Blog Post #2

In today’s society, technological advances are happening every day. When it comes to media and media technologies, things are evolving faster than ever. As we all know, these technologies have allowed us to become more connected with one another more than ever. For my generation, we’ve had the privilege to grow up within a more technological society. Although this is the case, we often forget about the digital divide between our generation and older generations. While my generation has no issue with keeping up with the introduction of new media technologies, older generations feel the opposite way. The digital divide between “old” and “new” media could be due to a generational gap. (Fuchs, 2017). 

For this blog assignment, I decided to interview my 87-year-old grandma, Julie. I decided to interview her because she loves asking me about Facebook or how to use a computer because she thinks that it’s interesting to see how much technology has changed. Since she’s 87, it’s obviously hard for her to pick up on new media technologies, but she loves to learn about them even though she wouldn’t be able to use it. 

When my Grandma was my age, she was in the Air Force and stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Right off the bat, I realized her experiences with media technologies would be different from not only my own experiences, but also with some of her friends who were not in the military at the time. I thought that this was an interesting aspect of her experiences that I had never thought about before. For example, she didn’t own a TV while she was on base. In fact, she didn’t own a TV until she was married and out of the military in the early 1960’s. Although she felt a little out of the loop while she was on base when it came to TV shows, she did have a small radio, but really only used it to keep up with the news since she was working all the time while she was in the military. She told me that she thinks that TV has changed the most since she was my age because of the availability of different programming. There are no longer only two or three channels to choose from. Instead, you have the option to watch whatever you want or whatever interests you. This conversation allowed me to bring up online streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.  After I explained what they were to her, she loved the idea of them and said that this allowed for more options of to choose from when it comes to different TV shows and movies. 

One specific change that my Grandma talked about was the use of phones. I always teach her how my iPhone works, and she’s always fascinated by the touch screen. The biggest change that she talked about was the accessibility that they give you. She loves the idea that she can call me whenever and that I don’t have to be sitting near a home phone waiting for her to call me. Since my Grandma likes to learn about media technologies, we’ve tried getting her a cell phone before. One time, when I was in elementary school, my family and I thought it would be nice to get my Grandma a cell phone for Christmas. We ended up buying her one of the pre-paid ones that you can get from Walgreens or from a grocery store, but she actually threw away the removable battery to the cell phone on accident. Let’s just say that after this circumstance, she didn’t really want one anymore. 

Another specific change that she pointed out was about newspapers. When she was growing up, newspapers were the main source of information, from local news to world news. She brought up the point that most newspapers today aren’t printed anymore. Today, many newspapers just publish everything online or everyone just gets their news from social media. She said that she didn’t really like this change, but really only because of nostalgia. She told me how she would love to run outside and grab the newspaper for her father when she was younger.  Although she felt this way toward the accessibility of newspapers today, she also said that there’s a lot of positives that come with being able to get your news online. One of the biggest positives that she talked about was how quickly people can catch up on the news. She said that it’s very easy for someone to just look up the Washington Post or New York Times to get their news or opening up Facebook to get your news. 

The last change that she discussed was about music. This kind of surprised me, but only because we often forget about music being a part of media. Instead, we immediately think about social media, movies, TV shows, etc. At this point in the interview, she wanted to ask me a few questions, specifically about music. She asked me about how I listen to music and I told her about how everything is on our phones and you can listen to just about anything through music streaming services. In response to this, she discussed the popularity of records when she was my age and how she loved to go to the record store. She started talking about her favorite musicians when she was my age, so I decided to look them up on Spotify and play a few songs for her. Grandma absolutely loved this and said that she could sit there and listen to them for hours. 

Generally speaking, I knew how much media has transformed within the past twenty years or so. After interviewing my grandmother, it really put in perspective not only how much media has changed, but also how these technologies actually haven’t been around for that long. I’m not sure if it’s just me or not, but I always have this feeling that media technologies like cell phones and TV have been around for much longer. This interview with my grandmother has allowed me to think about the generational gap between us. Although I do think that it would be hard to live without these technologies today, we have a lot more in common with past generations regarding technology than we actually think. 

References:
Fuchs, C. (2017). Social media: A critical introduction. London: SAGE Publications. doi: 10.4135/9781446270066.