Some of us are old enough to remember a time before computers. Some of us are even old enough to recall a time before dishwashers were the norm. What I’m getting at here is how technology becomes a part of the fabric of life and how we react to it when it’s not.
My mother resisted getting a dryer for the house for a long time. Why would we need such a thing? We had a laundry line. Now it’s normal for everyone to have them, either in the domicile or the apartment’s laundry room or at the laundromat. They’re normal. We all know what they’re for. No one has to ask.
For kids who grew up after computers became household items, computer and electronic interfaces are instinctively understood. This is what they grew up with and why it’s easier for some of us older folks to ask a five-year-old if we can’t figure out how a program works. It’s a matter of early hard wiring to the tech, of it being part of a normal way of life. The opposite can also be true, when a person is so far removed from a piece of technology that it’s not only incomprehensible, it can appear supernatural in its operation.
So what sorts of generational tech issues have you seen in your reading or explored in your writing? And bonus points for LGBT stories about this subject :)