On Being Irrelevant
At what age do we become irrelevant? My conclusion is the older we get, the earlier that age becomes, and it is disheartening. When I was young, I was taught to treat folks who are older than me with a degree of respect. I still do to this day. Even though I am 58 years old, I still refer to people whom I have known since I was small as Mr. or Mrs. Whoever, simply because their age carries with it something of merit. They grew up in difficult times.
Now the Baby Boomers, the largest and wealthiest segment of the population, are on the downhill side of middle age. By definition, we are aged between 50 and 65. But rather than enjoying any kind of respect, the digital age quickly moved us into the age of irrelevance vis-a-vis a younger group of people who not only have no regard for us, but have no regard for each other. Such are the egocentric twenty year olds, who have redefined the word "entitlement."
These are the people raised on computers. While their technological skills are admirable, their people skills are non-existent. Communicating through email and instant messaging and texting is fine, but we now have a whole generation of people growing up unable to deal with issues face to face, or even know how to carry on a civil conversation. It is easy to hide behind a screen. It is hard to learn to personally interact with other folks.
This past week I have had some very bad dealings with Circuit City, a store that I have patonized on a regular basis for 15 years. One of my notebook computers went on the fritz, and it was covered by an extended warranty. Everybody agreed that it was covered, but I couldn’t get Circuit City to ship it to the “warranty”. Somehow, it got lost in their computer system. In case you haven’t shopped there, CC fired most of their experienced help 2 years ago, leaving the running of the store to people who are under the age of 25, and a part time manager, whose name is unknown to those who work there. They truly believe that if you are over 50 years of age, you don’t know what you are doing. I didn’t know that my name was “dude” and “man” rather than Mr. Mangie. “Like, we can’t find it in the computer, Dude.” “Man, this computer won't power up.”
The long and the short of it was the computer was sitting in a box in the back of the store for three weeks, and not one person could pick up a phone and make some inquiries as to where it was, what was wrong with it, and how it was going to be handled. To find out what happened, it took 5 hours of my time, at least 5 trips to the store, and a myriad of telephone calls to at least fifteen 800 numbers.
I know life today is complicated. I heard on the news today that only 35% of the population over the age of 65 actually has any working knowledge about computers. That doesn’t mean they are stupid, or irrelevant. It means that they are simply tired of having to figure out new things. It was their money that paid for the knowledge in which these 20-somethings so happily wallow, and from which they look at us with disdain.
Instead of any degree of graciousness, we mid-lifers are forced to deal with snooty, indifferent clerks, unending phone trees, digital television, cell phones, satellite radio, and continually changing medical insurance forms and procedures that would be a challenge to a Harvard graduate. Television not only shuts out those over fifty, but pretty much every one over thirty five. How many reality shows with naked bosomy bouncing 21 year old bimbos can you take…not that there is anything wrong with that. But a well written sitcom would be a welcome change. Instead, we search the “high” channels to watch re-runs of Home Improvement, Frazier, Reba, Seinfeld, and unapologetically, The Golden Girls. What will the high channels show 10 years from now? Can anyone name one sitcom floating around on television today which appeals to anyone other than young urban minorities or teenage idiots?
Maybe I have crossed over the age of irrelevance. But to those 20 something brainiacs working at Circuit City, it took this 58 year “dude” to figure out that the computer was never shipped to “warranty”. I did it by taking some time, and using the telephone to talk to people when I finally reached someone to talk to, some deductive reasoning, and looking away from the computer screen. For all of their technical savvy, it took them 6 weeks to get my telephone number correctly entered into their file.
Hey man, how irrelevant is that? You know what is more irrelevant? I will never shop at Circuit City again....Dude!
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