I read a fascinating book called Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature (which I reviewed here).
One concept that was mentioned, sort of in passing, was the following:
“technology that appears in your life between birth and your 15th birthday is not technology at all, but just ‘natural’; technology that appears between your 15th and 35th birthday is wow-technology; and anything after your 35th birthday is ‘unnatural.”
I look at my dad and my grandfather and one thing that strikes me about them is how they embrace technological change and try to make all of the stuff that arrived after age 35 as natural as possible.
I think it helps keep you young.
And I see it in the way that people talk about Facebook or Twitter, for example.
I don’t care if you don’t use it. I don’t care if you’ve tried it out and decided it’s not for you.
What I do care about is people over 35 (and I’m now one of them) saying “I don’t get it. It’s stupid” (or something to that effect.)
I look at the way my kids accept cell phones, DVR’s, on-demand, web browsers, in-car DVD’s and GPS.
It’s natural for them. It’s wow for me, but I do my best to make it natural.
That, though, requires investment of time. It requires a challenge of your habits. It’s a mindset.
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