Why young people more accustomed to new technology?

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Why? When teens and young adults were kids they didn't use the internet, facebook, myspace...they didn't text msg each other on cell phones.

Why is it not common for a bunch of 50 year olds to text each other for example?

I'm not sure why you say that young people didn't use it when they were kids? The internet has been commonplace for about 20 years now so there are certainly many people who grew up using it.

It all has to do with what you are used to.

Older people may not even think of text messaging when they want to get in touch with someone because they are just not used to considering it as a posibility. Conversely, younger people have always used the technology of text messaging to get in touch with eachother and can't imagine what they'd do if they didn't have it.
Does that make sense?

Secondly, younger people's minds are more impressionable and it is easier for them to pick up new things and to learn. Older people become "Set in their ways" and generally have a more difficult time learning new things.

Come on!! ! Its not rocket science. Some how, its just not common for them to do it so they don't bother to learn it. My question is why it is not a common thing for old people to learn new technology. If it is common, they will learn it.

Ever tried to learn something you had no interest in?
A lot of older people view technology as weird, closed up, black boxes and they're more interested in things that happened in the past. When you're younger you care more about the technologies, it becomes ingrained in your life and you see them as a part of the future, which you care more about than the past. It's mostly a matter of interest. The human brain is extremely malleable even into your later years. I know 45 year olds who are pretty quick to find a blown power supply or a bad ram stick in a computer, and I know 20 year olds who don't know how to reinstall windows.

When I become an old fart, I will be able to learn new technology if I care to learn it.

It's because young people tend to like things that are new. The latest technology is a very new thing. I'd rather spend the evening in the Internet than watching TV. My 60 year old mum would rather watch TV. The seniours that I used to play Bingo with, were more into reading. It's a generational thing.

From the perspective of a person who is 51, I think, as with all generations, we learned to use the technology we had when we were growing up. We've mastered it, and use it in the way that suits us best. For a lot of aging people, new technology is baffling. It's a whole area where they know little or nothing about it. They may not care, then again they may not want to look stupid by having it known that they can't figure it out or understand how it works. In the old days, equipment had one knob for each function. Nowadays, it has three knobs that have 87,000 functions buried in menus and submenus, and some people find that intimidating.

My mother never got the hang of how to use a VCR, but her mother was afraid of the damn thing! I work with a kid who had never seen a record player (turntable) or a vinyl record before, and didn't know how to operate it the first time. He caused several hundred dollars' damage to it the first time he tried to play a record, and ruined the record, too. (He's a moron, but that's another story.) So there's the possibility of wrecking something you don't know anything about that puts some people off. That's why so many older people are afraid of computers, even though you can't wreck it by pushing the buttons. They don't know that, and are afraid to try. As a species, humans are generally known to be afraid of the unknown.

I don't text anyone, because at this stage of my life, I have learned to communicate with people by writing and speaking. It just turns a lot of us older folks off to think of having to try to decipher textspeak, and deal with people who can't spell or compose a coherent thought. I don't have a cell phone. Not because I hate them, or because I'm afraid of them, but I don't need one. I know so few people that I can't justify the expense. Still, I don't even know how to turn one on, never mind make a call with it. It has just never come up. Unless they do away with land lines at some point in the near future, I'm not going to need a cell phone for anything.

But I know how to operate and maintain my computer, and my job is working with computers and other technology, so it's not like I'm a technophobe. I find it sad that most of the people I grew up with are computer-illiterate. They are some of the folks who are afraid of things they don't know anything about, and are unwilling to learn. That is just really sad.

Old people tend to be old fashioned. I am still old fashioned in some ways. I have no desire for ipods, or those fancy cell phones with keyboards, or texting, I like old school video games better and am starting to find the new games boring, those electronic maps or HDs. I have done some new technology like laptops, PSP, Wii, PS3, DVDs, Digital cameras.

There are older people out there who does myspace and IMing and stuff but it's not common.

Untill I was about 12 1/2 -13 I hated all technology exept my xbox... It baffled me.... everyone else I new was pretty good, now they're the rubish ones compared to me:) it only takes practice! I used to not now how to login on a computer.... now I'v built my own...

ay me...well, a 2nd 50+-year-old has to defend our side...

The reason 'young' people are comfortable with new technology is they've never really known a world without it. It is easier for young people to learn new technology, because they have less relearning to do.

I would have loved to have had personal computers in College; (you actually appreciate word processing more when you've had to do a 15-page paper with a typewriter.. but they hadn't really been popularized yet (the original PC came out after I graduated...sigh...

As for all the blackberry/texting/l33tspeak/social networking bit are 2 reasons -
1) As someone with AS, most of the modern social networking is designed to socialize, something we
don't do all that well. I mean I can do it here, but actually searching out people to see how popular you are?
Strangely enough, once you have a wife and children (and grandchildren), seeing how many people you
can get on Mybook or FaceSpace (kidding!) isn't all that important. You don't have to 'prove' anything.
2) Second, I just can't afford all the extra fees; cell phones are expensive enough. A lot of the extra features
you have, tend to cost extra (unless you become an expert on all the terms and conditions in contracts)

Finally, I have the Internet, and that works for me. It didn't show up until I was almost 40, but I'm very comfortable with it. If I had money to blow (I don't) , I'd probably be playing thumb-hockey with some tiny gadget, but priorities, and all that...

That being said, have fun with your stuff....

That is not true for me. When I was a kid, I was always in my own little world (autistic characteristic) and so I never knew of what people my age were up to (aside from observing at school). It wasn't until I was probably in high school that I started to get more of a feel of what people my age were doing and the culture and stuff. In fact, my mom is better than me when browsing for stuff on a website. My mom is always like "what age group are you in? You should know better than me."

I only learned of the most well-known websites (google, wikipedia, hotmail) when I was like 14. Before that, I never really went on the internet. So yes, I have known a world without the Internet. Now I even have a facebook account (got that when I was almost 17).

I think it's more because it can do many more wonderful things than it could do about 15 years ago. Using the internet is a great way to communicate. I can't live without it. I know for people with Asperger Syndrome it can be a very valuable asset - it makes communicating a whole lot easier.

No complicated facial expressions or tone of voice.

Also, I think the younger you are the faster you learn for some reason. Hence a baby's brain is quite big for it's age when born so it can take in a lot of information.

I am an "old fart" and an internet expert yet I (gasp) don't own a mobile phone.

Why? Because I don't want to be bothered by idiots.

In the good old days people had servants to answer the door and say "Mr Jones is not at home"
Translation: "Mr Jones may very well be in the building but he is enjoying a quiet evening in his pajamas and doesn't want some tosser interrupting him"

100 years ago an English business owner would come into his office in the morning.
His secretary would bring the mail and a cup of tea.
He would dictate answers to the letters and have a meeting with his top staff.
Then he would go to his club for lunch and play golf in the afternoon.

When Charles De Gaul was president of France he had a weekend house with no phone!
There was a phone at the guard post at the gate.
He told people that they could get a message to him but they had better not interrupt him for anything less than world war three.

I was enlightened years ago when a friend flicked on his telephone answering machine before we sat down to dinner.
He said "I don't CARE who calls or how important it is to them. I will NOT interrupt my dinner just because someone wants to talk to me or sell me something"

We grew up with it. As a 15 year old, I grew up with a computer in the house, and made a website on it. I grew up with mobile phones around me, and got one a few years ago. I grew up using TV remotes, so I know them all.

Simple as that. That's the only reason.

I didn't. I didn't really use the internet much until I was 14.