Tomnolloth.files.wordpress.com



Ethnographies of MediaMy Gran is a wonderful woman but when it comes to modern technology, like most golden oldies, she hasn’t got a clue. She owns a Samsung phone presumably made in the early 2000’s and a has a computer made in the 90’s which she hasn’t turned on for around 3 years. I conducted an interview with her to get her take on modern technology and how we, younger members of society have grown up into this technological world that we love so much.I expected an array of responses, of course it being my Grandmother the occasional “you youngsters never go outside” sort of thing but seeing as though she used to be a typist in the 60’s and 70’s I thought that she could also bring valuable information on the evolution of technology. She said that one of her more early memories of modern technology was the television, born in quite a rural town in West Wales they were clearly quite difficult to come by and when her family eventually bought one in the mid 50’s they would all huddle around to watch it, huddle especially as the screen were very small and the picture was very fuzzy which of course I find to be very interesting but also bizarre. In the modern western world almost everyone has a television in their room. She now owns a 32’’ HD TV which she spends nights watching the likes of Strictly Come Dancing, The Great British Bake Off and so on.She also said there are bunch of new technological gadgets that she has seen but doesn’t know what they do, for instance she wouldn’t be able to tell you what an iPad was, or any form of tablet for that matter. Technology has advanced so much within her life that science fiction has become reality. In an age where touch screen technology is now the norm technology is slipping further and further away from her. I gave her my iPhone to see whether or not she could send me a text by herself and the result was, well, as expected. She pressed down on my contacts button, and started to move apps around the screen and she laughed because she didn’t have a clue what she was doing. In an attempt to show her, it still took her a good 5 minutes to even get to my name and then we gave up.Surely we as a society should be helping the elderly get to grips with technology, as we, the younger generation, are evolving with it. Social media is the main hub of social interaction, if my Grandmother had Facebook I’d message her every day, I think. We can’t let them slip too far away, the older generations have so much to benefit from if they had the opportunity to learn. People don’t teach them because their patience wears thin, if we embrace technology why can’t we let the people we love most embrace it as well… ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download