The Nostalgia of the Young

People seem to have a way to revert to the past. And, one would thin

k, in this age at least, that ways of the past are just that, ways of the past. It is a new age. A technological age. An age that almost requires the young to grow up with these new technologies attached to their hands, and which requires adults to keep up with the changing times, so as not to be left behind in a technological wake. But, just because youth are growing up with these gadgets, does not mean that they depend on them solely.

Nostalgia is defined as "a yearning for the past" by Wikipedia. What could Sherry Turkle mean in the chapter "The Nostalgia of the Young" in her book Alone Together? I believe she is talking about some of the loneliness that

comes along with technology. We have become used to this technological age and youth are growing up in it. This is all that they know or understand, but when my generation was younger, technology was just breaking into society and had not wrapped its wires around the youth yet.

In previous Turkle chapters, and previous posts, the fact that technology has changed the way the youth think and act is evident. The title of her book, if given a brief background on the subject matter, is a perfect fit. In the present, youth are so dug in to technology that they may feel this is the only way. But, parents have been able to keep a hold of the non-technological days. They grew up with out it, and, although, technology has made the parents generation more attune to the changes and have

made life "easier" or more organized, they still remember when technology was just knocking on the doorstep of society.

While this youth generation is growing up, they are understanding that technology has not always been around. They are finding that there were things that occupied their parents time other than technology. The youth have become interested in the time before technology, and have begun asking their parents and the older generations what it was like. After learning and remembering that playing outside, talking on the phone, and getting dirty were all activities that could be fun without modern day technology, the youth generation has felt a yearning for this simplicity.

Technologies wires have wrapped themselves around society, especially the younger generations.