24/7 365 - Love it or Hate it?

I am 42. I am Generation X and proud. What a great time to be alive.

We (us 42 year olds) grew up with 3 channels on the telly.


I remember getting our first colour telly. I remember TV's without remote controls.


I remember the launch of channel 4 and being very excited by this new subversive channel (November 2nd 1982)


I remember getting our first video recorder.


I remember Vinyl, the joy of buying singles and listening (and taping) the top 40 on Radio One. I remember being excited about seeing Top of the Pops.



But then things suddenly moved on; in 1994 Sunday shopping became permissible for normal shops (instead of just garden centres and places that sold alcohol).



Culture and technology started to change. After the Second World War; Britain was, in general, a 9 - 5 society (not including the factories), but with men going to the moon, culture and technology began to change.



Satellite TV was launched in Britain in 1989.
 In 1994 I had my first mobile phone. It was brick shaped and about the same weight. There was no internet on it or texting.



Since I have been working I have rarely worked 9 - 5. I have worked Saturdays, Sundays, through the night, bank holidays and Christmas day. I have worked and partied hard



I love the new technology, I love my gadgets and gismos, I love that in moves so quickly, LCD displays, then plasma. We had DVD's then BluRay. We had mobiles, now SMART phones, texting, emailing, SMS'ing all new and great ways to communicate.

 

Digital photography, we can all take a great photo these days, and if it's not great we can change it to be great. Blogging, social networking, we are becoming one world via the internet. I can communicate using Skype for free with friends in other countries; they can see and hear me. All of this in my life time, what could happen in the next 40 years.



Generation Y & Z don't know about albums, my daughters have never had a TV they can't pause. They don't realise this is amazing! I am amazed daily. Is this what Tomorrow’s World predicted? I think it is better and more.



Unfortunately, others of my generation are more resistant to change. They are resistant to the internet, they think it is all porn and unsecure data; it frightens them because they don't understand it. Some of my friends don't use email, can only just text and don't see the accessibility of it all. Or they do use the technology but they limit themselves, out of fear, one friend asked me to take their photo's of them off Facebook, I explained that only my friends could see it so it would just be like having photos of them up in my house, but they didn't want there picture 'out there'. I struggle to understand this, what's going to happen...the internet will steal their soul?



I love that I can shop any time of the day without having to be bumped and jostled by real people. I can go anywhere and talk to anyone via my laptop.

 The one thing that I still love and I am not sure I could do with a net book or whatever; is books. I love curling up in bed with a good book; I love the physicality of it. It is comforting and old school, like radio 4, it reminds me of growing up and my Mum's. I think we all need a little bit of that even with all the great technology.



On which side do you fall; love it, or hate it? Are you a first generation 24/7 365’er like me?