Birthday thoughts

Birthday message…

Though I am posting this on February 21^st…in a few hours it will be my birthday…mine and George Washington’s. 

Birthdays are supposed to make us think about aging.

I came across a timely report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.  Pew surveyed about 3,000 American adults in the fall of 2010.  They asked what kinds of modern devices they owned and used.  Here are some highlights:

1.      Cell phones are by far the most popular device among American adults, especially for adults under the age of 65. Some 85% of adults own cell phones overall. Taking pictures (done by 76% of cell owners) and text messaging (done by 72% of cell owners) are the two non-voice functions that are widely popular among all cell phone users.

2.      Desktop computers are most popular with adults ages 35-65, with 69% of Gen X, 65% of Younger Boomers and 64% of Older Boomers owning these devices.

3.      Millennials are the only generation that is more likely to own a laptop computer or notebook than a desktop: 70% own a laptop, compared with 57% who own a desktop.

4.      While almost half of all adults own an mp3 player like an iPod, this device is by far the most popular with Millennials, the youngest generation—74% of adults ages 18-34 own an mp3 player, compared with 56% of the next oldest generation, Gen X (ages 35-46).

5.      Game consoles are significantly more popular with adults ages 18-46, with 63% owning these devices.

6.      5% of all adults own an e-book reader; they are least popular with adults age 75 and older, with 2% owning this device.

7.      Tablet computers, such as the iPad, are most popular with American adults age 65 and younger. 4% of all adults own this device.

 Generations and their gadgets By Kathryn Zickuhr, Web Coordinator, February 3, 2011 http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Generations-and-gadgets.aspx.

So?  Is this an improvement from the 60s?  Let’s see.

1.      Cell phones?  Canandaigua got dial phones in 1964.  Until then we just picked up the phone and told the operator who we wanted to call.  It worked fine.  At college we had one pay phone on each floor of the dorm.  That worked fine also.

2.      Desktop computers?  In the late 60s we went to the University Computing Center Batch Window.  We handed in a large stack, sometimes several boxes of 3” by 6” IBM punch-cards that we had carefully typed on a key-punch machine.  A few hours later, if we were lucky, we picked up a huge pile of print-out on 12” by 14” perforated paper.  Nobody owned a computer.  Simple as that.

3.      Laptop?  You mean hold a 25 pound pile of printout in your lap?

4.      Mp3, iPod etc.?  Not quite.  Some of us had “portable” cassette tape players.  They were the size of one of those cases that hold about 50 CDs.  They also weighed about 10 pounds…before you put in the four D batteries.  Other than that, I did have a transistor radio with a single earphone…AM only.  Guess what?  I still have it!

5.      Game consoles?  I did have a travel chess set that had a neat little wooden board with holes in it and the chess figures had little pins in the bottom to hold them on the board.

6.      E-book readers?  We carried Norton’s Anthology of English Literature…volumes I and II…nearly 1,000 pages each…hard cover.

7.      Tablet computers?  I knew a lot of guys who used a variety of tablets for a lot of things…but not for computing.

A couple of evenings ago my wife and I were having dinner at a local eatery.  At the next table there was a young couple apparently on a date.  Both were texting. 

My wife and I were talking to each other. 

Just like we did in the 60s. 

It still works.