Ok so what has that got to do with those who would rail against technology taking over our lives,corrupting our souls and burning our brain cells up at a rapid rate?  Here’s the take away. If you truly are against progress especially  regarding electronic devices then throw away your cell phone and your computer and move out into the woods. Going backwards is not going to make our quality of life better, it’s more about monitoring your usage of abuses of technology. Eveery now and then step away from the devices and take a walk. gain some balance,

But what about the children?…they will never know what it’s like to hike and fish and smell the wafting smell of azaleas. Horse pucky as one of my teachers used to say. Our kids are smarter, better educated and move at faster rates then we do so they can do more than we ever did. That means they do both and are adept at each. They time manage better than we did because they have to. It’s progress baby! So you can rail against technology and look like the character in the cartoon above or you can pick up the cell phone and see who’s on the line.

Although the stereotype persists that older adults are ‘stuck in their ways,’ close-minded and uninterested in learning, the evidence is quite to the contrary. For decades the prevailing thinking in neuroscience was that the adult human brain was essentially immutable, hardwired, fixed in form and function, so that by adulthood we were pretty much stuck with what we had. But with new research has come the realization that the adult brain retains impressive powers of ‘neuroplasticity’ – the ability to change structure and function in response to experience. This, coupled with Boomers thirst for new knowledge and skills, has created a growing popularity for lifelong learning. In fact, the number of college students ages 40 to 64 has jumped by almost 20% to nearly 2 million in the past decade. And those numbers are expected to keep growing as more and more mid-life adults return to school to reinvent themselves, once again.

In an AARP study published in July 2000, 9 out of 10 adults ages 50 and over said they wanted to actively seek out learning opportunities to keep current, grow personally and enjoy the simple pleasure of mastering something new. Research also continues to highlight the importance of lifelong learning as a prescription for a longer, healthier life — keeping minds active and people socially connected and engaged. And while the old-fashioned ways of learning something new — reading a book or taking a class at a local college — are still popular, many mid-life adults are also embracing online education and other new technologies. Today, mid-life adults who graduated from college 30+ years ago are returning to take classes in everything from Italian to modern film, from mastering investing to creating a Web page, to traveling the world. As mid-life adults return to their studies, learning institutions are accommodating them with flexible schedules, satellite campuses, online courses and the like. Mid-life adults are teaching the world that you CAN teach “an old dog new tricks!”

As stewards of lifelong learning, libraries are well positioned to become cornerstone institutions for mid-life adults, productive aging, and the life of the mind IF they can also appeal to them with new, intriguing and flexible approaches to learning.

So put that old mustang back in the garage and plug into the future.

Parts of this article are referenced from Transforming Life After Fifty

True story (as comics always say) I was in the emergency room at our local hospital. I was waiting to talk to the billing person when two distraught parents came in helping their son to the receptionist area. It looked like he had a head injury because he was loosely bandaged and there was some blood on the gauze surrounding his forehead. Other than that he seemed to be ok. I noticed he was clutching an iPad and cellphone in one hand as he pressed the bandaging to his head. It was a quiet night so he was escorted right in. The parents were asked to wait in the lobby until the doctor had seen the young man. Five minutes later an assistant approached the worried parents and told them their son would be fine. The doctor was stitching him up right now. She then handed them the Ipad and cellphone both of which were obviously damaged. The ipad screen was cracked and shattered and the cellphone was bent. The parents stared at the two gadgets with a longing look, then the husband put his head in his hands and started to cry.

Now I admit I’m extrapolating here but I think we are getting too attached to these devices almost as if they possess personalities of their own. And in fact some do. There are car electronics that talk to you and ask questions about where you want to go and suggest ways of getting there or even alternative places to go and so forth. I’ve noticed that I don’t know anyone’s phone number anymore. Since my iphone does I figure why clutter my brain with such nonsense. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Following that train of thought soon I’ll be a blabbering fool who know nothing other than talking to my iphone or some other device to help me with my daily tasks. All I’ll have to do is eat, sleep and eliminate waste. Is this the utopia we all want? I have to end this blog now….my iphone just informed me I have a meeting in ten minutes and I haven’t shaved yet.

But the man in the cartoon asking for metrics on his watermelon in trade for not tweeting about the grocers “fat ass” is going down the wrong path. Older generations integrating into today’s technology frenzy and not being thoughtful about its usage will suffer from the dark side of the internet like teenagers who get “cyberbullied” We need to apply life’s lessons to use technology to benefit our society and not look to the internet to solve our problems why we sip Lattes at Starbucks.

Am I surprised by this? Should you be? No is the answer. This is what I would call “Modern Darwinism” or “Technological Evolution” We are becoming what we have feared for so long. A society envisioned by Orwell, James Cameron and Stanley Kubrick among others. This is just the beginning. If you could travel to the future say three hundred years you may find humans that look vastly different than we do today…something out of I, Robot. They wouldn’t be using gadgets, iphones etc anymore …they would be the “gadget”.

There’s nothing we can do about the progression of mankind. That’s a lesson that we humans have learned over and over again despite the feeling that we can change things. So let’s all rest easy, let the media do their thing making a mountain out of a molehill because that’s what they do and we in the meantime should live our life as we see fit with or without technology.