You can't teach an old dog new tricks

created by Sylvar

(idea) by Sylvar (4.8 mon) (print) ? I like it! Mon Apr 03 2000 at 19:33:39

According to this proverb, people who have acquired bad habits find it difficult to change their ways. It also foretells doom for anyone making a career change during a mid-life crisis or coming out of retirement, and suggests that only young people can learn things. Most of this is nonsense, of course, but the proverb exists, and you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

(idea) by suidine (2.6 mon) (print) ? I like it! Wed Feb 07 2001 at 0:30:36

How many of you have tried to tell your grandfather about your brand new ISDN line with two channels that also acts as a 64k modem, and in return got a reply that went something along the lines of "don't patronize me sonny, when I was your age I could herd a flock of 20 sheep, I'd like to see you herd a flock of three sheep."

Sure your dad can hook up the VCR just fine, and maybe after reading the television manual for 4 hours he will finally tune the channels too, but that's nothing in comparison to what a ten year-old can do in this modern day and age. Growing up with computers will become a necessity for every working person, just to be able to grasp up-to-date technological innovations.

From the moment that a child grows up surrounded by multi-channel telephone lines, video conferencing with people thousands of miles away and surreal 3D video games, technology soon becomes second nature to them. Most importantly, unlike adults they don't tell themselves that they'll learn how to surf the web one day, and after never getting round to it, feel technologically handicapped in regard to the tidal wave of surfacing inventions. Children are always fascinated by the unknown, while senior citizens fear it, fear it like cancer.

In addition to that, older people often don't want to learn what new wonderful things they can do using technology. They've gotten through life without needing any weird toys and pretentiously deny the usefulness of electronics, besides, they have probably been left so far behind that it would take them decades to catch up on everything that's come out so far, so `why bother?' they think.

Just to specialize in computers professionally a person must grow up around them, just to be able to study the discipline and have an edge in the market. Most older people nowadays had a hard enough time when the radio was invented, they're going to bother with WAP or e-mail? They assume that modern products are for the young and decide to detach themselves from technological advancements. When most people reach a certain age, they decide to retire from the modernized world and become old and annoying by pretending to be deaf.

In conclusion, kids have the opportunity to discover so much more electronically since they have the time to sit for hours on end fiddling with every gadget they can get their hands on, adults naturally have more important things on their minds and usually can spend only an hour or so a day to do something in specific, for instance surf the net. Most people won't go further into understanding the arising Information Age, and this isn't nearly enough insight needed to cope with the upcoming Brave New World.

printable version
chaos

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