Young Person Is Clueless About How People Lived Before E-Mail, And His Texts With An Older Person Go Viral
Zoomers struggle to imagine the world before smartphones and the Internet. And Kathy Torrence, 52, learned that her son, 21, is no different. Recently, he texted Kathy, asking, “How did any of college work before email?” So she decided to teach him about those ancient times.
The conversation they had hilariously highlighted the differences between the two generations. One is used to commuting and bulletin boards, the other doesn’t even know what that is. However, it proves that they can overcome them, too. In the end, both Kathy and her son walked away understanding each other a little better.
Image credits: kathy.torrence
“I think he has always known that times were different when I was growing up pre Internet and pre -mail,” Kathy told Bored Panda. “But one day after one of his classes was canceled and he was notified electronically, it just hit him how different communication was when I was in college.”
Zoomers (Gen Z) is the newest generation to be named and were born approximately between 1996 and 2015, which makes them 5-24 years old.
The average Gen Zer received their first mobile phone at the age of 10. But many of them grew up playing with their parents’ mobile phones or tablets. They were brought up in a hyper-connected world and the smartphone is their preferred method of communication. On average, they spend 3 hours a day on their mobile device.
Image credits: kathy.torrence
Kathy’s son, as a Zoomer should, has always been connected to technology. “I have photos of him at 3 years old sitting at a computer,” she explained. “He got his first phone in 6th grade and has several laptops, an iPad, a Raspberry Pie, and a brand new phone that he bought himself from the money he has earned at summer jobs.” He also spends a lot of time online writing code, including contributing to open source projects. “He is a math major with a computer science minor, a music minor, and a French minor in college.”
The proud mom said her son is very bright and excels in math and science. “He is now a senior in college and has almost a 4.0 GPA. He picks up on new technology very quickly and is a very logical thinker.”
“He is also very independent and has done two summer research projects (at Brown and UCLA) that he applied for and traveled to himself.” The guy also has a great sense of humor and a sense of sarcasm that can be seen in those texts. He is currently applying to graduate schools for mathematics.
Here’s what people said about the conversation
!["Karen Complains To HR About My Body, I Uno-Reverse Her Complaint, [And Now] Everyone Hates Her"](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/coworker-complains-to-hr-about-womans-body-revenge-latest.jpg "\"Karen Complains To HR About My Body, I Uno-Reverse Her Complaint, [And Now] Everyone Hates Her\"")
I kind of pity those who didn't experience life before the internet. There are advantages and disadvantages to both the internet and the pre-internet world but they didn't get to see how nice it can be to not always have to be “on call“.
Yes, that. Plus you could get out of the house on a weeknight, because you had to "go to the library". Spent a lot of time there in high school. Wink, wink.
Sounds like a good excuse. But now I don’t have it.
Where I got my first real kiss from a girl. Maybe that's why the smell of a book excites me so.
Stannous Flouride follower
This is why my phone is ALWAYS on silent. I hate people thinking I'm always on call..NOPE, I am not.
OMG, the youngs are like "aren't you going to get that?!" Um, they can leave a message. Or text. Or email. I mean it's not like the old days where you actually had to be physically tethered to a phone at a particular time and place to connect with someone. Isn't the whole point of advances for convenience - not to shackle me?
Email had just started to take off when I graduated from college. I spent the summer between undergrad and grad school working for a state (that will remain unnamed) in their department of information technology. The department head would have his secretary print out his emails, hand write his responses on them, then have his secretary type them in -- all because he was too intimidated to use email. The head of IT for an entire state. I used to think "How can he not know how to use email?!" Now I'm like, "What's the big deal with TicTac? And why is Zoom so hard to use?" :-D
This is his reality. It would be no different than me asking my great-grands how they managed without electricity. A world without electricity is totally foreign to me.
And phones... at least we had landline phones...
we had party line telephones and no TV when I was little, and I'm not all that old.
I think it's staged. I'm pretty young, and I know all those things.
Boomer here, never underestimate how stupid your own peers can be.
Dunno. I once explained analog photography to a young person (before it made its come-back). The fact that he could not see the pictuers after he took them was really difficult to graps for him. I think, to him, the whole process was more or less magic.
Katinka Min easy
ucanobua no
I thought I was old enough to be un cool at one point. But when I mentioned my ICE Mower to a customer of mine who also owned and used an electric mower, he didn't know that I.C.E was short for Internal Combustion Engine. Guess I am not that old yet.
I agree. Everything that was said adds-up but the (similar) language gives me the feeling this was just one person.
This comment has been deleted.
I kind of pity those who didn't experience life before the internet. There are advantages and disadvantages to both the internet and the pre-internet world but they didn't get to see how nice it can be to not always have to be “on call“.
Yes, that. Plus you could get out of the house on a weeknight, because you had to "go to the library". Spent a lot of time there in high school. Wink, wink.
Sounds like a good excuse. But now I don’t have it.
Where I got my first real kiss from a girl. Maybe that's why the smell of a book excites me so.
Stannous Flouride follower
This is why my phone is ALWAYS on silent. I hate people thinking I'm always on call..NOPE, I am not.
OMG, the youngs are like "aren't you going to get that?!" Um, they can leave a message. Or text. Or email. I mean it's not like the old days where you actually had to be physically tethered to a phone at a particular time and place to connect with someone. Isn't the whole point of advances for convenience - not to shackle me?
Email had just started to take off when I graduated from college. I spent the summer between undergrad and grad school working for a state (that will remain unnamed) in their department of information technology. The department head would have his secretary print out his emails, hand write his responses on them, then have his secretary type them in -- all because he was too intimidated to use email. The head of IT for an entire state. I used to think "How can he not know how to use email?!" Now I'm like, "What's the big deal with TicTac? And why is Zoom so hard to use?" :-D
This is his reality. It would be no different than me asking my great-grands how they managed without electricity. A world without electricity is totally foreign to me.
And phones... at least we had landline phones...
we had party line telephones and no TV when I was little, and I'm not all that old.
I think it's staged. I'm pretty young, and I know all those things.
Boomer here, never underestimate how stupid your own peers can be.
Dunno. I once explained analog photography to a young person (before it made its come-back). The fact that he could not see the pictuers after he took them was really difficult to graps for him. I think, to him, the whole process was more or less magic.
Katinka Min easy
ucanobua no
I thought I was old enough to be un cool at one point. But when I mentioned my ICE Mower to a customer of mine who also owned and used an electric mower, he didn't know that I.C.E was short for Internal Combustion Engine. Guess I am not that old yet.
I agree. Everything that was said adds-up but the (similar) language gives me the feeling this was just one person.
This comment has been deleted.