Maybe this post is a bit too early. Usually the discussion pertaining to one's age only comes hounding when it's either your own birthday, noticing your first wrinkle (which sticks out like a sore thumb!), when asked about it, sudden affliction or exacerbation of it, or even while you're filling the 'Age' column in any forms, official or not. The above situations don't apply to those who are conscious about their age/looks/self 24-7 though...
Psychology and Psychiatry books would say that certain age ranges are defined by certain characteristics. My memory on the subject is cloudy, but basically, young adults (teenagers included) are more prone to get involved in riskier activities, adults strive to perform in their career, and the senior citizens...well, they think of the next stage.
I was thinking more along the lines of how the Internet can reveal quite a lot in terms of one's age. I remember when I was younger - 10 or 11, was it? - when I welcomed the Internet with as much enthusiasm as I would in answering the postman at my front gate: Indifferent (because I rarely get mails). At the time, I had a superb encyclopedia in my computer - I cringe because I can't recall its name now! To think I loved it so much - and I was sufficiently contend with it that I ignored the Internet like it's just another mousepad on my desktop. My parents asked me why I did not bother much with Netscape...and I foolishly answered that it was troublesome to memorise the webpage address (I was a kid!).
Eventually I grew to embrace it, little by little. And when the ever-abundant amount of data is just a click away and the discovery of mp3's take me out of my shadows, my love for the Net was cemented.
Computers are more than just the Internet. Printing is now as natural as writing on paper, and gone are the days of typewriters. Just like how phones have evolved - imagine using the turn-a-dial telephone which involves waiting as the wheels return to its initial position after you dragged it to register a number, when all it takes to call someone up now is just pressing on keys...a valuable way to save time, wouldn't you agree? Of course, there are faster ways...your list of contacts in your mobile phones allows you to just select the person's name and voila! Soon you're listening to the tone while the other party answers you. (Oh, wait...now they have _caller ringtones_ that play music to keep you entertained if the person you're calling up is a bit late in answering - or hesitantly decide whether or not to answer you, or totally ignore your call, deliberately or no...)
So, in relation to how age is related to how one interacts with computers, I came up with these rough guidelines:
Kids - Games (and only games). There is also quite a considerable percentage who might be the destructive powers upon computers...In this age group, rarely do they use the Net as their main tool in productive aims unless forced to.
Teens - Socialising is the (if not the only) keyword. Friendster, Facebook, MySpace, hi5, Twitter. Next in line come interests, stalking and school/college assignments. (Remember, plagiarism is bad!)
Adults - Socialising, work and interests, in any order. And, Heaven forbid, crime in terms of those who are criminal-minded!
Seniors - Keeping in touch with relatives and peers.
Case in point; My youngest brother is stuck doing his folio for school, but he handles Microsoft Word so poorly I had to fight an urge to slam my forehead on the desk. That's what happens when you use the computer for gaming 99.9% of the time. The same goes with my other brother, who spends so much time playing his MMORPG, that my anime/mp3/OST/medical journals/etc downloads slow to a pitiful crawl.
The Net basically connects. It's the node that links you to variable things - from your old schoolmates, your favourite singer, cooking recipes, to odd people who do and post odd things on Youtube. And the world is heavily populated with people...that you start having to show yourself more. As in, sell yourself. Make yourself stand out among the rest. This is compounded by the inherent human tendency to stress more on self. Intrinsic _histrionic_ tendencies. Or ego, whichever applies.
That's how all the networking sites - Friendster, FB, Twitter, I'm looking at you - draw people toward them like bees to honey.
God Knows how I managed to get coerced into FB. My initial aim was to just know where my secondary school friends are now and how they are doing...but as to be expected, my number of friends grew to include my university peers too. And people I didn't know existed in real life. And was I surprised to find our _lecturers_ there too. Of course, nothing, and I _do_ mean _nothing_, beat the shock I had when I learnt that my father has an account there as well, gulp!
Twitter is another Internet phenomenon that I can never, for the life of me, understand. I did sign up for it, especially since Yanna has one as well _and_ she did invite me, but my account lasted for at most 4 days when I had to admit that 140 words just don't cut it for me. I need space, unlimited space. I need at least one blog entry if I _ever_ want to express something properly. So when my father asked me to set up an account for him, I had a weird look on that he seemed to...well, wonder a bit, I suppose. He still wanted it, so in the end I did set it up for him. I suppose it's rational for him to have it - he needs his updates the same way I need mine with my own anime hobbies.
Today's life is all about the spotlight. Making yourself news for the rest. Impinging on their to-know lists. Updating them even if the knowledge changes nothing, or if they're simply not interested. Expressing yourself in ways I never imagined possible (Youtube is a zone that I dare not wander too far in for this reason...).
...What on Earth am I saying? This blog is a form of expression too...but at least it doesn't involve...weird, out-of-this-world stuff. I think(?).
Continuation is guaranteed, with a catchier title next time, hopefully.
Current Music: Marukaite Chikyuu (Japan version) - Takahashi Hiroki
P/s: Why I was suddenly thinking about age? Because tomorrow is my sister's birthday, and I left her present all the way back in campus. *Headdesk*
P/p/s: The so-called guidelines I stated above? Accuracy is 100% questionable.
P/p/p/s: ...Wait, make that 85% questionable.
