We Never Guess, We Look It Up

We Never Guess, We Look It Up Born in 1942, I grew up in a much simpler world than the one I live in today, or so I believed during my formative years. From my perspective in 2021, however, the world probably was just as complex and complicated then as it is today. I just didn’t know it. Nor could I. Why not? Because for my generation, most everything we were taught in elementary school or learned on our own—our foundation of knowledge—was to be found on a printed page. If it wasn’t printed and on a shelf at home, in school, in a store or in a library, it did not exist—or so we thought. In contrast, today’s children and young- to middle-aged adults have grown up in an environment where information about the entire world is accessible easily and instantaneously through iPhones and other smart phones. Whereas those of us born during or shortly after World War II thumbed through tables of contents in books, especially encyclopedias, subsequent generations scrolled through Google searches, dove into social media and used crowdsourcing to gather information and answers of incredible depth and breadth on any topic imaginable. Early in my life, it’s fair to say, access to knowledge-- especially current knowledge--was severely limited. Those limits vanished with the advent of computer technology and the world wide web, however. While it is true my generation has had equal access to Google, social media and crowdsourcing vehicles as they became available over time, our willingness and ability to utilize those efficiencies remained constrained by shackles from the past. That is, to some very real extent, older adults are victims of their age, carrying the baggage and learning skills of their “growing up” worlds, frozen in time at a younger age. My “growing up” age is about 40, not 79. And that frozen world of learning is hard to overcome. Equal access does not lead to equal outcomes. I and others of my generation work hard to get beyond our mental frame of reference, to learn with great effort what comes so effortlessly and naturally to children and younger adults. In San Diego and several other cities across America, seniors are blessed to have a major presence of OASIS, a national organization devoted to enhancing lifelong learning opportunities and the overall quality of life for individuals 50 and older. I serve as a member of the OASIS Advisory Board in San Diego and have found it to be a terrific organization. It should come as no surprise that educating older adults to help them improve their technology skills is one of the most popular programs for members of OASIS. Older readers of this essay might want to consider attending OASIS’s comprehensive two-day 9th Annual technology Fair, which is scheduled for November 4 & 5, 2021. (See sandiegooasis.org.) One of my major reasons for writing this essay, therefore, is to elicit empathy and understanding from younger readers, so that when I ask one of them for help, they might be more inclined to provide it than to be amazed at my limited capability or ignorance about the new meanings of old words and terms. Going back briefly to 1942 might be useful as context for the development of my knowledge base. I graduated from Saints Peter and Paul Catholic elementary school in 1956. As far as my parents, teachers and I were concerned, with the exception of the catechism and Holy Bible, everything else to be known about the entire world could be found between the covers of the World Book Encyclopedia* or competing sets of encyclopedias. My reference is to the World Book because its salesmen and women, whose marketing pitch was, “We never guess, we look it up,” seemed to have a laser focus and lock on Catholic elementary schools. I do not know why. In contrast to the World Books being my portal into knowledge of the world, today’s younger generations are well aware everything is on the Internet and is free. They are growing up sharing information readily and developing crowdsourcing vehicles like Reddit and NextDoor Del Mar to expedite information flows and facilitate communication. When anything changes, from world events to new meanings being attached to old words, the Internet informs them instantly. For these children and younger adults, it’s like being raised in a bi-lingual household and growing up knowing two languages. But instead of languages, they are growing up in two worlds, one real and one virtual, equally comfortable and adept at accessing information in both worlds. With few exceptions, however, most people in my generation are neither as comfortable nor as adept. Speaking just for myself, the need for precision in using key words seems arbitrary and not particularly user-friendly. For instance, why does Alexa seem to distinguish between “quit” and “stop”? Why does a firestick react differently to the command, “Play” versus “Show”? Also, I am finding that words are taking on new meanings, about which I am not familiar, and about which members of younger generations are informed on a real time basis because they knew how to set their systems up to receive instant communications literally from any source on this earth. While new meanings being attached to old words may seem unimportant to you, twice in recent history I’ve been informed gently by someone that words or terms I mentioned should be reconsidered. First, I was told my preferred choice of initials for a research piece’s headlines would be inappropriate, even though they are the initials of an existing British media giant. Second, the name of a restaurant I was bragging about my maternal grandmother owning “ahead of her time” in the late 1800’s allegedly is considered an offensive term today. In both cases, the person warning me away from using the initials/words had learned their new meanings either on the Internet or through social media. I am glad they steered me in another direction but it also makes me a bit insecure in not knowing how often I am using words or phrases that have meanings or implications I neither intend nor am aware they exist! Anyone curious about those initials or the name of my grandmother’s restaurant is invited to email me for the answers, in return for telling me why these terms are considered unacceptable socially. Treating the mailing list for these essays (approximately 450 names) as a crowdsourcing vehicle, does anyone know of a type of “fact-checker” I can use to learn if terms of art, names, initials and/or phrases are still SC or PC (socially correct, politically correct), lest I accidentally say something offensive because I failed to stay current with changes in their meaning? I will close by recounting an experience our family had at a Sunday mass several years ago. Before he began his homily, the priest, who appeared to be roughly the same age as I am today, invited young children to join him and sit on the altar steps while he spoke, which about 20-30 did. He began by announcing he was going to use an iPad to assist him in his presentation. After he had fumbled with the machine for a minute or so, everyone could hear a young voice say, You’ve got it upside down”, as a chuckle went through the crowd. He quickly turned the iPad right side up and tried to turn it on. Again, he had problems. At that point our younger grandson, Jack, got up from the altar and strode back to where we were seated. As he approached us, with a tone of disgust in his young (eight year old) voice everyone could hear, he said, “This is so embarrassing!”. Sadly, it was embarrassing. I think I’m a little farther ahead than the priest in using technology to advantage, but not by a lot. Keeping up with change had become a major challenge and seems all the more exhausting with every passing day. For older adults, I suspect you might recognize at least parts of yourselves in this essay. For younger adults and children, I hope this piece will help you develop empathy and understanding for us older adults struggling to catch up and/or keep up with the pace of change in information flows and communication capabilities over time. (One wonderful gift our children and their spouses give us periodically is a “gift certificate” entitling us to an hour of their time dedicated to helping us navigate in their world of technology and social media.) As always, I welcome your feedback. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. *My involvement with the World Book Encyclopedia came full circle over about a 20-year period. I went from being an avid user of its contents as an eighth grader in 1956 to an author of the term, “mortgage”, in the World Books in the mid-1970’s. I don’t own a set of World Books, but a few years ago my friend, Bill Morrison, looked up “mortgage” in his set and there I was, as promised. Maybe you can look it up on the Internet!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Part 2: Readers' Response to Essay: "Coping with Disappointments: Is Taking Them for Granted a Healthy Response?"

Essay: Noisy Restaurant Necessitates Bobblehead Doll Responses

Speaking in Public: Prepare Well