I give my parents a lot of flack for doing something technology-related in a way that an older person might do it. For example, my parents can barely text. I think the first text I ever received from my mom was “happybirthdayloveyoustilllearningtotext” (which, being the first text to ever receive from my mother gave me a big old grin on my face) but the next day I had to show her how to insert spaces on her phone. Like a lot of people in their generation, they are probably the last adopters to the latest and greatest things out there, and usually will lean on me, their “Generation-Y” child, to show them how to use it.

A while back, I felt the receiving end of that flack when Lauren made fun of me for looking at Instagram on my laptop, using a web-browser. I mean, I like to look at what people are posting on Instagram, and I don’t always do it on my phone. There’s nothing wrong with visiting the website instead of using their mobile app, right? Otherwise why would they have developed that interface? For the sake of people like me who still cling to their laptops, that’s why! And while I’d really like to get a big ol’ tablet computer someday (iPad, Nexus, Galaxy Tab, whatever), I really feel like I wouldn’t be able to get by without a good old keyboard and mouse to type out thoughts, try to improve my programming skills, or scroll through blogs and such on a whim. I mean, imagine how long it would take me to type out this post on a phone screen! That’s not to say that I wouldn’t adapt to whatever change in I/O is coming. I just really like that mouse/keyboard/monitor interaction as it stands now.

But surely some more efficient I/O experience will come along one of these days. Designers are getting so much smarter with every iteration of computing with regards to how we interact with our tools and how to make it that much more natural. It’s kind of crazy how quickly my 4 year old niece can catch on to how to use a tablet and how to navigate amongst icons in an interface — all while my newly smartphone-wielding parents still struggle to check their voice-mails correctly.

Sample next generation interfacing.

There really is a learning curve to new technologies, and I hope I’ll always be able to beat it. And while there are plenty of people out there like my parents who have no idea how to manage a remote with more buttons that Vol+, Vol-, Channel+, Channel-, and Power… I know many older folks who are plenty savvy with technology. Which is why I question why my parents ever got left behind. I mean, my parents are extremely bright, having had careers as a microbiologist and chemical engineer. Did I do a bad job of teaching them? Were they too busy with life to keep up? Maybe I’ll get out-paced by technology someday, myself. I hope that having grown up in an age of booming technological advancement, where critical thinking was drilled into our heads at such a young age, that it’ll never happen to me. But maybe more important things than technology might get in the way and make me stop caring. Who knows.

All I know is that I’ll try to show my mom how to check her voicemail again and I’ll continue to look at Instagrams on my laptop.