...Of Facebooking and This Generation...

It looks like fun to be a kid these days. Back then, we played with guns made out of wood by some bum living by the creek. Then my Amah (Chinese grandmother, FYI) sees my wooden gun, thinks it’s dangerous, and decides to buy me a plastic AK-47 that makes noise whenever you pull the trigger. When I got back home, I was “the man”; while they wasted their saliva making gun-sounds, I just had to pull the trigger.

 Now, they have freakin laser tag.

 

Back then, you can best each other by showing how far you’d go in Mario Brothers, or show you’re some kind of game guru by doing the 30 lives thing in Contra. Then after a few years, there was Sega. Then Super Nintendo (SNES baby!!). Then Playstation. Then Dreamcast. Then Playstation 2. Then Gamecube. Then XBOX. Then Wii. Then XBOX 360. Then Playstation 3. Then all of a sudden, the secret of Contra’s 30 lives is printed on a t-shirt.

 

Technology develops so fast that it’s almost impossible to keep up. What you know to be “advanced” now is ancient in a matter of years. Months even. You can’t buy a laptop today because you know that in about 2 months, they’re going to come up with an upgraded version of said laptop for the same price.

 

This world that offers you so much actually teaches you how to settle for what you have. You can’t kick yourself in the butt thinking “I should’ve waited for version 1.2!” when you needed version 1.1 earlier.

 

Most of the youth today, those clogged up ages 30 below, sometimes laugh when old people ask them about tech stuff that seem complicated for them, but to the youth, it’s basic troubleshooting.

 

Example:

Old Person: That’s too cute! How do I watch it?
Young Person: Just go on Youtube and look for *insert keyword here*
Old Person: And then?
Young Person: Jeez… Then you click whatever hits you have.
Old Person: Hits?
Young Person: *sigh* The results you get when you put in the keyword in the search box.
Old Person: So you have to be connected to the internet to do that?
Young Person: K

 

Pagers to Cellphones and Computers

 

Looking back though, who stole what from who?

 

Wasn’t it that gaming consoles were made for kids because the old people made use of computers? But, as technology moved along, the old people got left behind, and the younger ones got to learn more. And now, kids/young people act as if people aged more than 40 don’t have a right to be handling a computer.

And remember those beepers/pagers? Weren’t they for business people as well? It was text messaging before text messaging, a means for bosses to remind you that you’re late for a meeting and whatnot, or something that could tell you that your date couldn’t make it.

 

Cellphones of old were meant to be a mobile device which would make it easier for you to keep in touch with everyone else. It didn't matter what it looked like, or how big it was (though the smaller it was before, the more "advanced" your model was). It was an effective tool for those who can get to use it, but an essential device for businessmen.

 

And how does time mess that all up?

Pagers have become obsolete faster than Sega. Heck, kids in grade school probably don’t even know pagers existed. Or the Family computer-like Sega console. Nokia probably messed it all up. It introduced the integrated pager and cellphone with the 5110: a mobile phone with SMS capability, and Express-on Covers to boot. In no time, it made having a cellphone fashionable.

 

Now, it’s funny that you don’t want to allow your parents to have the latest phones because you know they wouldn’t know how to use it to its full capacity.

But really, when you think about it, they should have a right to own the latest gadgets as well, considering they did kinda start the whole cellphone thing.

But yeah, your lola of 70-80 or so shouldn’t be meddling with those stuff. Masyado nang pa-in. That’s why the Bayantel commercial was funny.

 

Facebook and Tracking

 

Hasn’t it become pathetic to watch soaps with the protagonist (in heavy drama mode) saying he/she will disappear forever in their lives? You know that can’t be true nowadays.

 

Cellphones have made it that much easier for people to keep in touch with each other. And now, there’s Facebook and Twitter.

 

Friendster was such a hit back then, but could only touch base with the youth (and some perverted sex predators). Then Multiply and Myspace came, but again, could not break through to the older generation. Facebook, on the other hand, made it that much easier for people to find people, young AND old. I read somewhere in the Inquirer, I think, that Facebook has become our real-life soap opera.

 

For 160 characters, you can summarize your day, express how you’re feeling, or share some random thoughts. It has almost eliminated the term “kamusta?” when people meet up.

 

Twitter, for its part, makes it easier for people to keep track of celebrities or friends. They also have that shoutout thing going. I’m no “tweeter”, but from the looks of things, almost everybody is.

 

It has its perks, really. Facebook lets you keep track of your friends’ (or selected friends’) lives, as it’s more of a close-network thing. Twitter makes it easier to keep track of celebrities’ lives, not to mention showbiz talk shows digging gossips through Twitter feeds. As proof of that, unconfirmed reports from NBA.com say that a player has been traded, but by the time that report came out, people already knew the player was traded via his personal tweet.

But then the downside comes. You can’t go telling your parents that you’ll be working overtime or studying with friends when your Twitter feed says you’re having the time of your life at the hottest new club in town. You can’t call in sick when your status says you’re on a road trip.

 

So while I say that we can’t take computers away from the old people, I think I’d want to draw a line in Facebook and Twitter. Social networking started with people under 30. Anyone above it is like a lola of 70-80 trying to get “in” with it.

 

--> Me trying to justify why I haven't added my mom, an aunt, and my closest co-worker in Facebook.