Have you ever wondered what our ancestors would say about the change in the world if they could return to earth for a visit right now?
I will use my father as an example. Dad was born in 1914 and passed away in 1982. Dad could never have conceived of such a thing as internet, certainly not email.
Yet even Dad enjoyed certain technological advances that developed and were refined during his lifetime. He enjoyed watching baseball on television, in color during his last decade. He always planted beautiful gardens which he plowed with a gasoline powered rotary tiller. Dad used a rotary dial, wall-mounted black phone with a handheld receiver to call his good friend Jim Bailey to set up fishing outings. His yard was always mowed, and he benefited from a gasoline powered lawnmower, in his later years one that “pulled itself”. (Let’s see if the younger folks can figure that one out!)
What technological advances do I use routinely that Dad could never have even imagined? Probably the thing that would have amazed him the most is the fact that I started my car this morning from inside the house with use of a remote device. When I actually got into the car to drive to work, I did not need the key—just the remote on my person allowed me to push a button to start the vehicle for driving. I’m sure that a cell phone to Dad would have meant the one call a prisoner is allowed upon detainment. I am in a very short time going to use internet to transmit this article electronically for publication on this website. Dad was not a highly educated man, but he always subscribed to and read a daily newspaper. He could never have conceived of reading obituaries online. Cable television would have been a marvel I’m sure he would have enjoyed, but I’m sure he would never have imagined anything beyond the standard three channels hosted by the three major networks (NBC, ABC, and CBS).
And I’m most certain that Dad would never have imagined a world in which people from literally all over the world talk to each other almost instantaneously via social media. I received an email from my good friend Dr. Ted Beach this morning that listed some things for which senior citizens could not take credit. Among the things on that list was “the pride out of appearance”. It is interesting to watch the old television shows in which families during the 50s and 60s dressed in full suits or dresses to go into town. It has now almost become a cliché to study the Wal*Mart crowd and some of the outrageous outfits that people wear in public. My father would have thought it absolutely sinful to wear pajamas in public. What is the present dress code? Even churches have relaxed their standards, inviting people to “come just as they are”. I have seen many examples of those who stretched that invitation to the very limits.
Another thing for which Dr. Beach’s email said that senior citizens could not be held responsible was for taking “the nativity scene out of cities”. It is amazing that Christmas (which some people now group with New Year’s Day as “the winter holidays”) has become so commercialized during the decades of my life, yet there has been passionate drive on some people’s parts to remove “Christ” from Christmas. Even George Beverly Shea, the great gospel baritone who sang for years with the Billy Graham crusades, recorded songs in the 60s pleading for Christ to be put back into Christmas and reminding people of the true meaning of the season.
And then we come to email, texting, Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media. One of the things about social media that is a personal peeve with me is how it has ushered in a wave of abbreviations that have taken the place of standard English. It seems now that children neither need to learn to write in cursive nor to spell. I am somewhat comforted in the fact that proofreading is more important than ever, especially with regard to personal messages sent by social media. Autocorrect does not always come to the rescue. Take, for example, the girl who intended to text her boyfriend, “You’re the first boy I ever really loved.” What she actually sent, however, was—“UR the 1st boy I never really loved.” Senior citizens take pride in the fact that they did not by such means refine language and take the romance out of love.
Finally, according to Dr. Beach’s email, senior citizens can also be proud that they cannot be held responsible for eliminating “patience and tolerance from personal relationships and interactions with others”. Many people meet prospective mates online; therefore, it is only logical that breakups also occur online. My father’s generation could never have imagined meeting someone through social media, having a “virtual” relationship, and such relationship ending without the parties ever meeting in person. This could literally happen several times per day with prolific social media users. At least in days of the old west it would have taken several weeks or months to have communicated with a mail order bride. Amazingly, a Google search will provide a fourteen step program to break up with someone you meet online ( reference https://www.wikihow.com/Break-up-With-Someone-You-Met-Online). Like the old television game show Name That Tune, I believe I could break that relationship in one step. Honestly, how hard can it be to break up with someone you’ve never actually met?
The world has probably changed more dramatically in the past quarter century than ever before. Most amazing is how technological advances have changed interpersonal relationships. The world is larger because we have the ability to communicate with so many different people in so many different ways throughout the world. The world remains small in the respect that we will never meet many of the people with which we communicate via electronic means.
In closing, Faithful Reader, I leave you with this thought that came at the end of Dr. Beach’s email:

YES, I'M A SENIOR CITIZEN!
I'm the life of the party..... Even if it lasts until 8 p.m.