Old Harvesting and New Harvesting

"Some secretly hope that they can slip through their remaining days on earth without ever having to touch a computer."

Nelson, "A New Harvest Time" (Ensign, May 1998)

The quote above taken from "A new Harvest Time" by Russell M. Nelson speaks volumes about the era of technology in which we live. I feel discouraged, almost guilty for my indifference to our older generation and their computing needs. We have a responsibility to help pull our older generation with us into the age of ones and zeros.

First, who gave us this responsibility? I think in many ways we gave it to ourselves when we stopped writ ting letters, started VOIP chat communication and really sped up the pace of life. If it can be argued those would have happened eventually anyways, I fall back to the argument Russell M. Nelson reminds us of. That of, our intense and mutual love between grandchildren and grandparents.

It is a strange bond that two generations apart feel. For many, the fear would arise that it is becoming harder to be a part of their grandparents lives and memories. But, how silly is it to complain of not being close in our day of instant communication and media technology?

As a younger generation full of programmers, technology gurus and even just computer enthusiasts we need to reach out to our older generations and build them into our social network. We need to do it while we still have time and we can't let a stubborn old bag or bloke convince us otherwise. We owe it to them.