OK Boomer

It’s commonly believed that wisdom is associated with old age. The older you are, the more experienced you are. With this experience, members of older generations can pass down valuable knowledge and life experience to the members of the younger generation, so that they can learn how to successfully live their lives. But, is there anything that older people learn from the younger generation –the generation that I am a part of? Well, the world that we live in is constantly changing, and this naturally creates generation gaps. As a result, each generation should have its own qualities, characteristics, and philosophies that are specific to them. This must mean that there are things that older people can learn from our generation, and one major difference between the old and younger generations is the use of technology and its capabilities.

My parents aren’t as fast as I wish they would be when it comes to the use of technology. It can take forever for them to complete simple tasks on a computer, or even to just to scroll through their phone to select an app (Alright, it might not be that long, but it can sometimes feel like ages). For any member of my generation, they could complete these same rudimentary tasks with their eyes closed. When asked to connect old age and technology, there is one immediate image that comes to mind for many of us. We visualize an elderly person needing to be taught how to use the features of the Windows 10 operating system on their computer. It’s a fact of life that as we age, it tends to be harder to grasp new concepts than when we were younger. The world we live in is rapidly changing due to the current swift growth of technology. Ideas can be transported across the globe in seconds, and information can be accessed and readily available to anyone in seconds. Technology constantly reshapes our environment and it is inevitable that the rate at which the capabilities of technology will increase faster and faster. Older generations must adapt to these new developments that didn’t exist when they were younger. Our generation was brought up in a world where this is natural. And now for my attempt at a metaphor. We are all swimmers in this stream of technology, and we all, with varying degrees, must put effort into counteracting its downstream flow. The “effort” that must be applied by everyone is affected by their age: the older you are, the harder it is to adapt to the use of new technology. When it comes to understanding how to use technology, older people can benefit from the knowledge that younger generations have.

Once older people become “technologically literate”, they can still benefit from younger generations by learning the applications of this technology. For example, older people can adopt the practice of almost all teens today: the use of social media. Social media allows you to participate in communities and/or networks that at one time you could not have possibly had access to. It brings the world closer to you. Adopting this practice, for example, can act as a solution to an enormous problem among seniors –loneliness. The recent (and by recent, I mean around the last decade) boom in technology has given us endless ways to keep in contact with our friends, family, or to meet people we have never met before, and this can massively help the elderly overcome social isolation, if the problem may arise. Technology acts as a gateway to a new world, and older people’s unfamiliarity with it makes it something they can learn from our generation to change that.

My Travel Mishap

During the Summer of 2017, my family and I travelled to Tunisia from Chicago to visit my aunt and uncle for 2 months. It was a fun trip and all, from visiting my uncle's candy shop to purchasing illegally made apparel, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. Although the airport experience at Chicago was already unpleasant, with multiple delays, my experience at Tunisia was at a whole other level.

An airport is never a place I like to step foot in. Walking into an airport, I can always feel my heart rate go up for every step I can take. It's almost as if airports are designed for everyone but the passenger. My parents would always tell me when I begin to travel alone, to easily understand the process of flying, it is essential to familiarize yourself with five stages: planning, check-in, security, gate, and boarding. Even then, every visit to the airport must bring at least one disastrous event. This could range from repeated delays to, in my case with coming back home from Tunisia, not being allowed to travel at all.

So here's the full story. We bought our ticket, said our goodbyes, and checked-in to the airport. This was when things got messy. The thing is, my dad did not come with us. And Tunisia has a policy, which my parents never knew of, that in order to travel outside, you must have your paternal figure with you. This essentially meant we trapped ourselves in, and we were stuck in Tunisia till my dad came. School was fast approaching, and a ticket to Tunisia and back for my dad was not cheap. I was also pretty sick of Tunisia, so that didn't help. I was afraid I would become a permanent Tunisian resident and only be able to leave when I'm an adult.

Luckily, my fears were unwarranted and after an hour, we were able to convince the TSA at the airport that calling my father would be enough. After a long call with my dad confirming his identity, we were able to enter the airplane at a minute before departure and finally rest. It seems that the rule was lifted recently, so other travellers would not face the same fate as my family and I.