Could Internet use help erase generation gaps over time?

An experience that has recently solidified its place as an official electric age cliché is when one receives a Facebook friend request from their parent or grandparent. An event only becomes a cliché once it has been repeated over and over again. Clichés, by there very nature, are accessible to most people. Some type of personal connection is needed to have this accessibility. This connection is often foraged through personal experience. This leads me to believe that many, many people have been “friended” by their parent or grandparent. Available data confirms this deduction. One of the fastest growing demographics on Facebook is the 35+ group (insidefacebook.com). So what does this new(ish) cliché mentioned above tell us about how demographics in the entire Internet user arena are changing? Obviously, the boarders are expanding and the Net has no Ellis Island. All are welcome.

Many discussions of the social impacts of the Internet are subtly framed by vague acceptances of an age continuum. The younger one is, it is assumed, the more tech enveloped one’s life is. But as the demographics of Net users expand, this assumption becomes archaic. The “kids today” comments become naïve and unfair. How different can understanding be between two people who both understand how to create and maintain a Facebook page? Much can be different, but much less than if one of those people did not know how to use a computer at all.

What could this mean for the future? It is thought that human life expectancy could continue to rise. And children are becoming Net savvy at younger and younger ages. It is conceivable that in the not too distant future, a fifteen year old and a seventy-five year old could be learning to master the same new technologies at the same time. This type of environment could mean a shrinking in the social space between generations. As greater portions of the population become connected and fluent in web technologies, things that formerly separated people in different biological generations will have less and less importance. This could be good news for cultures that struggles with coherence. A criticism common among those wary of the changes technology is causing is that life is becoming increasingly fragmented. But I think that amidst the vast ocean of fragments, a new kind of unity could emerge.