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Why are boomers so bad with technology?

Unk Adams

Banned
I find it ironic when boomers talk about how stupid and selfish the generations after them are yet the second they need help turning on an iPad they run to them for help. One of the most frustrating things is teaching boomers how to use any technology, especially when they talk about everyone being useless brats when many of them would be completely helpless trying to navigate the modern world without the help of younger people.
 
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mortal

Banned
abe-simpson.gif
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I find it ironic when boomers talk about how stupid and selfish the generations after them are yet the second they need help turning on an iPad they run to them for help. One of the most frustrating things is teaching boomers how to use any technology, especially when they talk about everyone being useless brats when many of them would be completely helpless trying to navigate the modern world without the help of younger people.
Probably because their lives and career are already set so they dont need to care about using Excel and Access at home. My parents are about 80 years old and my dad will call one of us to help him with the printer because half the time when he cant figure out how to format pages nice or at the beginning didn't know how to change ink cartridges. So he called us over to do it because he was afraid to break it.

Sign of the times.

It's like asking a milinneal to grab some tools and do an oil change, fix a leaky pipe or do income tax submissions by hand using a paper copy where you got to know the nuances of different forms and roll it up using a calculator and hope you didn't mess up the formulas carrying over numbers from one cell to another.

I bet my old ass dad who can barely walk and has arthritis in his hands could do those things better than a 25 year old.
 
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Unk Adams

Banned

Great scene! The irony is though that many boomers also talk to younger people as if they world hasn't changed at all since their day. I've heard one boomer guy give someone who was having trouble getting a job to just confidently walk in, demand to speak the boss and give him a strong handshake not knowing that this would get you laughed at and thrown out of the building today.
 
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Unk Adams

Banned
When did we start generalising people based on the era they were born in? It's pretty offensive to generalise people based on something they had no control over.
Don't worry, I can post plenty of crap about the annoying things mostly associated with millennials and zoomers, too. I don't hate boomers or any group. I'm just pointing out some of the common annoyances I find with them. Other groups have their own annoying shit. But boomers didn't grow up with the same technology or world we have today which is why this applies to them mainly. I commonly find boomers who can't do simple things with a computer. I never run into this with groups younger than them.
 
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Ohnoez a boomer doesn't know how to connect his printer, but he can cook, repair the house, fix the car, not get lost in the woods, raise and slaughter his own chicken, do gardening, defend his country, mend the fence and f*ck his wife without asking for consent form 13b while checking for her preferred pronouns.

Lots of teens today can barely use their tablet or smartphone and can't navigate a file system if their lives depended on it. Put them in front of a PC an they are completely lost.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Don't worry, I can post plenty of crap about the annoying things mostly associated with millennials and zoomers, too. I don't hate boomers or any group. I'm just pointing out some of the common annoyances I find with them. Other groups have their own annoying shit. But boomers didn't grow up with the same technology or world we have today which is why this applies to them mainly. I commonly find boomers who can't do simple things with a computer. I never run into this with groups younger than them.
Of course old people are bad at PCs and tech. They never grew up with it. Tech becomes a lot easier as a whole if someone grew up using Windows based products, where clicking, dragging, copy and paste etc.... are kind of the same no matter what OS or product you use.

My dad retired early. PCs started becoming the norm, but had secretaries do the work anyway. He worked at a time there was smoking in offices and guys had to wear a suit and tie. Instead of a laptop bag with a PC in it he'd bring home like modern people, he carried a small suitcase and brought home important papers in case someone stole it at work.

It's like giving a millennial a tool box and say go change a flat tire or open up the lawn mower and change the oil and spark plugs. My dad can do that no problem even though he's probably going to die from old age the next 5 years.
 

Unk Adams

Banned
Ohnoez a boomer doesn't know how to connect his printer, but he can cook, repair the house, fix the car, not get lost in the woods, raise and slaughter his own chicken, do gardening, defend his country, mend the fence and f*ck his wife without asking for consent form 13b while checking for her preferred pronouns.

Lots of teens today can barely use their tablet or smartphone and can' navigate a file system if their lives depended on it. Put them in front of a PC an they are completely lost.
Most boomers I know literally just pay younger millenial and zoomer handymen and mechanics to do house repair, mow their lawns, and fix their cars.
 

mortal

Banned
Great scene! The irony is though that many boomers also talk to younger people as if they world hasn't changed at all since their day. I've heard one boomer guy give someone who was having trouble getting a job to just confidently walk in, demand to speak the boss and give him a strong handshake not knowing that this would get you laughed at and thrown out of the building today.
lol yea tbh I think every generation aging out will eventually go through this.
With the advent of the internet, social media, and smartphones, it's boomers that are having the toughest time adapting.
Although, with things like AR & VR tech and platforms on the horizon, millennials & Gen-Xers will not be immune to this trend imo. Assuming you live to see your 70s or 80s etc.

As a millennial myself, I must admit even I have a hard time keeping up with the ever-changing social trends.
It's only a matter of time until I'm in their shoes, so knowing that I try to be a bit more empathetic even though engaging with them can be somewhat frustrating.
 
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IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
But boomers didn't grow up with the same technology or world we have today which is why this applies to them mainly. I commonly find boomers who can't do simple things with a computer. I never run into this with groups younger than them.

Looks like you've answered your own question to this thread. Some people of an older generation grew up and spent a majority of their adult life living without modern technology. Which is why some of them struggle to adapt to a world ruled by computers and smart phones.
 

Unk Adams

Banned
lol yea tbh I think every generation aging out will eventually go through this.
With the advent of the internet, social media, and smartphones, it's boomers that are having the toughest time adapting.
Although, with things like AR & VR tech and platforms on the horizon, millennials & Gen-Xers will not be immune to this trend imo. Assuming you live to see your 70s or 80s etc.

As a millennial myself, I must admit even I have a hard time keeping up with the ever-changing social trends.
It's only a matter of time until I'm in their shoes, so knowing that I try to be a bit more empathetic even though engaging with them can be somewhat frustrating.
You're right! I'm Gen X and many of the trends, interests, and behaviors of millenials and zoomers seem completely absurd to me. The world seems more insane every year!
 

dcll

Banned
I feel like an old boomer when my son and his friends are on discord chats all day obsessing over nfts. Seems like bs to me on first impression but I really don't know anything about it but one thing I do know how lame is it to be 18 and sit on your asses all day on Playstation or the computer and never get out and do stuff. Gaaaayyyyyy.gif
 
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Little Mac

Gold Member
Technology is like a language. Children nowadays are born into it and exposed to it at a young age as they develop, to the point where they are fluent in it, whereas almost all of this tech wasn't around when Boomers were kids. Try learning a new language well into adulthood as opposed to childhood.
 

BigBooper

Member
The same reason so many zoomers and coomers are terrible at writing. They don't want to do it any better and don't feel like they have to. No critique on your writing, OP, I just wanted to use zoomers and coomers in a sentence.

A lot of old people are just so set in their ways and tired of learning new things that they don't want to put in the effort. I don't necessarily blame them. How many new technologies have you learned in your short lifetime? Compare that to how many they did in 80 years. Everything probably feels transient after a while.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Are we talking boomers as in actual baby boomers? They didn't grow up with it and it's not designed by people like them. What seems 'obvious' to someone in their 20s can seem obtuse to someone in their 60s. I already see it creeping in when I use something like Windows 11 and think 'why the fuck would you put that option there?'
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Ohnoez a boomer doesn't know how to connect his printer, but he can cook, repair the house, fix the car, not get lost in the woods, raise and slaughter his own chicken, do gardening, defend his country, mend the fence and f*ck his wife without asking for consent form 13b while checking for her preferred pronouns.

Lots of teens today can barely use their tablet or smartphone and can't navigate a file system if their lives depended on it. Put them in front of a PC an they are completely lost.
Truth. My dad had more practical skill than most people my age or younger could dream of. Millennials and zoomers are lost without a detailed youtube tutorial to change a fucking tire.
 

Mistake

Member
From what I've seen in my family, it helps a lot if you never stop trying to learn new things. My uncle is past 60 and he became a lawyer as a side hustle, while my mother who is just as old, learned the basics of excel and all the formatting options in word. Still has 5000 tabs open though
 

nush

Member
Millennials and zoomers are lost without a detailed youtube tutorial to change a fucking tire.

To be fair you can learn things from Youtube that your grandparents knew but your parents didn't learn to pass on.

I did manage to change a flat tire on my own first time without having to call my dad though, but Youtube wasn't invented then.
 

Laieon

Member

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
To be fair you can learn things from Youtube that your grandparents knew but your parents didn't learn to pass on.

I did manage to change a flat tire on my own first time without having to call my dad though, but Youtube wasn't invented then.
Speaking purely about my father and grandfather I think they had a great relationship and passed knowledge between each other. My grandfather built his house. Imagine tasking your average millennial or zoomer with that?
 
Regardless of whatever hot takes, it is going to be really, really interesting when the time comes for the current millennials and zoomers and whatever the fucks to realize that the world has passed THEM by.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
Depends on how you define technology. I daily drive linux, last week landed code that pulls golden files from S3 in order to compare it to audio files captured from an embedded device that puts out alarms depending on the state of the system, and generally operate from a command center where I am t-mux sshing into 3-4 different computers at once for my daily work. But fuck if I know how to find porn on telegram.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
I'm already starting to feel it. I was born in 91, so I grew quite literally alongside a lot of technologies, from their relative commercial infancy to being something widespread and accepted, but I started stagnating around 2011, and in that short time, I feel like the world started aging three times as fast as I did, and people who are fresh into their twenties may as well be from a different planet.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I don't know, I'm 40 and I find both the older and younger to be clueless.
The older generation don't know how to use it and have some phobia about it and the younger generation just expect it to work with no clue how it works and why it has limitations.
When I use to develop Photos iPhone users was the worse
Have you ever tried explaining to a arrogant 20 year old why all of their 1500 selfies on their iPhones aren't actually on the phone 🙄
And what iCloud is..
And I'd get orders come through with head chopped off because they tried printing a 1:1 photo on 6x4 print.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I don't know, I'm 40 and I find both the older and younger to be clueless.
The older generation don't know how to use it and have some phobia about it and the younger generation just expect it to work with no clue how it works and why it has limitations.
When I use to develop Photos iPhone users was the worse
Have you ever tried explaining to a arrogant 20 year old why all of their 1500 selfies on their iPhones aren't actually on the phone 🙄
And what iCloud is..
And I'd get orders come through with head chopped off because they tried printing a 1:1 photo on 6x4 print.
I;m in the same boat but a little older than you. Gen X I guess. I find it the best of both worlds, as we can do a mix of old school stuff and be good with tech. I'm not saying I can sew sweater from scratch like my mom or know SQL and be a Tik Tok star like a 25 year old, but there's enough middle ground to get through life old and new. Its also the generation where if someone got into buying real estate years back most of us are up a shit load.
 
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Soltype

Member
It's not that they're bad with it, they just didn't grow up around technology. I work in the school system, a lot of kids can't read an analog clock. they're just less familiar with it, a lot of younger people don't fully understand technology past a basic level.
 
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///PATRIOT

Banned
I find it ironic when boomers talk about how stupid and selfish the generations after them are yet the second they need help turning on an iPad they run to them for help. One of the most frustrating things is teaching boomers how to use any technology, especially when they talk about everyone being useless brats when many of them would be completely helpless trying to navigate the modern world without the help of younger people.
When you get to their age, you won't be able to keep up with an accelerating world, and then you'll have an asshole saying the same thing to you.

PD: Thanks to boomers and previous generation, you can wipe your ass with paper instead of your hand.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
When you get to their age, you won't be able to keep up with an accelerating world, and then you'll have an asshole saying the same thing to you.

PD: Thanks to boomers and previous generation, you can wipe your ass with paper instead of your hand.
Yup.

When someone gets older, the rat race for them is over. It's time to chill out as they are close to or actually in retirement. Unless that old person has a constant penchant to always be keeping up with the times or impressing people they dont give a shit about the latest fad or tech gadget.

It's like why would there still be music CD sales where the Best of Dolly Parton or some old band from the 1970s would be a top seller when everyone moved to stealing MP3 files through Limewire or moved to iTunes kinds of services 20 years ago. Well, because while everyone is downloading files, they dont give a shit and are actually buying the CD from Walmart to play on their archaic CD player that still works.

It's like my parents still watching classic movies on a VCR from their giant wall of tapes and using a CRT tv as long as possible until it breaks. They finally did so they had to buy a slim LCD tv which is the shittiest one you can get at 32" because they dont care about the latest OLED. They live in a giant house the past 30 years thats worth at least $2M yet have an RCA 32" LCD which I dont know is even 1080p. It might be 720p. Its terrible quality. Im surprised my dad figured out how to connect an HDMI cable. They dont give a shit about latest tech.
 
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nush

Member
When I use to develop Photos iPhone users was the worse
Have you ever tried explaining to a arrogant 20 year old why all of their 1500 selfies on their iPhones aren't actually on the phone 🙄

How many dick pics did you see?
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I’m pretty tired of this “boomer” meme. Whatever happened to having respect for your elders? They sacrificed more than you’d ever know so you can have the life you have today.
I think a lot of it comes from jealousy and entitlement.

Young people think they are so smart being amped up with internet knowledge and knowing how to use tech fast, they think they deserve more and are smarter than everyone else.

Typically when you see anti-boomer arguments it's not even about them being bad parents. Instead there will always be an angle what they got (like a big house they bought for $100k in 1980 that's now worth $1.5M) that anyone raised in 1970 had it easy with jobs and getting rich like it was impossible to fail.

And because mom and dad was able to build up assets buying a home 40 years ago for dirt cheap at 13% mortgage rates, young people expect they can also buy a big family home for cheap too for 3% mortgage rates. They dont want to start small with a condo, or move to a town that has cheap property. They want to buy a home like their parents in metro areas for $200k instead of $1.2M..
 
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Unk Adams

Banned
But many of them are not retired and are in places such as work environments where they are expected to keep up with the latest technology and constantly need helping doing so. It's one thing if you need help. It's another thing to talk trash about younger generations being lazy, useless idiots then needing their help for very basic things a few minutes later.

And speaking of toilet paper, that's such a boomer thing. Everyone younger and hip uses bidets. Get with the times.
I’m pretty tired of this “boomer” meme. Whatever happened to having respect for your elders? They sacrificed more than you’d ever know so you can have the life you have today.
Sadly many members of the Gen X, millennial, and zoomer generations were treated shitty by boomers and now have a chip on their sleeve as a result. I will say that I can easily make threads about problems with the other generations because all of them have stupid things about them as well and you're all free to point them out. This one just happens to be about boomers. You all have to admit that there are annoying characteristics that are mostly unique to individual generations. Boomers being bad with technology, millennials being snowflake brats, zoomers being even bigger snowflake brats, etc. Maybe I'm biased because I'm part of Gen X but I can't think of any negative stereotypes about us. Anyone want to help?
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
But many of them are not retired and are in places such as work environments where they are expected to keep up with the latest technology and constantly need helping doing so. It's one thing if you need help. It's another thing to talk trash about younger generations being lazy, useless idiots then needing their help for very basic things a few minutes later.

And speaking of toilet paper, that's such a boomer thing. Everyone younger and hip uses bidets. Get with the times.

Sadly many members of the Gen X, millennial, and zoomer generations were treated shitty by boomers and now have a chip on their sleeve as a result. I will say that I can easily make threads about problems with the other generations because all of them have stupid things about them as well and you're all free to point them out. This one just happens to be about boomers. You all have to admit that there are annoying characteristics that are mostly unique to individual generations. Boomers being bad with technology, millennials being snowflake brats, zoomers being even bigger snowflake brats, etc. Maybe I'm biased because I'm part of Gen X but I can't think of any negative stereotypes about us. Anyone want to help?
You must work in a place with struggling old people.

The old people at my work (using MS Office or SAP) can use it fine. Your thread about boomers bad with tech will heavily depend on job role and their exposure to it.

I'd cross off Gen X from your list of whiners. That portion of people are middle aged, have a job, car and house. Were doing fine and dont complain.
 
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