Growing up in an era of technology has it’s advantages and disadvantages. I can communicate more quickly with members of my generation who grew up playing with the same new devices. But, it is almost like I’m speaking a different language to teachers and instructors who are not familiar with this new technology . During their childhood they didn’t have cell phones, computers, MP3 players, and many didn’t even have color television. Some of them have been able to adapt and accept change and use it to the best of their abilities while remain clueless now than ever before when it comes to the latest technology. In a perfect world, everyone would maintain a balance between technological knowledge and personal communication skills but today it seems that most people posses either one or the other of these traits and rarely does anyone combine these skills. So how do I communicate to a professor and vice versa? Are there really that many differences in the two of us? Maybe the bigger question is are there any similarities between us?
Dictionary.com states that communication is defined as the imparting or interchanging of thoughts, opinions or information by speech, writings, or signs. Thus, the first similarity between students and pre-technology age instructors is that both must figure out a way to communicate to each other because their goals are the same. The education of students is what is important in the college setting. So both students and faculty should be focused on making it as easy as possible to learn and to teach. The concept that students’ education is the most important issue is another similarity. Because both live at the same time, no matter what their ages, all must pay the same prices for necessities. Gas, food, tobacco, toiletry items, cars, and houses among hundreds of other items are going to be the exact price for all. The current price of gas is the same for all.
While there are some similarities between 45-year-old college professors and a 18-year-old freshmen there are probably twice as many differences between them. Obviously, freshmen have grown up in an environment that is more accepting of homosexual relationships, where music is just one kid star after another, and Apple, not Bill Gates and Microsoft rules the world of technology. Books are almost useless now that there are tablets on which to download digital books. Gas prices being below $2 sounds absolutely impossible and implausible. Wars today can be fought so that the push of a button in one country causes the lives of 10,000 people in another to end. These professors were old enough to understand the full effect that September 11, 2001 had on America. Even though I knew that many people had died and that this was not how the world should be, as a third grader I didn’t have the age and maturity to realize everything that had happened.
When you hold them up side by side it seems the differences between generations outweigh the similarities but I believe that this is only true in the quantity and not the quality of the similarites. By this statement I mean that the similarities that we have are larger issues and more important than the several small, almost insignificant differences we have in our relationship between our professors. Education must come first in the relationship between a professor and a student and no matter the age of either individual balance and understanding can be achieved.
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