How Technology has Influenced the Generations

The last 60 years or so have seen the birth and rapid rise of modern technology. And the two generations who have witnessed its emergence, although through very different eyes, have been the Baby Boomers and the Millennials. Baby Boomers are the generation that was born between 1945 and 1965 and are so named because they were the product of the baby boom that occurred after the end of the second world war.

Millennials are the children of those Baby Boomers, born between 1979 and the early 2000s and so named because the oldest of them became adults around the turn of the third millennium.

This article looks at the extent that the growth of modern technology has influenced both generations and the effects it has had on their behavior and lifestyle.

Technology timeline

1971: First laser printer is developed at Xerox

1972: Invention of the compact disc and video game console

1974: Intel invents the microprocessor chip

1976: First home video cassette recorder is released by Sony

1979: Introduction of the 5.25-inch floppy disk

1980: Sony Walkman is invented

1981: Personal computers are released

1984: CD-ROMs and Apple Mac computers are released

1987: First portable cell phone is released

1990: World’s first webcam is released

1991: Notebook computers are introduced

1994: VoIP Internet telephone is invented

1995: Amazon and eBay are launched

1997: Wi-Fi becomes publicly available

1999: Bluetooth is launched

2000: GPS becomes publicly available

2001: Apple releases the iPod

2005: YouTube comes online

2007: Apple introduces the iPhone.

Baby Boomers and technology

When the first desktop PCs were being produced by IBM and Apple, Baby Boomers have aged anywhere from their teens to their early 30s, so they didn’t grow up with computers by any means, but rather came to them later.

Before computers, their childhood was a much less hi-tech affair, when transistor radios, landline telephones, and tube televisions were the cutting edge innovations of the time  and cell phones and video games hadn’t been invented.

Baby Boomers instead spent much more time outdoors, playing with other children in their neighborhoods, staying out until the streetlights came on, and inventing their own games to keep themselves entertained.

As they got older though and their Millennial children brought more modern technology into the home, Baby Boomers gradually began to take more interest in computers and the Internet because of the opportunities the technology offered.

And today many Baby Boomers are as tech-savvy as their children. They are avid users of social media and smartphones and are quietly confident that they can keep up with future technological innovations.

Millennials and technology

Unlike the much simpler childhoods of their Baby Boomer parents, Millennials have grown up in a time of disruptive technological change. This was a time when the rise of social media, peer reviews, and online commerce made their smartphones an indispensable part of their lives.

Everything could be achieved online with the touch of a button, from reviewing a restaurant or buying a pair of shoes to letting your followers know your opinions on everything. And the children of Millennials are now taking this to the next level, with many toddlers knowing how to use a keyboard before being able to ride a bike.

While their Baby Boomer parents view technology as a way to source information and to bring more convenience into their lives, Millennials see it as a way to express themselves and to connect and interact with their peers.

Future generations

Clearly the evolution of modern technology has influenced these two generations in markedly different ways.

Because Baby Boomers grew up when technology was in its infancy, they were less spellbound by its promise and spent more of their time trying to give their children the materialistic things that they themselves had been forced to do without. Millennials on the other hand grew up with technology and embraced the digital world that surrounded them.

And as technology continues to grow and evolve, its effect on future generations will no doubt be even more profound, with children soon likely to not only have a digital footprint from a very young age but perhaps from the moment they are born or even before.