Moving Backwards
Here is an interesting question. I grew up in a mostly non-digital world. I remember the first time I saw an email, still sending paper letters or making phone calls long after my college years because it was still the most reliable way to contact people. I started texting about ten years ago, and even then, I only did it with regularity once the twins started using phones. I still buy paper books, though I love the ease of downloading an e-book, and the last time I checked out a paper book from the library was at the start of the pandemic.
I do most of my work online and heavily relied on Zoom meetings long before COVID-19 struck. I moved to remote work 17 years ago.
I use YouTube or apps to exercise, cooking blogs to find recipes, and stream most of our entertainment.
But the point is that I remember life before all of these things. I remember making plans without texting or traveling without GPS. I remember attending exercise classes, buying cookbooks, and seeing movies in the theater. I would be bummed to lose out on conveniences that I’ve gotten accustomed to over the years, but I’m sure once thrust back into the age of paper letters and phone calls that I’d function and thrive after a brief re-entry period.
Is the same true for digital natives like the twins? We moved from offline to online, but would it be just as easy to move from online to offline? Do the skills translate in the other direction? Something I’m pondering today.
5 comments
I think if “digital natives” are forced to give up the digital world, there would be a period of initial confusion, and then they’ll figure it out.
People can get used to anything. Including the lack of the internet, texting, and GPS 🙂
I do wonder how many of digital natives versus old-timers (who grew up before the 2000’s) would willingly give up the conveniences of (or enslavement to) digital devices?
There would be a pretty steep learning curve and a whole lot of frustration and impatience. And that’s just for me and i am even older than you! But (some) humans are adaptable. They would figure it out.
I see a bit of this, because I work adjacent to a program that sends (US college) students out on summer project work, with some projects in locations where not only do they not have access to signals (etc.) but they may not have ready access to electricity, i.e., the ability to charge or use devices. I heard one comment once on how it was difficult to organize activities without the ability to tell time, which since the students’ phones weren’t operational, they were unable to do.
I still wear a watch (admittedly digital/battery powered, but not connected) and I’m sure the students would have done so as well had they been alerted to the problem (or perhaps they were but hadn’t listened to the alerts they were provided, which is an issue sometimes).
I even remember as a teen when my watch broke and there was an interim before I replaced it, getting decently good at knowing the time based on the position of the sun — obviously that changed over days, but I found I could land within about 15 minutes (I was working an outside job, though not one that itself required precise timing, so this was relevant to keeping up with the general structure of my day).
So … yes, but I think it would be weird/challenging (and perhaps alarming) for many initially.
I’m a decade-plus older than you, so I remember all this too, and then some. I’m kind of glad I straddle both eras. I read an article about a group vacation to a place where the wifi signal was poor to non-existent, and how the younger members of the group were completely lost without the ability to use their cellphones — they had to learn the lost art of making a meetup plan in advance and sticking to it, lol. Teacher friends tell me their students cannot read cursive (or even sign their names!) — they have to remember not to handwrite comments on their students’ papers, because the kids can’t read them! — and they cannot tell time on an old-fashioned clock/watch (which is one of the first things I remember learning when I went to kindergarten!)! Yikes!!
Re: Alexicographer’s comment, above, my watch battery died when we were at dh’s cousin’s cottage last fall. I was LOST all weekend without it. I took the watch off & put it in my purse (because, what was the point?), and yes, I had my phone with me, but I still kept looking at my wrist out of habit, lol. When we got home, pulled my other watch out of the drawer — and the battery on IT was also dead! (Do they even make wind-up watches anymore??) I was very relieved when we went to the mall a few days later — there’s a kiosk selling watches there, and the guy there replaces watch batteries too. Whew!
Oh, goodness, I know I would have a period of experiencing major withdrawal symptoms, but it would be fine. (At my first job in the 1980s, there was a typing pool before they brought in the first computers!) The younger generation wouldn’t have the knowledge that all will be okay, so it would be a much bigger upheaval for them. Their whole world would change. And they’d have to learn new skills (like reading maps, or telling time on an analog clock, or – I’m gobsmacked by this, Loribeth – learn to read handwriting!). So although they could learn the new skills, the mindshift required to do so would be enormous. Whereas we could just slide back into it. Not that I want to. Though a world without algorithms and influencers might be a nicer place.