Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Post 4.5 (Gadget Question)

6.“The baby boom isn’t over yet, and the 1960s still provide the dominant reference points in pop culture. This is in part, I believe, because of the phenomena of Retropolis and youthiness, but it is also because the boomers are not merely plentiful and alive but still vigorous and contributing to society.  People live longer as technology improves, so cultural change actually slows, because it is tied more to the outgoing generational clock than the incoming one (181-2).”

Although the latest and greatest forms of technology are available to our society, do you think that the current generation is reluctant to excel with these new technologies because so much influence currently comes from the previous generational culture?  


Response

Baby boomers get a lot of the blame for the problems of society, especially when it comes to cultural values and social legislation, but one thing that I would say isn't being held back by this older generation is the advance and adoption of new gadgets. Not that the older generation is running out to buy the latest and greatest or are quickly latching onto new technology and innovations, but rather they aren't actively trying to stem the deluge of new stuff that keeps coming out year after year.


It's not necessary the older people keeping the past alive, but young people looking to the past and trying to maybe recapture it in a way. This is where hipsters come into play. They  didn't exist that long ago probably because what we know about the past is greater today than at any point in the past. They look to the past for influences, clothing, music, styles, but they still love those iPhones and whatever. So gadgets are a universal kind of thing and the underlying technology that comes along with it isn't slowing down as long as people keep buying into it. At the moment, technology has allowed us to create culture, but who's to say what might happen in the future if/when technology is our culture. We would all be geeks and nerds. Scary.

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