This generation hates new technology as much as your grandad

[Don Savik]

I have the answer to this dilemma.

Yes technology is moving forward, but IQ's are staying the same. In the US at least its pretty much looked down upon to point out the fact that someone is an idiot. We don't have enough incentives to be smarter as a collective species, especially with all these wars and reality t.v. Its sad really.

 

[Averant]

We will..we do already, we hate kinect and most other forms of motion control, most of us hate 3D TV or 3D technology like the 3D tech in the 3DS, Not all of us but a lot of us hate new music and the list goes on..are we the grouchy men and woman of the future? Will gaming become known as something that only old people enjoy? you might say we hate these things because theyre impractical, unperfected or just "gimmicky" but that's probably what your great-grandfather said when the first tv sets came along and if he lived into the present where we have perfected tv's he'd still hate them just as much if not more.

Yeaaah, I don't think this works. It would work if we didn't understand how the Wii worked, or we feared 3D because of future potential that scared us.

This is not so. We hate the Wii and motion controls because they DON'T WORK PROPERLY. They are a step in the OPPOSITE direction for efficiency, and their appeal is based soley on novelty and gimmick. But, this has all been said, by you and by others.

And I don't know about anyone else, but I hate 3D because it hurts my eyes.

New music is simply subjective. It means different things to different people, and it's just not my cup of tea. I might listen to classical and not pop because I don't see much effort and artistry in pop. Or I might listen to pop because I like the bass and don't like the slow pace of classical.

Different tastes for different people.

you might say we hate these things because theyre impractical, unperfected or just "gimmicky" but that's probably what your great-grandfather said when the first tv sets came along and if he lived into the present where we have perfected tv's he'd still hate them just as much if not more.

Are you quite sure your grandpa still hates TV? I mean, if I were him, I'd hate the TVs back then too. Or maybe I wouldn't because they were new and it would have opened up a whole new medium.

Or maybe I didn't understand it and called it the devil's tool to seduce our children. After all, the only thing people truly fear anymore is the unknown. (excluding irrational phobias.)

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

we hate kinect and most other forms of motion control, most of us hate 3D TV or 3D technology like the 3D tech in the 3DS, Not all of us but a lot of us hate new music and the list goes on..are we the grouchy men and woman of the future? Will gaming become known as something that only old people enjoy? you might say we hate these things because theyre impractical, unperfected or just "gimmicky" but that's probably what your great-grandfather said when the first tv sets came along and if he lived into the present where we have perfected tv's he'd still hate them just as much if not more.

This has been a bit of a rambling post and there are probably grammar mistakes and shite but that's because my $1000 laptop I brought a year ago just crapped out and I had to type this on my iPhone..anyway..thoughts?

EDIT: if anyone's in the market for a laptop DO NOT buy an acer aspire.

1. Kinect: I worked at an electronics store when the Kinect launched. I saw the return rates, and more importantly, why they were returned. I hate the Kinect for the same reasons as most of them. For one, it's finicky as all hell and practically requires you to have a certain room layout for it to work. Don't have the right room for it? Well they can fix that for you - for an additional fee, of course. Then there's the issue that quite simply there aren't very many good titles for it, especially with regard to ones that would appeal to the hardcore gaming crowd. It's likely there won't be very many titles for it either because either no one's developing anything for it, or they're only developing little tiny features in otherwise normal games that are completely optional. I wanted the Kinect to be a good purchase, I really did. But it failed to meet expectations.

2. Motion Control: Same thing as the Kinect. It's either too finicky, or it doesn't attract every crowd. I think you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone other than hardcore gamers that are going to speak ill of the Nintendo Wii's motion control. And the Nintendo Wii is the system that appeals to easily the broadest audience when it comes to age. There are young children playing family games, elderly people in nursing homes playing Wii sports, and everyone in between.

3. 3D TV: Again, I worked at an electronics store when these things rolled out. We had a hard time selling these for a whole bunch of reasons. First and foremost, the price was too damn high for a lot of people, especially with the economy the way it was (and still is). Then there was the fact that we really didn't carry a whole lot of 3D Blu-Rays. We had the largest selection in the area, and even then, that only equated to maybe twenty titles - and most of them were either children's movies or nature documentaries. Then there's the issue of having to have the 3D glasses. Those stupid glasses are freaking expensive if you lose or break a set, or if you want to have friends over - because if you don't have an extra pair for each of those friends, they get stuck watching a blurry picture.

4. Nintendo 3DS: These sold alright, although they really didn't meet expectations. There seemed to be two major reasons people weren't buying them. The first was that it wasn't different enough from the Nintendo DS that the customer already had, and again, the economy kinda sucked at the time so people didn't want to spend the money. The second is for technical limitations based on how finicky the 3D was and issues like battery life.

5. New Music: I never liked new music. My dad is a drummer, so I grew up with the music he liked to listen to. So as a result I listen to a lot of rock and metal from the 1960's through the 1980's. For me I was a product of my environment.

6. Gaming: I doubt it'll be something that just old people enjoy. Now more than ever do we have evidence to support this. We've got people young and old playing games on their phones, we've got people young and old playing browser based games, there are just as many ten year olds playing Call of Duty as there are 30-somethings, we've got Nintendo Wii systems being purchased by nursing homes so that the elderly have a form of entertainment that also gets them moving. If anything, I think gaming is going to become far more common among all age groups as time goes on.

I think that's all the stuff you mentioned.

 

[Loner Jo Jo]

I hate 3D technology because 3D gives me a headache. I feel that is a pretty legitimate reason to not like something, and somewhere around 10% of all people suffer similar problems from 3D such as headaches or motion sickness.

As for motion controls: I don't hate motion controls. I hate it when motion controls don't work. Because motion controls are still pretty new, they aren't as effective as they could potentially be. But if Minority Report-esque technology comes out that works, that'd be so freaking cool!

I think you forget how much this generation freaks out when some new technology comes out. How much attention does Apple get when they announce a new product and how many people rush out to buy it?

 

[octafish]

I'm a digital camera, photoshop, personal computer, mobile phone, using neo-Luddite. I don't like smart phones (too flimsy, terrible battery life) and would prefer a netbook to a tablet (a netbook with a mouse has a better interface for PS and games). I've never seen 3D done well, when they make a 3D film as good as Casablanca, Night of the Hunter or Miller's Crossing maybe then I'll be convinced. Oh and why would I play a game in 3D when I could be playing at 120 FPS? (I'd prefer a 1440p IPS screen over a 1080p 120Hz one anyway).

EDIT: I've never met a motion control that actually works properly. As far as I'm concerned they are still experimental.

 

[jetriot]

I think your experience with many people on the escapist isn't that they hate new technology. They hate how has become mainstreamed and in the process, dumbed down. Video games are simply one simple example of this but as technology progresses and mainstreams it dumbs down nearly everything we do. Operating systems are more user friendly but much more difficult to do what you want with it or attempt to fix. This applies to nearly everything that becomes mainstream.

As it obtains a wider audience we lose the freedom that it once held as it takes its place in the vast market of consumer goods. Instead of innovation, freedom and progress we get marketing and more ways to screw the oblivious consumer for cash. The nerd lost his playground when he sold it for an empire.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

I have the answer to this dilemma.

Yes technology is moving forward, but IQ's are staying the same. In the US at least its pretty much looked down upon to point out the fact that someone is an idiot. We don't have enough incentives to be smarter as a collective species, especially with all these wars and reality t.v. Its sad really.

IQ's are constantly increasing in western nations. Education rates across the board are getting better, with more people graduating at higher and higher levels. The latter does lead to an entirely different problem, but in short, it is a massive stretch to say people are not getting smarter every generation.

 

[Dimitriov]

I do not hate 3d tv, I do not hate motion control (as long as they find a good way to use it, which sadly I do not think they have done yet) I have no problem with new music.. sure some suck and some dont same way with old songs..


But perhaps I am the exception..

And this is escapist so Im quite certain you will get some responses where people just seem to hate stuff simply cause its popular...

No... you're just a bit too young still.

Give it time


But, seriously this has been going on for pretty much all of human history. There are writings from ancient Greece talking about how the younger generations are stupider/lazier/worse whatever...

And you better believe the same thing happens with technology too.

Seriously, things change and we all know it, and we know we can't stop it.

But deep down not a damned one of likes change.

 

[xPixelatedx]

I don't hate useless additions such as 3D, I just don't let it be a selling point. 3D doesn't hurt anything because even if it doesn't work or impress, it doesn't take away from the experience that is already there.

Motion control on the other hand... oh boy. You know it's one thing when your granddad doesn't like MP3 players because they are 'new' and 'weird' and are more complicated then his record player, but the difference is granddad is forfeiting the superior product. MP3 players have better sound, and are portal; this is a factual benefit (not an opinion). Granddad really does hate them because of the three reasons I stated, unlike people who hate motion control. Motion control is hated not because it is new, or weird or complicated: it is hated because it offers the inferior experience when compared to tactile gaming. This is why motion control games are so simple, because you can only make simple games with it.
It is totally wrong to assume this generation is as technophobic as our grandparent's, if anything we are the opposite. But we don't like pandering, and when things change we want it to be for the better. We are alive at an interesting time, where technology itself cannot advance very much past this point (atm), so we are left with using our imaginations to think up stupid ways to use it. This is why we have Kinect and 3D everything.

 

[Tanis]

I don't 'hate' new tech, I just don't give a damn about it unless it's useful/fun.

3D TV/games are GREAT and all, but it causes me headaches and the vast majority of the products are crappy add-ons that do NOTHING for the core experience.

Same goes for most motion controls.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Eh. It's not all bad. If there was an option for it all, that would make it so much better. Motion controls are fun at times, but ironically less responsive. When using them I tend to have better success just flailing about until the desired outcome is achieved. Of course, let us not talk about how tilting slightly in one direction causes the motion to register as tilting the other way, for some fucked up reason. 3D is great for films that really use it, but becomes a nuisance when the glasses don't fit. Given an option for such things, I'd look more favorable on them.

Says it all really...

Things change, not get better or worse.

You have amused me. You may go have a cookie.

 

[Lunar Templar]

it would help considerably if this new tech was being used to HEIGHTEN the experience, rather then just be the gimmicky crap it is right now

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Your point is negated by the simple fact that I just had sex with my iPhone and didn't leave till the morning. Queue "There's an app for that".

(Though I would have thought technology would have advanced past the use of stupid condoms. Siri is on her period, yet she still wants to "Play it safe")

 

[SciMal]

We will..we do already, we hate kinect and most other forms of motion control, most of us hate 3D TV or 3D technology like the 3D tech in the 3DS...

I don't actually hate the kinect. It's just not a gaming input device. It's a user-interface for more casual stuff.

Plus, 3D-TV and 3D tech isn't new. Well, I suppose it got better, but the problem with it now is the same problem as when it was invented: You look like an idiot with the glasses on, and you'll spend twice as much just to see something "fly" off the screen.

Oh, and it makes a portion of the population have violent vertigo and vomit/pass out.

Sounds like great technology.

Not all of us but a lot of us hate new music and the list goes on..are we the grouchy men and woman of the future? Will gaming become known as something that only old people enjoy? you might say we hate these things because theyre impractical, unperfected or just "gimmicky" but that's probably what your great-grandfather said when the first tv sets came along and if he lived into the present where we have perfected tv's he'd still hate them just as much if not more.

3D TVs are the definition of Gimmicky. They are, in all other respects, a perfectly normal TV that you pay twice as much to own for the pleasure of putting on $100 sunglasses and watching the douche from Jackass II shove his crotch in your face. That's the only reason they cost more, and you have to buy special media for it.

It failed 30 years ago, it failed today. Woopedy do.

Some things aren't practical (wearable computers), some things are gimmicky (3D-Tvs), and some things you want to buy a few generations in (Smart Phones/MP3 Players).

There are trends to what catches on and why: If it allows people to communicate significantly quicker and in a more intuitive fashion. If it offers significant space-savings or capacity compared to its counterpart. If it reduces the complexity of everyday life.

Technology which do those things will catch on, and competing formats (Beta-Max vs. VHS, Bluray vs. HD-DVD) win on better marketing as long as each format offers the same practical advantage (aka - both Bluray and HD-DVDs were discs, not going backwards into tape cartridges).

This has been a bit of a rambling post and there are probably grammar mistakes and shite but that's because my $1000 laptop I brought a year ago just crapped out and I had to type this on my iPhone..anyway..thoughts?

There will always be people who get used to something and then refuse to adapt. You have audiophiles who prefer to listen to old vinyl records because the sound is "better" (even though no diagnostic tool known can tell the difference between a vinyl and a high-quality recording). You have grandparents who still buy Cadillacs even though the brand has been junk for 40 years. You have people who deny AGCC or Evolution because either one would disrupt their understanding of reality (you can actually track the Stages of Grief in some really conservative Republicans about AGCC - they're currently at "Bargaining" stage where they acknowledge GCC exists, but refuse that it's anthropocentric or have a plan to deal with it).

For those people, their kids will be the ones fixing their computers or wiring up their entertainment system. If the brand-new remote doesn't work, their kids will program the thing. Their kids will adapt, even if they won't. The unfortunate thing is that by refusing to adapt they're teaching their kids that it's okay not to be up to date on current technology, and that might end up hurting them.

So, I agree some people in my generation (Millenials) does/will hate new tech. That's fine. They won't have a RepRap machine or Arduino knowledge. They won't be power users on newer operating systems. The disadvantage, right now at least, isn't harsh enough to warrant keeping up. It might be one day, though.

 

[Quesa]

We will..we do already, we hate kinect and most other forms of motion control, most of us hate 3D TV or 3D technology like the 3D tech in the 3DS, Not all of us but a lot of us hate new music and the list goes on..are we the grouchy men and woman of the future? Will gaming become known as something that only old people enjoy? you might say we hate these things because theyre impractical, unperfected or just "gimmicky" but that's probably what your great-grandfather said when the first tv sets came along and if he lived into the present where we have perfected tv's he'd still hate them just as much if not more.

This has been a bit of a rambling post and there are probably grammar mistakes and shite but that's because my $1000 laptop I brought a year ago just crapped out and I had to type this on my iPhone..anyway..thoughts?

EDIT: if anyone's in the market for a laptop DO NOT buy an acer aspire.

Motion controls are in a nascent stage, if they ever become more efficient I wouldn't have a problem with them; I don't care about looking stupid, I care about getting the cursor exactly where I want it.

3D is a gimmick that's been around forever that adds a function the brain does already, processing 2D images as 3D. Once it's not a trick but actual 3D (c'moon holograms) we'll see how much general loathing there is.

I still can't fathom why anyone would buy an Acer (anything); they were my second least respected brand before they bought Packard Bell.

 

[DoPo]

I have the answer to this dilemma.

Yes technology is moving forward, but IQ's are staying the same. In the US at least its pretty much looked down upon to point out the fact that someone is an idiot. We don't have enough incentives to be smarter as a collective species, especially with all these wars and reality t.v. Its sad really.

IQ's are constantly increasing in western nations. Education rates across the board are getting better, with more people graduating at higher and higher levels. The latter does lead to an entirely different problem, but in short, it is a massive stretch to say people are not getting smarter every generation.

Revnak is correct. I only have a small correction to make - people are getting smarter but IQ really does stay the same. IQ of 100 is always the average for the population. For example, if people 20 years ago scored 120, they would be smart but the same people with the same answers may only score 105 today because the average intelligence of humanity has caught up with them.

IQ tests get revised and updated to keep being relevant. This is called the <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect[/B]Flynn Effect[/B].

So yes, the IQ stays the same, but no that doesn't mean people are not getting smarter. We are and if we weren't development of new technology would just slow down for there wouldn't be a market for it. Fact: new technology exists and continues to be developed and improved. Fact: this new technology is being well received. Conclusion: mass technophobia has not hit us yet.