Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

I found it funny that I was telling someone about how Larry King has never used ‘the google’ before, when it was exactly one year ago that he made the somewhat startling admission. I mean, come on, even George Bush has learned how to use the “Internets” and search “the google”.

What are the odds that Larry now knows how to google something? I doubt any of my readers are such Larry King fans, as to know if he’s admitted to learning how to do journalism in the 21st century.

Old people do use the Interweb - Just not Larry King

It’s a fact that old people have a harder time using the Web than younger people. There are several reasons for this, and it’s not squarely on the technophobic shoulders of a generation that fought in World War II. I’ve met plenty of people under the age of 40 who are quite incapable and mostly unwilling to learn how to use a computer mouse, let alone the Internet. And it’s not fair to call the Greatest Generation a bunch of technophobes, because in many cases, they were the ones who invented our modern technology!

Larry King recently made the somewhat startling admission that he’s never done an Internet search for himself. What kind of a journalist in 2006 would dare admit that, let alone be so clueless as to think it would be okay to admit that extreme level of ignorance about modern media? I am a bit torn on whether to defend Larry as a person who is not interested in adding technological complexity to his life, or roast him as an ignorant journalist. There are valid reasons, as I mentioned that old people don’t like computers:

• poorer eyesight makes reading some tiny print impossible.
• less hand-eye coordination, and sore bones and muscles from sitting in one position too long, makes mousing and keyboarding tough and frustrating. (Just try using the mouse with your non-dominant hand for 10 minutes, to simulate what I mean.)
• many have a fear of typing and have never tried or forgotten how. Typewriters didn’t have a Backspace key, so fear of making a mistake is high. A prejudice that typing is for only lower class workers, may also be present.
• financial concerns keep them from seeking out a new and potentially risky computer that they’ve heard cautions (ie. viruses, crashes, scam letters, illegal operations) on the news about.
• a fear of learning something new. They didn’t grow up with computers everywhere, and they may be thinking that computers aren’t as good as their way of doing anything.
• They may just genuinely not be interested in adding a new device to their already smooth life.

I taught two of my grandparents to use the computer, Internet, and email. My Grandpa was so enthusiastic about it, he was learning to scan and email photos back when it wasn’t as easy in the late 1990s on his Pentium I computer. My other Grandma though, doesn’t want to learn a thing about computers. Computer literacy really depends most on a person’s will to learn new things, not their age which is just a number.

Larry King rejected Rosanne’s kind offer to help tutor him on the use of Google. What Larry does or doesn’t do on his own time is his own business, but as a journalist, I think it would help him to get some perspective on the world if he knew how to use the most basic function of the best communications medium ever implemented globally. Metaphorically he essentially admitted to being unable to operate a computer keyboard, while being an author (Or is he an author??); Or a marine biologist, who can’t swim; Or a chef, who is afraid of fire. A journalist in this decade who can’t do an Internet search, is about as irrelevant to CNN journalism, as I am statistically irrelevant to the blogosphere at the moment.

Can you imagine being the underlings at Larry’s office? Their star Larry — their boss couldn’t find the Drudge Report online if his life depended on it, yet they wander in relative obscurity at the world’s most famous 24 hour news network. I guess none of them, or Larry’s bosses bothered to print off a hard copy of the memo they emailed to Larry’s unchecked inbox, instructing him to start replying to their emailed requests.

Poor Larry probably didn’t understand why it was funny when George Bush said he used “the Google”, and had heard there were incorrect “rumours on the Internets“. And Larry didn’t think that the Republican who described the Internet as a series of “tubes”, “not like a truck”, was perhaps too ignorant of the Net to be proposing legislation concerning it. And he’ll probably never read what I’ve written here (because I’m statistically invisible, remember) so he won’t know that he’s not alone in his ignorance, but he’s certainly the most famous self admitted fossil in journalism today.

So Larry, do your generation a favour and take Rosanne Barr up on her offer to teach you all about googling. You’ll stop looking like an old fart out of touch with common people, and may encourage other people your age to get online and start interacting with their peers and young people. What’s the worst thing that could happen if you tried? You might learn something about yourself or the world?

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Also this time last year, the Canadian Toonie’s bear was named Churchill. This year, the $2 coin is worth more than an American two dollar bill!