Recently my niece showed me how to change my iPhone pass code from using four digits to the more secure alphanumeric mode. Two weeks ago, or so it seemed, I was patiently being the good uncle by explaining to her this fancy new gadget (original iPhone, circa 2007) I bought. “Look here, see the pretty lights?” I told her trying not to overwhelm her with technical jargon and concepts. So imagine my wounded pride a few days ago when she showed some frustration that I couldn’t follow her instructions with the pass code change. “No Uncle Russell! You go to settings…oh here, let me do it!” She used to be so cute. What happened? Was I starting to loose my touch? Here’s what happened: My niece learns and communicates with the world with a perspective starting in the early nineties. In her world everyone gathers information and processes it quickly. She does not know about calling the reference librarian to help with her home work or waiting for the paper to be delivered to get the news – of yesterday.

In the 1980’s  I worked as a retail manager for a well-known electronics retailer. As sales people we wowed customers by explaining how they could record one channel on their video cassette recorder while watching another channel on their television. It was like magic and we felt like kings. I felt like Marlon Brando in “Apocalypse Now”. Remember, “A snail slithers on a razor’s edge”. If you are fifty, like me, or older it is too easy to get comfortable with the technology that we know.

At home my niece has access to 300 channels on TV not three like we did; (well four if you include the public station). She hears about  something interesting and can go to the Internet and interact with that information right away. No reading the encyclopedia with its out of date maps and pictures of deposed world leaders. In her world information changes constantly and she adapts to it as needed.  Her way of thinking is in the present and future. The baby boom generation had it good for a while but “kids today” will one day see the rate of technological progress from the 1960’s to the 1990’s in months not decades.  They will not have the time nor desire to keep doing things the old way, just because it is the old way.

The jobs that have been lost due to technological improvements in manufacturing probably won’t be coming back. The days of working 40 years for a company from high school to retirement,  with employer-provided training along the way, have gone with the wind. The key to being successful in business and in a career is not counting how long you have been coming to work but the value  you possess. Information and education will be the keys to success. Previous jobs that called strictly for manual labor will be manual labor plus.  Digging a ditch plus designing the ditch. Loading trucks plus identifying logistics. Picking up trash plus evaluating costs of trash removal.

So my niece represents the change that is coming and is already here. There is always something new to learn and learning comes natural to her generation. It is not the desire to learn that is so different, it’s the ease as which information can be gathered. My hope is that her generation will not loose the power of discernment and wisdom that can come only with the words, “back in my day we didn’t have these new fangled…” Until then I am going to ask her to show me how I can get Internet service on my laptop by using the signal from my cell phone. If I’m lucky she will sigh with frustration and say, “Oh Uncle Russell, let me do it!”

By the way, it should make you mad or sad,  if  you let someone make you mad or sad.

Russ