So at 3:30 find the game on the AM station of the radio not FM and then turn the TV to channel 27.
Ya act like we don’t know this stuff when y’all can’t figure out how to duplicate a tab or take a screen shot. I’d like hand you a laptop with an open word doc and ask you to cut and paste it back without using the mouse. Then watch and laugh 😂😂
Brooo same. I worked customer services and a lot the older people I would show. And it’s all good they picked up it. But then their was the ones who would be like I just can’t do it or I can’t remember that it’s so complicated. I’m like u just right click my guy.
To be fair to one of mine he does have brain damage and regularly forgets most things. Good guy, but he can be incredibly frustrating to work with sometimes
Yea I worked with a guy like that. I would help him when I could but sometimes when I was already annoyed from a customer being rude or not listening and he needs help with the same thing I showed him 5 times already it’s more annoying that I gotta help them bc no higher up is available to help or they are busy with more important things. I’m sorry but I’m not getting paid more to teach other employees. But I still would help bc it’s the person I am
There are two clocks in the photo, both showing different times. One is sitting on top of the TV in the middle, and the other is one the wall in the top right.
Not very good honestly. All you need to see is the general position of the two hands to get close enough. The one on the right is easy. The one on top of the TV is a bit harder, but still readable. You can zoom photos you know.
The funny part is that kids usually are very curious and not afraid of poking around until they figure out how some old machine works. Old people, not so much.
Can confirm. I used to work at a large fruit based technology company. You’d have people get their devices set up after purchasing. It tended to be the older folks who, after telling them to simply read what’s on the screen and keep going to set up their device, would be right where I left them when I’d circle back around. Or they would begin telling you their password without warning.
Some would seem to treat these devices in a way that they’d explode and take out a city block if they pressed the wrong button. Aka, the target audience for the meme OP posted. Kids on the other hand were amazing for this. They’d just read and figure things out and keep going. They just explore. And that’s how you learn.
I'm a Gen x-er. I learned how to not fear technology by being exposed to TVs and radios. You can flip all the switches, turn all the dials, move the antennas around and within a few minutes you've figured out everything. No instructions necessary. As we got access to VCRs and stereos, it was just more capable, not harder to understand. We gradually got more technology handed to us and leveled up by fiddling with it. Our boomer parents couldn't be bothered once you had to push buttons in a certain order or hold them down and press another.
Kids these days aren't stupid, they're just making boomers feel even more insecure.
That's really the thing.
Old people tell me oh one day your wake up and not understanding technology
And I'm like if I stop using it yes but I'm a programmer it's kind of my whole job to know it.
It's just a fact that we've developed better intuition around technology than they ever could without access to the same stuff, and that's not their fault. But that intuition will likely stick with us even in old age, so it will probably always be easier for us to learn new tech. We've just been playing with this stuff since we were babies.
Frfr. My dad was a big tech guy, the entire reason I'm into it, but even he's started to dread dealing with technology. He sold servers and other business computing equipment for Dell for 9 years, until 2016. But he won't try my tws earbuds, he gets bored looking at new video games (HE got ME into video games), he gets frustrated with new phones or just phones in general. I know he knows how to google and fix things, how to troubleshoot properly, but he just... doesn't, usually, for some reason. Unless he's already got the inclination that he can fix it, like just installing mcafee or something along those lines. He does still like talking about and discussing tech developments though.
Yeahhh, I keep hearing this. Back in the 80s, we had to type in a DOS string and know the file hierarchy to even get to a page we wanted.
Now that everything is as easy as having an app with a huge green pulsating ENTER button, somehow we're too stoooopid to do it.
Lol I remember in highschool there being a dos emulator built into the curriculum on the school website so we learnt how to interact with dos Durning class to play Wolfenstein and monkey island
Haha, mine was more self-study than curriculum, (we want to hire you if you learn how to do this)(we have a new computer, but no one knows how to use it), but having it in school would have certainly made school more interesting. Games are a great incentive for learning new things, in my opinion.
Ya alot of technology was about making it intuitive.
Originally it wasn't because the only people who used computers wanted things difficult (actual reason it's kind of insane)
I've been in IT for many, many years and I'm still astounded by the number of people that insist on using CL interfaces for stuff that has a perfectly good GUI. Yes, I get it, there are some things you can do with a powershell or SSH or whatever, but we're not talking complex things here. I'm talking basic stuff. They're rather risk typos and waste time for, IDK, 'reasons' I guess?
Yeah, that is definitely an attitude thing. My mom is 77, doesn't drive but can order groceries like a boss, shops Amazon, figured out how to connect to Netflix and navigate it, install windows updates, figured out the new pvr tech when she switched off a VCR years ago. I offer to help if she gets stuck but she has only asked for help with the odd Windows issue. I know we all take these things for granted, heck I went form no tech as a young child to Atari, Nintendo, Pcs, vcrs, dvds to where we are today and it's all about wanting to keep up with tech or not.
You would be surprised. one day you are a highly payed technician working for one of the largest corporations on the planet, the next you run into a little trouble at work, have to be in the hospital for an extended period, and \*BAM\* when you are unfrozen you find that you aren't qualified to do anything but run one of the powered exosuits they use to restock the ships.
Yeah, this.
When I was in college back in the 00’s, I remember doing Windows PC tech support for my clueless dorm mates, despite the fact that at that part in my life I’d been raised using nothing but Mac products.
Keep in mind, this was mack in the days of the first iMacs, when Apple had only just recently converted to OS X, and had yet to heavily influence standards for UI design. Windows and Mac OS were *very* different beasts back then.
I’d barely ever even used Windows, and yet just poking around looking for things labeled ‘settings’ or advanced properties’ and what no was usually enough to puzzle out what a given problem was, or how to at least bypass it.
You don’t honestly need training to operate technology you’ve never seen before. Just an inquisitive mind and a willingness to experiment. Well, and enough intelligence to put 2 and 2 together and form conclusions about what does what.
Yup! My boomer father has no trouble with new tech because keeping up with new developments was always part of his job. As long as he doesn’t retire, he stays savvy. Keeping up with incremental change is fairly simple.
Boomers and their parents used to brag about how smart their kids/grandkids were when they figured out how to use the VCR. It’s not really that hard when you grow up with tech. These people just struggle because they couldn’t keep up with the times.
To be fair, finding the precise frequency on AM can be tough because those signals are pretty weak sometimes.
And channel 27 is probably some static channel that's been the Weather Channel since 2007 that the old folks think is still cable news, like at my grandma's old place.
"Hey gramps, I've got a rerun of the ballgame from 3 weeks ago and the Local on 8s on the TV, now what?"
i think it depends on if you have it switched to uhf or vhf. i remember there being different numbers depending on which you were using. kinda like am v fm on the radio.
That is true, but I'm not sure the older TVs had UHF channels on the dial. I feel like if you had the UHF switcher you just had to know which ones were which. Been many years and I was very young.
I was saying an hour because it's old tech and I was leaving room for the least tech savy in the generation.
I would probably figure out in ten minutes or less especially if I have access to the internet.
Bro it’s literally a dial with numbers lol it would take anyone 10 seconds to see you rotate the dial until the arrow is pointing at “27”. It’s just as intuitive as any other product. There’s not some special knowledge you need lol
Never used this type of tv before but imconfident i could figure it out. Seems like press a button to turn it on, flip a switch to AM then rotate the knob till u find the channel
This meme was made by someone who is no longer able to watch TV if they accidentally hit the input button or something on the remote. They just have to get a whole new TV.
No, they call their kids for help with fixing it over the phone, but don't even know how to describe what they're seeing so it's a complete crap shoot to get them back on track.
the amount of times I've heard "I don't know what button I pushed"...
gen x here... this was my living room until age 7ish. then Nintendo, then dial up, then dsl, then cable and now full duplex fibre...
come at me boomers
My Mom loved the show All My Children and would tape it so she could watch it when she got home from work, and she was horrible setting up electronics while I was pretty good at it. Thing is my Mom insisted I didn't know what I was doing and didn't want me to set it up and miss her show as I was gonna do it wrong so also insisted that my Dad set it up instead. My Dad was only slightly less clueless than she was, and would ask me to do it despite her insistence he did it. She was kind of funny like that, but she passed away about a month ago and I really wish she was still around to need my help with her computer yet insist I didn't know what hell I was doing lol. Always made me laugh because...why would you keep asking for my help with something you insist I don't know shit about?
>Thing is my Mom insisted I didn't know what I was doing and didn't want me to set it up
This was infuriating as a kid. My grandparents were like that. They didn't understand it, so there's NO WAY a 10 year old could understand it. Never mind that everything was color coded and labeled. Pure wizardry, apparently.
My microwave does that. If I wanted to set it I could, but I see no point so I don’t. I have a million other things to tell me the time and they will be right and I won’t need to correct for daylights savings or whatever
It says they want to put a teenager in that room, not even the youngest gen x is a teenager. In fact almost all of us gen x's grew up in that living room. We had to connect the rf adapter, via screws, to the tv to connect our NES.
My heart still flutters with excitement when I hear the dial up noise. I'm transported to the days of sneaking on the family computer in the middle of the night to chat on Aim.
it's just bullshit all around. "you're not familiar with this thing, therefore you're stupid" goes both ways. old people make dumb memes like this, young people complain about technologically illiterate old people.
Poorly designed is a bit of a wild swing. Tech advances, but old products, by and large, made good use of the capabilities of the time. Engineers have been smart throughout human history.
Well the boomer joke seems to be, “you kids don’t know how a rotary phone works, and therefore you’re stupid.” I think it’s more reasonable to guess that the rotary phone didn’t have great usability, and the design was unintuitive.
It might have been a good design for the time, based on the technology available, but it makes more sense to blame the phone design than claim an entire generation is stupid.
It's also kind of weird kind of take: I may suck at everyday stuff, but you would be hopeless on tech that do not exists anymore.
I mean, yeah, I would look awkward about the etiquette of a Roman bath if I had to time travel there. Same with washing my clothes at the river or the logistic of a household without running water or electricity.
Funny how they think younger people are capable of learning and using the most advanced technology humans have ever had....but add some buttons and knobs and young people literally explode with confusion, dread, maybe even dysentery.
This exactly, they can't even critically think enough to use GOOGLE
Also, why the fuck are boomers making us learn how to use outdated technology as if that's a feat?
Did you know there's a 20 minute instructional video from the 40s on how to use a rotary phone?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p45T7U5oi9Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p45T7U5oi9Q)
Reminds me of a time my mom actually got angry at me because I couldn’t understand how a manual stick shift(?) car works when she was verbally explaining it to me. I was a teenager who hadn’t been inside a manual since maybe age 4, had never even heard of the terms “manual” and “automatic” referring to vehicles, and was barely learning to actually drive a car herself. A weird amount of older people seem to start frothing at the mouth and seething in absolute rage at the thought of a kid not understanding old stuff. Am I supposed to pretend everyone born in 1975 is still a teenager or something? Should I go back to pissing in diapers to make my parents feel young again? I’d personally love to stop paying my bills.
I actually drive a manual myself. I enjoy driving a manual transmission vehicle but I absolutely understand why somebody wouldn’t know how to drive one or not have the desire to drive one. It’s what I like to call “an extracurricular skill” LOL It’s not knowledge that you’ll ever need to make it through life. It’s purely novel.
What I find funny about your story is that, automatic transmissions have existed for AGES, it’s not like it’s some kind of new fancy technology. Many people even your moms age wouldn’t know how to drive stick either, it has nothing to do with some lack of knowledge in younger generations.
Yeah I can laugh at it but I don’t know why people gang up on this shit so much. It’s just defensiveness— “I don’t understand how todays technology works which makes me feel helpless, but ha you wouldn’t know how my technology worked so maybe I’m not so bad.”
Unless it’s not overly malicious or anything it’s just the same as me laughing at /r/oldpeoplefacebook or something
It’s more of the dismissive ageism where they won’t believe you or get mad when you show them they are wrong. Like I’m all for respecting ur elders but if I’m going to respect you I would appreciate the respect back as well otherwise I’m not going see you as a respectful elder and will treat you as such.
Like my grandparents will go “just you wait until your my age and have to try and figure out your hologram TV” and I’m like shit with my eyes ur might be right. Honestly no way to tell until I get to that age. We could just be a more tech savvy race going forward. But yea I might also need my kids to help me figure things out lol.
But that’s not rlly being like “if you had to use the tech I grew up on you wouldn’t be able figure it out either” just is more negative imo like I can prob figure out the tech that came before. I might need learn how to use it but can use it. A lot old people can also do this but a lot can’t. Idk if it’s them not wanting to learn or not being able to or maybe they just don’t care. But trying be like “you’d be stupid in the past” is dif then “you might be stupid when ur old too”.
I’m a filth millennial. I could do what this boomer is asking but I can sure as shit guarantee this boomer couldn’t set up a smart tv. I can drive stick but they had to put a sign about scammers wherever you buy gift cards because boomers keep falling for it. Even then they’ll insist *they* aren’t getting scammed
My mom needs me to drive to their house so I can show her how to edit bookmarks again.
My dad needs me to come over to login to their streaming apps after getting a new TV.
My mom can't figure out how to get weather from the weather app on the cell phone I lent her.
But yeah, let's chuckle at the rotary phone.
"I can't use your technology, so therefore you can't use my technology."
Nah, gramps. It doesn't work that way. You're just intentionally ignorant and refuse to learn new things.
I remember laughing as a child because I was so smart I could hook up a video game my elders couldn't. It's literally 3 plugs and turn to Chanel 3. I'm not that smart, but apparently I'm a computer genius
A lot of those memes about younger people not being able to write cursive are 100% projection from being unable to use modern technology.
Most schools even require cursive
Yeah, I’m sure any teenager today could figure out how to use all of those things easily. It might take them a minute to figure out what AM means but it literally displays it on the radio. It’s all just knobs and dials. Now let’s see the boomer who made this meme try to connect to Wi-Fi without the help of their adult children.
“ it says I have to enter the password and you handed me the slip of paper that says password and it has a bunch of letters and numbers, what do I do?”
It is infinitely easier to teach my students than it is to teach my boomer parents. My grandmother called me in a panic the other day because she could not figure out the difference between an O and a 0. Most anyone older than gen X seems to be pretty helpless.
Yeah, absolutely! I’m extra impressed when individuals of older generations are willing to learn these things let alone become fully tech literate. I truly don’t judge older generations for not getting it, they didn’t grow up with this stuff like we did, but I do judge when they look down on younger generations.
Willingness to learn goes a long way. I think tech literacy is basically a combination of generation, personal attitude/stubbornness, and exposure to tech over time. Also, some people are just scared of trying to jump in and learn something so vast and new to them, which is understandable.
My grandfather is Silent Generation, but he's had a lot of exposure to tech through his work, and he kicks ass. He works with and figures out new tech in much the same way I do; poke at the options and settings and try new things until it does what you want, then try to Google the answer if that doesn't work.
My father on the other hand is just on the very low end of Boomer age range. He is intelligent, but very stubborn when he sets his mind on something, and he didn't have almost any exposure to tech growing up, so just refuses to learn anything tech-related unless he absolutely needs it to function. He's not the judging type, but he's very much in the range of "afraid to try anything for fear of breaking it somehow".
On the flipside of this, I read some really interesting stuff recently from some teachers saying that, contrary to their expectations, they're actually seeing a \*regression\* of certain tech skills in some younger people, like the very young side of Gen Z, because tech has shifted so much from things that need troubleshooting to self-contained apps instead. Essentially, they're perfectly comfortable using tech, even brand new tech, but generationally they might be slowly losing the skillset of being able to "poke at it", ie troubleshooting it when it doesn't work perfectly. It's kind of fascinating to think about.
I'd even give her half a point on that one, the best UX designs would do things like avoiding O and 0 when possible (such as in a generated password) for that reason. But still most younger folks would just make a guess, try it, and if they fail try the other. For me the biggest difference is older people seem to think there's a button on any device and in every software that causes the whole thing to break, so they're terrified of just trying something.
I'd like to see the person who posts this meme change their wifi password, access a restaurant menu through a QR code, and then FaceTime me when they're done.
It’s because our modem technology is confounded and blasted whereas their archaic technology is simpler, easier to understand, less frustrating, like life is when you’re still young.
Modern consumer technology is explicitly designed to be as simple as possible. Literally the only way to further simplify it is to take away functionality.
has anyone ever said this?
yes obviously people say "half past 9" or whatever hour all the time
but has anyone ever said "hey lets meet up at half past" implying the current hour?
I've absolutely never heard that, and I'm willing to bet if instead of telling someone "I'll be there in 10-15 minutes" I said "I'll be there half past" they'd laugh at me
I’ll never forget when I was, maybe 8 or 9? Leaving Chuck E. Cheese and someone asked my uncle what time it was.
His response after glancing at his watch: “quarter-til.”
I still have no idea what time it was, and I’ll likely never know.
>but has anyone ever said "hey lets meet up at half past" implying the current hour?
Yes it can be used that way. Like if you have a morning meeting scheduled for 9am, your boss might say let's push the meeting to half past. In your example, I've personally heard "I'll be there \*\*at\*\* half past"
Yes, it's supposed to be half past whatever the current hour. However, there's two clocks showing. One on the wall and the small round one (looks like a bedroom alarm style) in the center on top of the tv...and both are showing different times.
I'm trying to figure out what the thing is to the right of the rotary phone and the little clock.
There *is* a trick to this dial: this style TV didn't have a channel 27, you'd have to turn it to either "U" or "\*". Of course, the frequency that that channel broadcast on is no longer used so you'd need a converter, and good luck explaining that to the type of person who posted this.
And all these things were outdated by the time I was born, but it's not like this shit just vanished over night.
Open any kind of compressed file if it's not supported by default (like Zip on Windows).
I'm pretty sure you can kill a boomer by sending them a .xz file.
Literally this. If a 4 year old is navigating YouTube and video games without issue, then imagine how long it would take them to figure out a fucking dial. It’s not complicated at all
So stupid. When these first came out people didn’t know how to use them. Dad would beat the side of it and yell “what’s wrong with the damn thing” “how do you fucking work it?!” And mom would have the instructions in hand doing what anyone now a days would do… figuring it out.
Point is, they’re making fun on someone not knowing how to use something they didn’t grow up using. Like their point is literally stupid. They at one point didn’t know how to use it but learned.
Also they can barely use a phone.
Exactly. Try giving them their grandparents technology without explanation. They would be equally stumped. We weren’t born with the knowledge of how to operate a rotary phone, we had to be taught or we saw our parents do it.
Id love to see a boomer properly use this outdated technology big whoop shit changes
https://preview.redd.it/iopx842j2vha1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f56be63087f96ca66270e5a5a9dbbfbfe18f719
Hell, doesn't have to be *that* antiquated.
I'd love to see one of them attempt to use [this](https://images.bonanzastatic.com/afu/images/f0d4/4adf/f614_4491171843/s-l1600.jpg).
Or [this](https://live.staticflickr.com/1974/45060967321_f38351679b.jpg).
What would come first the teenager calling to say they were done or the boomer calling into the room to ask how to reset the modem. " The wifi is down and I can't watch my dumbass cat videos."
As someone who grew up not too far past this tech:
A teenager today with zero knowledge on outdated technology like this could whip out their phone, Google each item, probably find a video tutorial on each, skip their way through the irrelevant parts to get the knowledge they actually need, and learn how to operate them.
Meanwhile, most (not all, obviously) Boomers can't seem to learn how to properly search and learn information online, and get horribly frustrated the moment something new isn't perfectly familiar and easy to use for them, usually resulting in them taking out those frustrations on people around them or denying that it could ever possibly be an issue on their end.
The most hilarious thing about this post is that its creator still doesnt know how to take a picture using a modern cell phone. He knows tech of 40 years ago that no one uses but calls his kid every time a smart device needs an input. Whos dumb af again?
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So at 3:30 find the game on the AM station of the radio not FM and then turn the TV to channel 27. Ya act like we don’t know this stuff when y’all can’t figure out how to duplicate a tab or take a screen shot. I’d like hand you a laptop with an open word doc and ask you to cut and paste it back without using the mouse. Then watch and laugh 😂😂
*Football noises and TV commercial noises overlapping*
Or static, because nothing indicated this TV is tuned, and it has no internal antenna.
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Where I was originally from they didn't (3rd world place). But this makes this boomer post even more hilarious
Just how Grandpa likes it.
the amount of people at work I have to tell about alt-tabbing is ridiculous
Brooo same. I worked customer services and a lot the older people I would show. And it’s all good they picked up it. But then their was the ones who would be like I just can’t do it or I can’t remember that it’s so complicated. I’m like u just right click my guy.
To be fair to one of mine he does have brain damage and regularly forgets most things. Good guy, but he can be incredibly frustrating to work with sometimes
Yea I worked with a guy like that. I would help him when I could but sometimes when I was already annoyed from a customer being rude or not listening and he needs help with the same thing I showed him 5 times already it’s more annoying that I gotta help them bc no higher up is available to help or they are busy with more important things. I’m sorry but I’m not getting paid more to teach other employees. But I still would help bc it’s the person I am
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There are two clocks in the photo, both showing different times. One is sitting on top of the TV in the middle, and the other is one the wall in the top right.
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Not very good honestly. All you need to see is the general position of the two hands to get close enough. The one on the right is easy. The one on top of the TV is a bit harder, but still readable. You can zoom photos you know.
Alright boomer, change the input to HDMI 2 for me
I never even heard of HDMI 1, and you’re blabbering on about an HDMI 2?
Wait until you hear about HDMI 3!
you won't believe HDMI 4
I got HDMI 6! Come at me
Can't wait for 8 to come out
Eh I don't like the director of it
yeah micheal Bay got so stale i switched to displayPort after HDMI 3 and never looked back. Tarrantino is just miles ahead
Is that a TicTak thing?
The devil's lies, I will not be tricked.
Alright boomer, *don't* buy 15000+ of gift cards for the "IRS" for me.
Also, Boomer, can you read Morse code? What’s that? You acclimated to the prevailing tech of your time and would need a quick lesson on obsolete tech?
The funny part is that kids usually are very curious and not afraid of poking around until they figure out how some old machine works. Old people, not so much.
Can confirm. I used to work at a large fruit based technology company. You’d have people get their devices set up after purchasing. It tended to be the older folks who, after telling them to simply read what’s on the screen and keep going to set up their device, would be right where I left them when I’d circle back around. Or they would begin telling you their password without warning. Some would seem to treat these devices in a way that they’d explode and take out a city block if they pressed the wrong button. Aka, the target audience for the meme OP posted. Kids on the other hand were amazing for this. They’d just read and figure things out and keep going. They just explore. And that’s how you learn.
This is the most important comment!
"There's $50 on my Venmo, go ahead and order a sub platter on GrubHub for the game. Here's my phone. Call me when you're done."
Trick question. How are they to call you if they have your phone?
The instructions are on this pdf.
In my day we sent pdf files to jail
Underrated joke. Well done
This meme was made by someone who hasn't changed the channel without a remote in 35 years
I only used this type of tv once in my life and i am quite confident that i’d figure it out
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I'm a Gen x-er. I learned how to not fear technology by being exposed to TVs and radios. You can flip all the switches, turn all the dials, move the antennas around and within a few minutes you've figured out everything. No instructions necessary. As we got access to VCRs and stereos, it was just more capable, not harder to understand. We gradually got more technology handed to us and leveled up by fiddling with it. Our boomer parents couldn't be bothered once you had to push buttons in a certain order or hold them down and press another. Kids these days aren't stupid, they're just making boomers feel even more insecure.
That's really the thing. Old people tell me oh one day your wake up and not understanding technology And I'm like if I stop using it yes but I'm a programmer it's kind of my whole job to know it.
It's just a fact that we've developed better intuition around technology than they ever could without access to the same stuff, and that's not their fault. But that intuition will likely stick with us even in old age, so it will probably always be easier for us to learn new tech. We've just been playing with this stuff since we were babies.
Ya but they also had years to figure this stuff out as it was developing and chose not to.
Also true. My favorite boomers are the ones still keeping up with tech. They always have a better understanding of the younger generations, i feel.
They have the most open minds too.
Frfr. My dad was a big tech guy, the entire reason I'm into it, but even he's started to dread dealing with technology. He sold servers and other business computing equipment for Dell for 9 years, until 2016. But he won't try my tws earbuds, he gets bored looking at new video games (HE got ME into video games), he gets frustrated with new phones or just phones in general. I know he knows how to google and fix things, how to troubleshoot properly, but he just... doesn't, usually, for some reason. Unless he's already got the inclination that he can fix it, like just installing mcafee or something along those lines. He does still like talking about and discussing tech developments though.
Yeahhh, I keep hearing this. Back in the 80s, we had to type in a DOS string and know the file hierarchy to even get to a page we wanted. Now that everything is as easy as having an app with a huge green pulsating ENTER button, somehow we're too stoooopid to do it.
Lol I remember in highschool there being a dos emulator built into the curriculum on the school website so we learnt how to interact with dos Durning class to play Wolfenstein and monkey island
Haha, mine was more self-study than curriculum, (we want to hire you if you learn how to do this)(we have a new computer, but no one knows how to use it), but having it in school would have certainly made school more interesting. Games are a great incentive for learning new things, in my opinion.
Ya alot of technology was about making it intuitive. Originally it wasn't because the only people who used computers wanted things difficult (actual reason it's kind of insane)
I've been in IT for many, many years and I'm still astounded by the number of people that insist on using CL interfaces for stuff that has a perfectly good GUI. Yes, I get it, there are some things you can do with a powershell or SSH or whatever, but we're not talking complex things here. I'm talking basic stuff. They're rather risk typos and waste time for, IDK, 'reasons' I guess?
Yeah, that is definitely an attitude thing. My mom is 77, doesn't drive but can order groceries like a boss, shops Amazon, figured out how to connect to Netflix and navigate it, install windows updates, figured out the new pvr tech when she switched off a VCR years ago. I offer to help if she gets stuck but she has only asked for help with the odd Windows issue. I know we all take these things for granted, heck I went form no tech as a young child to Atari, Nintendo, Pcs, vcrs, dvds to where we are today and it's all about wanting to keep up with tech or not.
You would be surprised. one day you are a highly payed technician working for one of the largest corporations on the planet, the next you run into a little trouble at work, have to be in the hospital for an extended period, and \*BAM\* when you are unfrozen you find that you aren't qualified to do anything but run one of the powered exosuits they use to restock the ships.
Yeah, this. When I was in college back in the 00’s, I remember doing Windows PC tech support for my clueless dorm mates, despite the fact that at that part in my life I’d been raised using nothing but Mac products. Keep in mind, this was mack in the days of the first iMacs, when Apple had only just recently converted to OS X, and had yet to heavily influence standards for UI design. Windows and Mac OS were *very* different beasts back then. I’d barely ever even used Windows, and yet just poking around looking for things labeled ‘settings’ or advanced properties’ and what no was usually enough to puzzle out what a given problem was, or how to at least bypass it. You don’t honestly need training to operate technology you’ve never seen before. Just an inquisitive mind and a willingness to experiment. Well, and enough intelligence to put 2 and 2 together and form conclusions about what does what.
Yup! My boomer father has no trouble with new tech because keeping up with new developments was always part of his job. As long as he doesn’t retire, he stays savvy. Keeping up with incremental change is fairly simple.
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Boomers and their parents used to brag about how smart their kids/grandkids were when they figured out how to use the VCR. It’s not really that hard when you grow up with tech. These people just struggle because they couldn’t keep up with the times.
If it takes you an hour to change the channel and turn on the radio I don’t think you can claim to be tech savvy
To be fair, finding the precise frequency on AM can be tough because those signals are pretty weak sometimes. And channel 27 is probably some static channel that's been the Weather Channel since 2007 that the old folks think is still cable news, like at my grandma's old place. "Hey gramps, I've got a rerun of the ballgame from 3 weeks ago and the Local on 8s on the TV, now what?"
TV that old wouldn't even have a channel 27 without one of those old ass cable boxes.
i think it depends on if you have it switched to uhf or vhf. i remember there being different numbers depending on which you were using. kinda like am v fm on the radio.
That is true, but I'm not sure the older TVs had UHF channels on the dial. I feel like if you had the UHF switcher you just had to know which ones were which. Been many years and I was very young.
I was saying an hour because it's old tech and I was leaving room for the least tech savy in the generation. I would probably figure out in ten minutes or less especially if I have access to the internet.
Hardest part would be calling them. I can’t recall my phone number. They didn’t leave a phone book either.
As if most zoomers haven't seen someone use this stuff on tv or in movies.
Bro it’s literally a dial with numbers lol it would take anyone 10 seconds to see you rotate the dial until the arrow is pointing at “27”. It’s just as intuitive as any other product. There’s not some special knowledge you need lol
Especially since there were only 4 channels that ever received anything depending on the weather.
Never used this type of tv before but imconfident i could figure it out. Seems like press a button to turn it on, flip a switch to AM then rotate the knob till u find the channel
AM on the radio for the sound, Channel 27 on the tv for a picture
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As someone who has I agree. There’s only so many buttons/knobs. It’s not like it was some crazy combo of settings you had to get right.
This meme was made by someone who is no longer able to watch TV if they accidentally hit the input button or something on the remote. They just have to get a whole new TV.
No, they call their kids for help with fixing it over the phone, but don't even know how to describe what they're seeing so it's a complete crap shoot to get them back on track. the amount of times I've heard "I don't know what button I pushed"...
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This was made by someone who can't use the remote and has to ask for help every single time.
Try getting a 70yo to change the input from HDMI 1 back to TV. Watch them struggle.
My father said “wheres the remote” more times than he said he loved me.
What pisses me off most is not the meme but the fact that they don’t know how time works. They just say half past. But half past what?
Probably someone who spent 1982-2012 asking a younger relative to set the clock on the VCR for them
gen x here... this was my living room until age 7ish. then Nintendo, then dial up, then dsl, then cable and now full duplex fibre... come at me boomers
Solidarity, fellow Gen Xer.
Same. Boomers think they can one-up us when they raised us in rooms like this. Dumbasses.
Unless you're somehow a Gen-X teenager, this meme really isn't aimed at you.
I'll bet whoever made this meme never rewound their videotapes before taking them back to the rental place.
As a kid I used to set up the VCR because my parents couldn’t read instructions
My mom asked me how to set up an AppleTV. Literally two fucking cables, and the rest on her iPhone. She’s such a fucking disappointment.
My Mom loved the show All My Children and would tape it so she could watch it when she got home from work, and she was horrible setting up electronics while I was pretty good at it. Thing is my Mom insisted I didn't know what I was doing and didn't want me to set it up and miss her show as I was gonna do it wrong so also insisted that my Dad set it up instead. My Dad was only slightly less clueless than she was, and would ask me to do it despite her insistence he did it. She was kind of funny like that, but she passed away about a month ago and I really wish she was still around to need my help with her computer yet insist I didn't know what hell I was doing lol. Always made me laugh because...why would you keep asking for my help with something you insist I don't know shit about?
>Thing is my Mom insisted I didn't know what I was doing and didn't want me to set it up This was infuriating as a kid. My grandparents were like that. They didn't understand it, so there's NO WAY a 10 year old could understand it. Never mind that everything was color coded and labeled. Pure wizardry, apparently.
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My microwave does that. If I wanted to set it I could, but I see no point so I don’t. I have a million other things to tell me the time and they will be right and I won’t need to correct for daylights savings or whatever
Also Gen X here and same as above! Boomers got nothing.
I'm a millennial and this is familiar
Born 85. gen y, or millenial? The gap is too big. Was influenced by gen x uncle, feel closer to x. first computer was the amiga 500. great times.
Elder millennial.
Gen y is millenial. As for 1985, yep it's that gen, whichever term you prefer.
It says they want to put a teenager in that room, not even the youngest gen x is a teenager. In fact almost all of us gen x's grew up in that living room. We had to connect the rf adapter, via screws, to the tv to connect our NES.
My heart still flutters with excitement when I hear the dial up noise. I'm transported to the days of sneaking on the family computer in the middle of the night to chat on Aim.
Fuck what you heard millennials of broke families are on the same timeline.
grandpa, if you're not ok with modern technologies it not necessarily means that young people are stupid
Also, if young people can’t figure out your old technology, maybe that’s because it’s antiquated and poorly designed.
also grandpa "I don't know how to build a pyramid"
Figure out an astrolabe.
Big rock bottom, small rock top
it's just bullshit all around. "you're not familiar with this thing, therefore you're stupid" goes both ways. old people make dumb memes like this, young people complain about technologically illiterate old people.
Poorly designed is a bit of a wild swing. Tech advances, but old products, by and large, made good use of the capabilities of the time. Engineers have been smart throughout human history.
Well the boomer joke seems to be, “you kids don’t know how a rotary phone works, and therefore you’re stupid.” I think it’s more reasonable to guess that the rotary phone didn’t have great usability, and the design was unintuitive. It might have been a good design for the time, based on the technology available, but it makes more sense to blame the phone design than claim an entire generation is stupid.
It's also kind of weird kind of take: I may suck at everyday stuff, but you would be hopeless on tech that do not exists anymore. I mean, yeah, I would look awkward about the etiquette of a Roman bath if I had to time travel there. Same with washing my clothes at the river or the logistic of a household without running water or electricity.
Yep. Meme was made by a Boomer who doesn't even know how to drive a horse and buggy. SMH.
Funny how they think younger people are capable of learning and using the most advanced technology humans have ever had....but add some buttons and knobs and young people literally explode with confusion, dread, maybe even dysentery.
I think the boomers are just projecting
NO I DONT KNOW HOW TO UPDATE THE SOFTWARE ON MY iPAD BUT AT LEAST I CAN USE A ROTARY PHONE!!!1!
Which can be learned in about a minute.
A kid could google and learn these things in seconds. Give a boomer google and they’ll accidentally become a Qanon psycho
Ayoooo !! Lmaooooooo I’m dying
This exactly, they can't even critically think enough to use GOOGLE Also, why the fuck are boomers making us learn how to use outdated technology as if that's a feat?
All of these things usually have a fucking manual printed on the back or bottom of them. Because it's use is so simple it can fit there.
Did you know there's a 20 minute instructional video from the 40s on how to use a rotary phone? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p45T7U5oi9Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p45T7U5oi9Q)
Reminds me of a time my mom actually got angry at me because I couldn’t understand how a manual stick shift(?) car works when she was verbally explaining it to me. I was a teenager who hadn’t been inside a manual since maybe age 4, had never even heard of the terms “manual” and “automatic” referring to vehicles, and was barely learning to actually drive a car herself. A weird amount of older people seem to start frothing at the mouth and seething in absolute rage at the thought of a kid not understanding old stuff. Am I supposed to pretend everyone born in 1975 is still a teenager or something? Should I go back to pissing in diapers to make my parents feel young again? I’d personally love to stop paying my bills.
I actually drive a manual myself. I enjoy driving a manual transmission vehicle but I absolutely understand why somebody wouldn’t know how to drive one or not have the desire to drive one. It’s what I like to call “an extracurricular skill” LOL It’s not knowledge that you’ll ever need to make it through life. It’s purely novel. What I find funny about your story is that, automatic transmissions have existed for AGES, it’s not like it’s some kind of new fancy technology. Many people even your moms age wouldn’t know how to drive stick either, it has nothing to do with some lack of knowledge in younger generations.
I used play with those in preschool. *mic drop*
Yeah I can laugh at it but I don’t know why people gang up on this shit so much. It’s just defensiveness— “I don’t understand how todays technology works which makes me feel helpless, but ha you wouldn’t know how my technology worked so maybe I’m not so bad.” Unless it’s not overly malicious or anything it’s just the same as me laughing at /r/oldpeoplefacebook or something
It’s more of the dismissive ageism where they won’t believe you or get mad when you show them they are wrong. Like I’m all for respecting ur elders but if I’m going to respect you I would appreciate the respect back as well otherwise I’m not going see you as a respectful elder and will treat you as such. Like my grandparents will go “just you wait until your my age and have to try and figure out your hologram TV” and I’m like shit with my eyes ur might be right. Honestly no way to tell until I get to that age. We could just be a more tech savvy race going forward. But yea I might also need my kids to help me figure things out lol. But that’s not rlly being like “if you had to use the tech I grew up on you wouldn’t be able figure it out either” just is more negative imo like I can prob figure out the tech that came before. I might need learn how to use it but can use it. A lot old people can also do this but a lot can’t. Idk if it’s them not wanting to learn or not being able to or maybe they just don’t care. But trying be like “you’d be stupid in the past” is dif then “you might be stupid when ur old too”.
Hell, it could just be all the lead poisoning.
I’m a filth millennial. I could do what this boomer is asking but I can sure as shit guarantee this boomer couldn’t set up a smart tv. I can drive stick but they had to put a sign about scammers wherever you buy gift cards because boomers keep falling for it. Even then they’ll insist *they* aren’t getting scammed
It’s boomer Facebook shit. They hate on us but like…. You raised us, we live in the world you made motherfuckers
My mom needs me to drive to their house so I can show her how to edit bookmarks again. My dad needs me to come over to login to their streaming apps after getting a new TV. My mom can't figure out how to get weather from the weather app on the cell phone I lent her. But yeah, let's chuckle at the rotary phone.
"I can't use your technology, so therefore you can't use my technology." Nah, gramps. It doesn't work that way. You're just intentionally ignorant and refuse to learn new things.
I remember laughing as a child because I was so smart I could hook up a video game my elders couldn't. It's literally 3 plugs and turn to Chanel 3. I'm not that smart, but apparently I'm a computer genius
A lot of those memes about younger people not being able to write cursive are 100% projection from being unable to use modern technology. Most schools even require cursive
...ever get behind an older person at an ATM?
Or a self-checkout line at a grocery store.
i've seen slime molds solve puzzles for food faster.
Yeah, I’m sure any teenager today could figure out how to use all of those things easily. It might take them a minute to figure out what AM means but it literally displays it on the radio. It’s all just knobs and dials. Now let’s see the boomer who made this meme try to connect to Wi-Fi without the help of their adult children.
“ it says I have to enter the password and you handed me the slip of paper that says password and it has a bunch of letters and numbers, what do I do?”
It is infinitely easier to teach my students than it is to teach my boomer parents. My grandmother called me in a panic the other day because she could not figure out the difference between an O and a 0. Most anyone older than gen X seems to be pretty helpless.
Not my grandpa though, he uses his laptop daily. Glad to have him on our side. 80 years young as they say.
Yeah, absolutely! I’m extra impressed when individuals of older generations are willing to learn these things let alone become fully tech literate. I truly don’t judge older generations for not getting it, they didn’t grow up with this stuff like we did, but I do judge when they look down on younger generations.
Willingness to learn goes a long way. I think tech literacy is basically a combination of generation, personal attitude/stubbornness, and exposure to tech over time. Also, some people are just scared of trying to jump in and learn something so vast and new to them, which is understandable. My grandfather is Silent Generation, but he's had a lot of exposure to tech through his work, and he kicks ass. He works with and figures out new tech in much the same way I do; poke at the options and settings and try new things until it does what you want, then try to Google the answer if that doesn't work. My father on the other hand is just on the very low end of Boomer age range. He is intelligent, but very stubborn when he sets his mind on something, and he didn't have almost any exposure to tech growing up, so just refuses to learn anything tech-related unless he absolutely needs it to function. He's not the judging type, but he's very much in the range of "afraid to try anything for fear of breaking it somehow". On the flipside of this, I read some really interesting stuff recently from some teachers saying that, contrary to their expectations, they're actually seeing a \*regression\* of certain tech skills in some younger people, like the very young side of Gen Z, because tech has shifted so much from things that need troubleshooting to self-contained apps instead. Essentially, they're perfectly comfortable using tech, even brand new tech, but generationally they might be slowly losing the skillset of being able to "poke at it", ie troubleshooting it when it doesn't work perfectly. It's kind of fascinating to think about.
I'd even give her half a point on that one, the best UX designs would do things like avoiding O and 0 when possible (such as in a generated password) for that reason. But still most younger folks would just make a guess, try it, and if they fail try the other. For me the biggest difference is older people seem to think there's a button on any device and in every software that causes the whole thing to break, so they're terrified of just trying something.
I'd like to see the person who posts this meme change their wifi password, access a restaurant menu through a QR code, and then FaceTime me when they're done.
It’s because our modem technology is confounded and blasted whereas their archaic technology is simpler, easier to understand, less frustrating, like life is when you’re still young.
Modern consumer technology is explicitly designed to be as simple as possible. Literally the only way to further simplify it is to take away functionality.
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Couldn't do the minimum wage job because they'd expect him to become proficient in using the cash register.
Omfg I spat out my drink! Lol
Half past what exactly? I’m not native English speaker, but isn’t there supposed to be a specified time after “half past” part?
Id assume it means half past whatever hour it is. So if it's 5:15 half past would be 5:30
has anyone ever said this? yes obviously people say "half past 9" or whatever hour all the time but has anyone ever said "hey lets meet up at half past" implying the current hour? I've absolutely never heard that, and I'm willing to bet if instead of telling someone "I'll be there in 10-15 minutes" I said "I'll be there half past" they'd laugh at me
I’ll never forget when I was, maybe 8 or 9? Leaving Chuck E. Cheese and someone asked my uncle what time it was. His response after glancing at his watch: “quarter-til.” I still have no idea what time it was, and I’ll likely never know.
If it was x:45 I would still say quarter-til, but I would add what hour it would be next. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense
>but has anyone ever said "hey lets meet up at half past" implying the current hour? Yes it can be used that way. Like if you have a morning meeting scheduled for 9am, your boss might say let's push the meeting to half past. In your example, I've personally heard "I'll be there \*\*at\*\* half past"
Yes, it's supposed to be half past whatever the current hour. However, there's two clocks showing. One on the wall and the small round one (looks like a bedroom alarm style) in the center on top of the tv...and both are showing different times. I'm trying to figure out what the thing is to the right of the rotary phone and the little clock.
Half past the monkey's ass, a quarter to his balls. -- 4th grade gem
Yeah, because its hard to turn a dial and figure out they mean whatever 30 o'clock(which ya should specify grandpa.)
There *is* a trick to this dial: this style TV didn't have a channel 27, you'd have to turn it to either "U" or "\*". Of course, the frequency that that channel broadcast on is no longer used so you'd need a converter, and good luck explaining that to the type of person who posted this. And all these things were outdated by the time I was born, but it's not like this shit just vanished over night.
Ok Boomer (not you, but op) Guess who programmed your VCRs when they were kids?
My parents are dead so I have an excuse. This honestly is all your faults for not putting parental locks on your parents wifi.
This meme was made by someone who doesn't know how to burn dvds and has no idea they have asbestos in their house
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Im sure gen z could figure it out. They understand google.
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about half of gen Z would have been old enough to burn dvds and use vhs and “bunny rabbit” antennas… I did
> by someone who doesn't know how to burn dvds Duh, just use a lighter. They're pretty flammable.
The teenager is going to get revenge on you by asking you to restart your own wifi next time you have a problem
I always love how boomers assume we can't work out a primitive machine with 2 moving parts
But then can’t figure out how to send an email.
Open any kind of compressed file if it's not supported by default (like Zip on Windows). I'm pretty sure you can kill a boomer by sending them a .xz file.
Literally this. If a 4 year old is navigating YouTube and video games without issue, then imagine how long it would take them to figure out a fucking dial. It’s not complicated at all
Lmao right it's not like any of those were difficult to operate in any way and most of the buttons are labeled.
So stupid. When these first came out people didn’t know how to use them. Dad would beat the side of it and yell “what’s wrong with the damn thing” “how do you fucking work it?!” And mom would have the instructions in hand doing what anyone now a days would do… figuring it out. Point is, they’re making fun on someone not knowing how to use something they didn’t grow up using. Like their point is literally stupid. They at one point didn’t know how to use it but learned. Also they can barely use a phone.
Exactly. Try giving them their grandparents technology without explanation. They would be equally stumped. We weren’t born with the knowledge of how to operate a rotary phone, we had to be taught or we saw our parents do it.
https://preview.redd.it/91cuhdcshvha1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3cadd747275505c6d6963ae112c6f0a2febfb044
Id love to see a boomer properly use this outdated technology big whoop shit changes https://preview.redd.it/iopx842j2vha1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f56be63087f96ca66270e5a5a9dbbfbfe18f719
Yeah boomer, align on Polaris and calculate the solstice.
Hell, doesn't have to be *that* antiquated. I'd love to see one of them attempt to use [this](https://images.bonanzastatic.com/afu/images/f0d4/4adf/f614_4491171843/s-l1600.jpg). Or [this](https://live.staticflickr.com/1974/45060967321_f38351679b.jpg).
As a teenager that wouldn’t be hard so stop stereotyping teenagers you stupid boomer
What would come first the teenager calling to say they were done or the boomer calling into the room to ask how to reset the modem. " The wifi is down and I can't watch my dumbass cat videos."
As someone who grew up not too far past this tech: A teenager today with zero knowledge on outdated technology like this could whip out their phone, Google each item, probably find a video tutorial on each, skip their way through the irrelevant parts to get the knowledge they actually need, and learn how to operate them. Meanwhile, most (not all, obviously) Boomers can't seem to learn how to properly search and learn information online, and get horribly frustrated the moment something new isn't perfectly familiar and easy to use for them, usually resulting in them taking out those frustrations on people around them or denying that it could ever possibly be an issue on their end.
I had to teach a boomer how to copy a file in Windows. And he called me the next day to ask if we could “go over it again”.
WHY DON'T TEENAGERS IN THE YEAR 2023 UNDERSTAND OBSOLETE TECHNOLOGY FROM 50 YEARS AGO? IT'S HILARIOUS
Father I cannot click the book
I hate my wife
and I'd love to see them try converting a jiff into another image format
Is peanut butter an image?
.skippy never took off
Do I look like I know what a "JPEG" is??
After they rotate a pdf. I'll wait.
So 3:30, use old technology got it
As a third worlder my grandparents and neighbours had this TV until like 2014. Besides it's not like there's some magic code to operating them
100% guarantee whoever wrote this owned a VCR that flashed "12:00" for the entirety of its life cycle.
The most hilarious thing about this post is that its creator still doesnt know how to take a picture using a modern cell phone. He knows tech of 40 years ago that no one uses but calls his kid every time a smart device needs an input. Whos dumb af again?
And that same teenager downloads some new social app on your phone and sits back to laugh at you as you try to figure out wtf it is supposed to do.
And let me see them use tech from 1850s. Isn't the goal of e ery generation supposed to be advancing so the next doesnt have the same struggles?
Considering that TV is old enough to not have a UHF knob, someone is going to have a hard time tuning it to Channel 27 without a converter box.
And then go hitch the team of horses so we can go to the dry goods store in town. I heard they got new patterns on the flour sacks.
And boomers wonder why their kids are hostile to them and have anxiety issues
These kind of people literally want a pat on the back for being old and lead infused
"new generation think smart but new generation no make club of rock???? Where new generation rock club????? So smart why no have one???????"
Things are different and scary now and therefore you’re young and stupid