Technology, taste define generations

For instance, it is probably accurate to say that over time, regardless of the trends of the day, people are basically the same.

On the other hand, it can be said, because of the current thinking and access to technology, each generation is different from past and future ones.

Although they seem to conflict, both statements may be accurate. As I see it, each generation has similar basic needs. The means that each has at hand to meet those needs is where they may be different.

It seems to me that each crop of young people has a need to spend time alone, creating some distance between them and their parents. This is a part of the growing-up process. My experience began in junior high school; today it would be called middle school.

Based on what is known of the youthful Abe Lincoln, his vehicle of independence was a candle that allowed him to read books after his family had gone to bed. I suspect many others did the same before the arrival of electronic gizmos. I believe technology sets generations apart in their need to begin the voyage into adulthood. The breaking-away process requires kids to have their own rooms or some other private retreats.

As an adolescent, I had little or no notion of the world outside my hometown. A radio was the electronic vehicle that conducted me on nightly excursions to faraway places.

Not everyone my age may have used the radio as an eye upon the world, but it worked for me.

Coast to coast clear-channel radio stations allowed this adolescent a glimpse of the wonders waiting outside my window and beyond.

Unlike today, there weren’t dozens of radio stations all over the dial featuring music for every imaginable musical taste. The top recorded hits of the day didn’t appear often on local radio. Ah, but at night, it was a far different tale, indeed. The powerful radio stations were located in what then were romantic-sounding cities: New Orleans, Chicago, even that city of mythical proportions, New York City. The disc jockeys, to me, seemed more sophisticated than anyone possibly could be.

Although there were movies and entertainment on radio similar to today’s fare on network TV, it was late night radio that allowed kids like me to reach through the radio and invite the outside world to enter my room. A glimmer of worldly sophistication flashed before me wrapped in music that is now considered by most to be antiquated, but then was cutting edge.

The next generation was raised on television, which brought a more revealing view of the outside world. It is likely that some adolescents had TVs in their rooms; however, there was little “free me from Mom and Dad’’ programming on nighttime TV. The freedom machines for many of the generation that followed me turned out to be stereos. Kids could escape the music their parents had listened to and inhale the music their parents probably loathed: rock and roll.

Most of that generation have stuck with the music of their day, while their children have acquired musical tastes that boggle the minds of their parents. The present generation has reaped the rewards of a technological explosion the likes of which the world has never seen.

Cable has brought a staggering amount of adult-oriented TV that, unless monitored, can be viewed by kids. Besides a glut of TV, cell phones and computers bring the world to today’s kids in a multitude of ways. This deluge of techno-mind-candy puts my radio in the category of buggy whips.

Should boredom set in, kids can download and listen on headphones to an unceasing array of music of their choice.

It’s a fairly safe bet that parents will have zero interest in sharing the music with them.

Considering the spectacular advances in electronic technology, imagine the contraptions the next generation will grow up with.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.