Our generation is in iTransition.

We came of age with the birth of the iPhone, old enough to have grown tired of our Razors but young enough to adapt to this new wave of the technological future.  Most of us didn’t have cell phones until the end of high school, and even then they were for EMERGENCY ONLY.  As we discovered ourselves in college we embraced the advance of texting with excited fingers: a fast, indiscreet, less personal way to communicate? Yes please! Camera phones were a neat trick but their quality will never replace that of the digital camera (another toy we have aged alongside.)  But now, as we make our way into adulthood, the iPhone has become the absolute for cell phones, if it can even be considered merely a phone.

While adapting was simple enough for our generation, I worry about our elders and the generations following us.  The iPhone (for the most part) leaves the baby boomers in the dark.  If someone over 50 can send a text it is miraculous.  Their incomes allow them to possess iPhones, but their limited technological understanding will never grant them full access to the little piece of magic with a touch screen.  While this is tragic, it is nowhere near as worrisome as the generation after ours.

My vision of their future is one operated solely off of iGadgets.  As the age at which children receive an iPhone plummets, the tykes’ dependency on these devices grows inversely.  I believe there will come a day when a young adult does not know how to control their bank statements, read a map, or even get in touch with someone without an iPhone.  The neurosis that inevitably accompanies constant interaction will drive people mad; robotic fingers will have to be developed from overuse of the touch screen.

As I submit this from a desktop instead of my iPhone, I thank the Apple gods that MY generation will not be the iGeneration.

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