New technology is a rusky business

Over the past few days I have been wrestling with the formidable challenge of setting up a home network. As the least technologically-inept member of my immediate family, such tasks usually land on my shoulders – whether I want them to or not.

After three days of battling with rebellious firewalls, mutinous anti-spyware tools and a router that appears to be made of cardboard, I’ve finally succeeded in making everything work. Sort of. The end result was the electronic equivalent of a lop-sided DIY shelf, but that’s beside the point.

Two weeks ago I happened to be chatting about home networks with some people at an event hosted by AT&T. Dave Belanger, the company’s chief scientist, pointed out that a few years ago it would have been pretty much unthinkable for everyday folk to set up a network in their own house. The speed at which technology advances is quite remarkable, but this acceleration throws up some interesting side effects:

As Belanger pointed out, whenever a new technology appears, there is a set period of time during which one generation of society has the upper hand in terms of experience. Say, for example, that a company suddenly reveals a range of consumer jetpacks with a minimum user age of 18. Anyone aged 18 and above would have immediate access to rocket-based fun, but anyone in their childhood at the time of launch would have to wait for over a decade before they could have a go.

Clearly this theory works along very broad lines. The very concept of a generation, as presented here, is a bit flawed since human beings aren’t conceived in regularly ordered batches. However, the over-reaching argument rings true - the speed at which a technology can be learned determines how fast it enters the social skillset.

Or to put it another way: I’m 25 and consider myself to be “not bad” with computers – but there are millions of 16-year-olds who could have done a better job of setting up my home network. In fact, there are probably millions of 10-year-olds who could have carried out the task in half the time I took, with better results.

The idea of parents asking their children for help with their PCs is nothing new, but the advance of technology – and technological literacy – means that the youngest generations now start learning computer skills from the age of about four.

Or as Berlanger put it: “By the time you’re eight, you’re obsolete.”

So, next time you’re feeling anxious about your IT job and you start looking around for your closest rival, don’t bother. They’re probably at home, sucking on a rusk.

By Neon Kelly