I may be old but I still have a brain.

I don’t know about you but I am getting sick of reading stuff in the newspaper or catching stories on radio and TV about how old people can’t figure out all this new technology. First of all, I guess you need to define old. As the years pass, my definition of “old” seems to be getting a bit more liberal. You know, yesterday’s forties are today’s sixties.

Just recently there have been several articles about how analog TV is ending in 2009 and how “senior citizens,” brain addled as they all are, will be left staring at blank screens on the morning of February 18, 2009. Why some feel that age automatically renders people clueless to new ideas and new ways of doing things is beyond my comprehension. In fact, my experience seems to point in the other direction.

With baby boomers retiring from jobs that have been using a host of technologies in the workplace, it is ludicrous to imagine that when they leave those jobs they will go home and revert back to listening to AM radio and watching the “Price is Right” all day. Quite the contrary, having had access to high speed internet at work has accelerated the demand for broadband at home.

With families moving often and taking up residences far from the homestead, sharing photographs and even videos of Mary’s soccer game or Johnny’s band concert are common place. In many an empty nester’s home, sending email or chatting on-line are common place. More seniors are taking up the hobby of geocaching and have embraced GPS technology as an integral part of this new fad. Little white ear buds sprout from ageing ears and HD TVs are finding their way into living rooms, many of which really don’t have blinking VCRs displaying 12:00.

It is my opinion that an individual’s lack of knowledge of technology has little to do with age. When I get older, I for one don’t plan to hunker down in my living room and play my 33 1/3 versions of “Mantovani plays Def Leppard.” I’ll have an MP3 player.