others in their everyday lives?

Probably! but they are probably also ways people in their age group can't even imagine either.