Blog 7
Well, out of all the things I learned, finding out who replied to my interview queries was rather interesting. As I’m too busy to go downtown and pick folks off the street, I emailed several people I know or that I’m related to and asked them to answer the interview questions. Oddly enough, the first person to reply to the questions was my grandfather, who is well past the 60s. And eighteen year-old friend was the second to reply. As to someone from the 36-60 age group….well, I ended up emailing two different people, and I never received answers from either of them. I ended up having to talk to my third interviewee in person.
The uses of the internet generally stayed the same. All of them use the internet primarily for emailing friends and family. The younger two, who are both attending college, use the internet to do school research and to send in assignments. The older two also used the internet for everyday tasks such as paying bills, taking care of financial matters, and other useful tasks. Another use mentioned—trip planning. The interviewee from the 36-60 age group loves Travelzoo and other travel sites, particularly because they help her to dream about that vacation she really wants to take…
The two younger interviewees told me very little about how technology has changed their lives. The youngest interviewee has never had to live without technology (He is probably one of those people who would die if all the computers in the world suddenly died.). The middle-aged interviewee likes how the internet makes communicating easier, as well as how she can now find funny movies of cats on YouTube. My grandfather said that technology made his life easier—allowed him to file things more neatly, print and scan things faster, and check his spelling. For his age, he’s very computer literate—but then again, he’s an engineer by training, and he was the one who taught me binary.
Over all, the three interviewees liked the internet and were happy about the benefits it brought to their lives. My grandfather loves it, because it makes paying bills a lot easier. Interestingly, he also likes the internet because it gives him something to do now that his mobility’s decreasing. It’s harder for him to do things outside of the house now, so the internet helps him stay occupied.
Oddly enough, the two replies I received via email were very short. Perhaps one sentence answers to each question. I don’t know whether it was because the two interviewees used email, or whether it was because they were both male.
So, a couple of conclusions…email isn’t always a problem for older folks. As my grandfather pointed out, it can help elderly people with reduced mobility or activeness to still stay in touch with what’s going on in the world. For people in my generation, we’ve never had to live without the internet and computers. Neither do we have a point of reference by which to compare it to a life without computers. For those of us who grew up with computers, we are so used to the mindset and “invisible technologies” that Postman talks about that we don’t know any other way to live.
It was interesting to read your post. I also found it harder to get younger people to articulate about how the internet affects their lives because it’s invisible to them. They have always had the option and access to it and there was never any substantial amount of time in their lives where they did not have it. The older person you interviewed gave some input that I had not considered, the fact that the internet is helping people with mobility problems. This is absolutely right. I can imagine it is of great use to them whether they are young or old! For example attending courses online would be much easier for someone who was disabled than having to get across campus to attend different classes.
Another point I would like to mention is the fact that you did your interviews via email. I think you hinder some of the information that you can get when you don’t talk to people because it doesn’t allow you to immediately ask questions that would help them articulate better what they are trying to say. For me it was helpful to give examples to the people I interviewed and I referenced our text as well. It helped them “see the light” about their internet usage.
Justin Smith said this on February 26, 2009 at 12:04 am