"Dying Traditions of boomers"

[pedro47]

A telephone booth that uses coins and a full service gas station, that has an attendant to pump your gasoline and check your oil and tires (for free).

 

[pedro47]

How about buying major appliances that were made in the United States that last for twenty years or more.

 

[noreenkate]

That entire article is snarky and insipid

that is a click-bait headline if I ever saw one.

As @dioxide45 said the article seems to skip us GenXers completely, and IMO, GenX straddled those changes, handled them well, and made them the norm. Take checks for example, I am not sure about you, but I am old enough to remember life before direct deposit...Paper paychecks were a thing. We went to the bank, deposited them then wrote checks out to pay our bills. As online banking became a thing a lot of GenX taught their boomer parents and their Millennial kids how to do it. Jeez, I am still handling many online options for my beloved boomer family members. Pretty sure GenX played a significant part in chord cutting also many of us were with Netflix since it was a mail-order service.
As technology grew a lot of us embraced it quickly. The best thing that happened for me iPhone 4 got iBooks- it was amazing to have an entire library available in my pocket.

Traditions, at least to me, are more or less cultural things- what I thought would be in there were things like Easter bonnets, 3-D movies etc...not fax machines.

 

[noreenkate]

A telephone booth that uses coins and a full service gas station, that has an attendant to pump your gasoline and check your oil and tires (for free).

Haven't seen that in years-

 

[TolmiePeak]

A telephone booth that uses coins and a full service gas station, that has an attendant to pump your gasoline and check your oil and tires (for free).

Someone tried to do full service gas pumping but it didn't last long. They would show up at your office and fill your gas tank. You didn't even have to drive to the gas station.

 

[HitchHiker71]

As @dioxide45 said the article seems to skip us GenXers completely, and IMO, GenX straddled those changes, handled them well, and made them the norm. Take checks for example, I am not sure about you, but I am old enough to remember life before direct deposit...Paper paychecks were a thing. We went to the bank, deposited them then wrote checks out to pay our bills. As online banking became a thing a lot of GenX taught their boomer parents and their Millennial kids how to do it. Jeez, I am still handling many online options for my beloved boomer family members. Pretty sure GenX played a significant part in chord cutting also many of us were with Netflix since it was a mail-order service.
As technology grew a lot of us embraced it quickly. The best thing that happened for me iPhone 4 got iBooks- it was amazing to have an entire library available in my pocket.

Traditions, at least to me, are more or less cultural things- what I thought would be in there were things like Easter bonnets, 3-D movies etc...not fax machines.

It's a good point you're making here. GenX is the generation that embraced newer technologies, yet we also did all of this "the old way" so to speak and have lived in both worlds. Boomers have also done this, though IME while they have adopted to using the newer technologies, as a general rule, they don't have a good working knowledge of how the tech actually works under the covers since it's not something they grew up with generationally. There are always exceptions of course, there are many very savvy Boomers that were actually instrumental in creating these newer technologies in the first place, but like you, I end up being the "family helpdesk" for a lot of tech since I "work in computers" which always makes me laugh when I hear it since there are literally hundreds of specialties within IT. Most of the calls/emails/texts I get from family assume I'm good with Windows/MAC OS for example - desktop tech - whereas I've actually always been an enterprise apps/servers guy for the most part in my IT career - not a desktop guy - and I then jumped into mobile device management so I'm actually more familiar with mobile devices (phones/tablets) than I am desktops. Still - I get frequent tech inquiries from various friends and family members to this day.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

Traditions, at least to me, are more or less cultural things

Yes. I wasn't going to point that out. I can't imagine reading these type of links to click-bait opinion-pieces. The list of things people have discussed are not "Traditions". They are the way of life at a point in time given the current technology, etc. "Traditions" are almost the opposite. They are things (more social things) that last well beyond their usefulness, or practicality maybe.
But so go these type of opinion-pieces. Accuracy is definitely optional.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

have lived in both worlds

Speaking of this and of paper paychecks: I took the 1st paycheck I got from my 1st job out of college down to the bank on a Friday lunchtime. I walked into the bank ready for my new experience, and walked right into the back of a HUGE line of people waiting to do the same thing. There was a guy there saying they had "just installed these (ATMs). Give it a try." I had seen ATMs in Cambridge, but being a college student meant I had no cash flow and I think I had never used one. I had the urge to be a good l'il conformist and get in the back of the line, but thought "aw, screw that, give it a go."
I walked over to the ATM, and Wham/Bam, I was out of there, pondering the HUGE line as I left. It was a long, long time before I cashed a paper paycheck after that ... when the ATMs were down of course.
Talk about being "on the cusp" ... another one ... my 1st programming course in college ... we used punch cards to enter our 1st assignment. Similarly, as we were entering the punch cards in the computer room, there were people on the other side of the recently-expanded room, installing terminals. 2nd assignment, we used the terminals. No. More. Punch. Cards. EVER.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

I end up being the "family helpdesk" for a lot of tech

Yup. Similarly, 1984 or 85, working at a company which is basically all engineers, I and a few other of the younger engineers became the "PC Help Desk" as they rolled out PCs to the executives. We weren't even CS grads. We were just the youngest, hottest engineers who "know all that digital stuff". It was a great way to get to know all the execs. They must have had an "IT Dept". THey had mainframes. Somebody was installing these PCs. Maybe the "IT People" were just too busy or too nerdy.
They probably got me because they saw me playing chess on my PC during lunch.

 

[dioxide45]

I walked over to the ATM, and Wham/Bam, I was out of there, pondering the HUGE line as I left. It was a long, long time before I cashed a paper paycheck after that ... when the ATMs were down of course.

I often ponder the long line at the Post Office given that it is possible to purchase online for discounted rates or even use the self serve kiosk.

 

[pedro47]

Does any one remember working with does old dumb crts, mainframes and does huge IBM printers before the fax machines were standard office equipment. LOL

 

[jp10558]

I often ponder the long line at the Post Office given that it is possible to purchase online for discounted rates or even use the self serve kiosk.

Sadly where I live, there's no self serve kiosk, and usually we need things scaled, or don't have easy access to a printer etc. Then again, usually the longest line is 3 people, the downside is it still seems to take like 10 minutes per person so I'm still waiting "a long time".

 

[noreenkate]

I often ponder the long line at the Post Office given that it is possible to purchase online for discounted rates or even use the self serve kiosk.

This- I don’t understand this at all, I open the USPS app use the create a shipping label, print it out, stick it on the box and hand it off.
Seriously I love the app…especially the informed delivery option

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

Speaking of this and of paper paychecks: I took the 1st paycheck I got from my 1st job out of college down to the bank on a Friday lunchtime. I walked into the bank ready for my new experience, and walked right into the back of a HUGE line of people waiting to do the same thing. There was a guy there saying they had "just installed these (ATMs). Give it a try." I had seen ATMs in Cambridge, but being a college student meant I had no cash flow and I think I had never used one. I had the urge to be a good l'il conformist and get in the back of the line, but thought "aw, screw that, give it a go."
I walked over to the ATM, and Wham/Bam, I was out of there, pondering the HUGE line as I left. It was a long, long time before I cashed a paper paycheck after that ... when the ATMs were down of course.
Talk about being "on the cusp" ... another one ... my 1st programming course in college ... we used punch cards to enter our 1st assignment. Similarly, as we were entering the punch cards in the computer room, there were people on the other side of the recently-expanded room, installing terminals. 2nd assignment, we used the terminals. No. More. Punch. Cards. EVER.

I made a big hit with a bunch of young programmers when i brought in some old punch cards I found in a box. They'd never seen one. . .

 

[clifffaith]

Speaking of this and of paper paychecks: I took the 1st paycheck I got from my 1st job out of college down to the bank on a Friday lunchtime. I walked into the bank ready for my new experience, and walked right into the back of a HUGE line of people waiting to do the same thing. There was a guy there saying they had "just installed these (ATMs). Give it a try." I had seen ATMs in Cambridge, but being a college student meant I had no cash flow and I think I had never used one. I had the urge to be a good l'il conformist and get in the back of the line, but thought "aw, screw that, give it a go."
I walked over to the ATM, and Wham/Bam, I was out of there, pondering the HUGE line as I left. It was a long, long time before I cashed a paper paycheck after that ... when the ATMs were down of course.
Talk about being "on the cusp" ... another one ... my 1st programming course in college ... we used punch cards to enter our 1st assignment. Similarly, as we were entering the punch cards in the computer room, there were people on the other side of the recently-expanded room, installing terminals. 2nd assignment, we used the terminals. No. More. Punch. Cards. EVER.

I worked for First Interstate Bank, in the operations department not an actual bank, in 1981-1983. They installed the first ATM in the parking garage lobby so employees could try it out, I think before they went live at the banks. Everyone was eager to try it because some lucky user would get an extra $20 bill in their cash withdrawal.

 

[pedro47]

I made a big hit with a bunch of young programmers when i brought in some old punch cards I found in a box. They'd never seen one. . .

COBOL was the computer language then and it is still been use by some progammres in 2024.

 

[Brett]

Cobol was the language.

Fortran was my computer language in college --- not that I remember any of it

 

[WaikikiFirst]

worked for First Interstate Bank, in the operations department not an actual bank, in 1981-1983

That was 1982 & I'm not 100% sure but I think I remember that being a First Interstate Bank.
I had just moved there from MA. The bank's name wasn't important but, by george, I think you got it

 

[pedro47]

As @dioxide45 said the article seems to skip us GenXers completely, and IMO, GenX straddled those changes, handled them well, and made them the norm. Take checks for example, I am not sure about you, but I am old enough to remember life before direct deposit...Paper paychecks were a thing. We went to the bank, deposited them then wrote checks out to pay our bills. As online banking became a thing a lot of GenX taught their boomer parents and their Millennial kids how to do it. Jeez, I am still handling many online options for my beloved boomer family members. Pretty sure GenX played a significant part in chord cutting also many of us were with Netflix since it was a mail-order service.
As technology grew a lot of us embraced it quickly. The best thing that happened for me iPhone 4 got iBooks- it was amazing to have an entire library available in my pocket.

Traditions, at least to me, are more or less cultural things- what I thought would be in there were things like Easter bonnets, 3-D movies etc...not fax machines.

Gen X, do you remember playing Pong, Donging Con and PAC Man the forerunner of todays computer games.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

ROFL presented to computer science students at a University. They had no idea what a mainframe was.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

COBOL was the computer language then and it is still been use by some progammres in 2024.

I last used it commercially (as a programmer) in early 2023. At $65 an hour. I now throw away all offers of employment. . .

Mainframe COBOL is at least 1,000 time more efficient that JAVA. OTOH it required more work to code. People cost more than machines.

(By the way, I have a virtual MVS (mainframe) machine that I can run on my PC. COBOL and several dozen other mainframe languages. Out geek THAT!)

 

[noreenkate]

Gen X, do you remember playing Pong, Donging Con and PAC Man the forerunner of todays computer games.

I argue with my millennial kids all the time Donkey Kong was on my commodore 64 in elementary school. We had the original!

 

[jp10558]

Fortran was my computer language in college --- not that I remember any of it

Visual Basic 6.0 and C++ (some version) were what I had to use in college. Probably less useful than Fortran would have been in my job.

 

[DrQ]

Fortran was my computer language in college --- not that I remember any of it

A determined programmer can make a FORTRAN program in ANY language.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I coded in Cobol as a developer early in my career. Also used Basic infrequently. In college we used Pascal as it was the "latest and greatest" beyond Fortran.