Trends Tech and Wow

If you’re Gen X or a millennial you might laugh at some of what I’m about to write. Some things that are normal for you still seem new to us boomers.

If you’re a boomer, think back to when you saw some new movies during the first few weeks they were out. Cool Hand Luke, In The Heat Of the Night, the first Star Wars, Grease; even newer movies like Top Gun, Dances With Wolves or the Kristopherson/Streisand version of A Star Is Born.

You determined where and when they were showing by checking a newspaper ad or phoning a nearby theater (after looking up the number in a phone book). You stood in line to buy tickets, hoped it wasn’t sold out, paid with cash and maybe got there early enough to pick good seats.

On the afternoon I’m writing this I’m going to see the new version of A Star Is Born. This morning I opened my Fandango app and quickly saw a list of show times at theaters near me. I picked a location and show time and saw that I could reserve specific seats. Comfy reclining seats in my row choice (half way back) and seat choice (center). The threshold for senior discount is low enough that I got that price for both seats. Two minutes later I had paid for my admission and the ‘ticket’ is on my phone.

Ok, if you’re young enough or a frequent moviegoer, this is normal for you. And you’re laughing at me. If you’re a mid-range boomer who sees movies in theaters only a couple of times a year, this is all pretty new. And you’re saying ‘wow’.

Another tech trend many of us could not have predicted in our youth: music purchases.

We hear a song on the radio or see a video on TV (another unheard of trend before the 1980s) and we want to buy it. Its 10 pm, so a day or days later we get in the car, drive to a record store (that we might have found in a phone book or print ad), walk in, hunt for the single or album if that song isn’t on a single. Depending on year and choice, we’re browsing vinyl, 8-track tapes, cassettes or CDs. We might have to ask an often clueless clerk for help finding the music we’re seeking.

“It’s some kind of blimp. Or zeppelin. That’s it. Zeppelin. His name is Fred Zeppelin.”

We stand in line, pay in cash, take the ‘thing’ home to play on a device. Or maybe we can play it on the way home on a device in our car. Time invested was an hour or more, not including waiting hours or days for the record store to open.

A few nights ago, I heard an Ed Sheehan song I like and decided I wanted to ‘own’ it. Click the iTunes app, start typing Ed Sh... ,
log in, tap a few more times; two minutes later I’m playing “Thinking Out Loud” on my phone through my stereo. Late at night in my jammies.

Young people laugh. Boomers say wow.

And I didn’t really have to wait a whole two minutes. As I was writing the previous sentence, I said “Alexa, play Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran.”

Total time: ten seconds. Total cost: zero.

Wow.

A parallel music tech trend: owning your music is being replaced by streaming services like iHeart, Pandora and Spotify. The music doesn’t actually reside on your device. You connect to the songs or playlists. That’s how Alexa works.

I work around technology every day, so I’m fairly comfortable with it. Yet I am still amazed by some of the conveniences provided by it. Scared too, in a way. We have become so dependent on devices, internet and Bluetooth connectivity and digital currency and record keeping, that we can hardly live without it. Cyber terrorism could stop our country cold. The terrorists could disrupt our society from the comfort of their sofas.

Hmmm, I just thought of something ... I might not be able to get in to see A Star Is Born if my iPhone battery dies.

Boomers might not like all of these trends, but the technology train keeps rolling down the tracks and if we (boomers) don’t keep up, we’ll be left standing on the platform, looking for a pay phone.