Every year around this time, my Mom, accompanied by an aunt or older cousin, arrives at my house for a few days for a visit, which means we have one or more Baby Boomers, at least two Gen Xers, and one Gen Z in the house.
Boomers have a reputation for being notoriously bad with technology. Mom lives up to this reputation. Gen Z have just the opposite rep, as they’re second generation “digital natives.” But what about Gen X?
Gen-Xers are in a unique position. Technology grew up around us. We suffered the earliest modems, mainframes with green screens, 8086 and 8088 chips. Some of us real geeks had computers with memory measured in kilobytes and cassette tape storage. This unique position gives us a leg up on younger generations regarding technology in a very specific way – we understand how it works and from whence it comes. We can set up our own computers, kill our own viruses, and make our phones do what we want. Usually, when things go sideways, we know where to look to straighten it up.
What makes me believe this? In a five-day period, I’ve acted as tech support to both my Boomer mother and Gen Z daughter. I showed Mom how to get photos on her phone and got her ringtone back. I fixed a virus on my daughter’s PC and secured her iPad. (Which I did under protest, but my hatred of Apple products is probably another blog post.) I’m the go-to guy for tech support from both generations, and I’d be willing to bet that I’m not the only Gen Xer with this experience.