Mom’s Interview:

Brother’s Interview:

The two people I was able to interview for this assignment were my mom and my brother. Because the two of them were children/young adults four decades apart, the two experienced technology in vastly different ways. My mom was born in the early 1960’s, so she watched technology grow and change beginning in an era where everyone owned a television and/or a radio, up to now where everyone owns a smartphone that they can keep in their pocket. Whereas, my brother was born in the early 2000’s, so he’s only really experienced the last 18 years of technological growth in our society. However, because he learned how to use a DVD player/how to play video games/how to work a smartphone and tablet all before the age of ten years old, he’s much more proficient with technology than my mom is. As my mom states in her interview, she never spent much time on devices while she was growing up. She was allowed to watch maybe an hour of TV a day with her family after dinner or on the weekends. She was also allowed maybe some time on the phone, but only to figure out plans for meeting with her friends face to face. She also mentions desktop computers and bag-phones, as well as pay-phones, which she often used but because all of those things are now considered almost ancient and outdated, she has a harder time figuring out how to use things like “bookmarks” on a browser page or different settings in a smartphone.

However, as previously stated, my brother grew up with technology. He spends nearly nine hours a day on his smartphone before 3pm, so needless to say, he never finds it difficult to use tech unless its software he’s simply not familiar with yet. I found it interesting that my brother finds it easier to listen to music/podcasts via streaming services because 15/10 years ago, he would have had to either buy individual songs on iTunes (I was doing this as little as 9-10 years ago before Spotify/Apple Music/YouTube Music/Tidal etc.) or buy physical copies of CD’s to download or play in a CD player and listen to the radio. I also found it interesting that my mom’s day without tech sounded relaxing i.e, listening to old tapes and reading a book outside while my brother would just play with the dog for most of the day and have to miss work because he wouldn’t have a phone to be able to get a ride back home after he was done working. Overall, the two had very different experiences growing up in eras with such different technology. Even so, the technology they had at the time always had one thing in common- it made most things much easier for them to do.