Fri 20 Aug 2010
Back In My Day (BIMD) Friday
Posted by Alicia under Back in My Day (BIMD), Generations in the Workplace, Vintage Tech
No CommentsSo remember a couple of months ago I blogged about my panic attack after leaving my cell phone at home? In the blog I reminisced about the original cell phones and what clunkers they were. Well guess what? My fiance’s sister read the blog and sent me this link to the July edition of a local community newsletter. The reporter, Sherryl L. Parks, gave a great summary of a TEDx conference that had been held in the town. As an aside, I not only love the TED conferences but think the TEDx conferences provide a wonderful opportunity for local venues to showcase topics and speakers that are important or interesting to the local community.
The newsletter talked about some of the topics that were presented at that particular TEDx. From the topics selected , you could clearly see that this particular community was very interested in science and technology. In the article there’s a picture of a young man standing next to an older one. What are they holding? Well, the young man, a Millennial, is holding one of the old, original cell phones. You know, the clunker I talked about in my previous blog. The older man, a Veteran, is holding an IPhone. Isn’t that great! The Millennial is holding the original cell phone that paved the way for him to have the IPhone he can’t live without today. Can you imagine what was going through the Millennial’s mind when he took a look at that clunky phone? But it gets better.
Do you know who the older man is in the picture? It’s none other than Martin Cooper? Does his name ring a bell? Well, it should because today Millennials and many of us would be lost without him. He is the man credited with being the inventor of the cell phone! It’s true – google his name and you will see. How cool it is to see a picture of Martin Cooper holding the most recent transformation of the invention he created? He must be so proud. And how cool is the fact that a Millennial gets to actually see the roots of his precious IPhone. But more importantly, he gets the rare privilege of talking to its inventor. I can just imagine the wonderful stories that Martin Cooper is sharing with the young man about the history of the cell phone.
Conversely, I can picture the Millennial gushing about all the neat IPhone features. I’m sure Martin Cooper is secretly chuckling because those new features have nothing to do with the phone itself. The cell phone he created has morphed into a mini-PC. As we all know, the last thing the Millennials use their cell phones for is to make a call. Yet, the only thing the original cell phone could do was make a call. I’m sure Martin Cooper could never have imagined “his” cell phone becoming what it has today. But he put the wheels in motion and the Millennials and the rest of us will be forever indebted to him for that stroke of genius.
There is so much that each of the generations can learn from one another. The trick is to open yourself to the opportunities that present themselves to be able to do that. It’s nice to know the roots of things because it make us so much more appreciative of what we have today. The more we share the roots of things with Millennials the better we will all be.
In my earlier blog, I was going to include a picture of the original cell phone like the one pictured in this community newsletter. I’m so glad I didn’t. This picture is so much better. Especially because a Millennial is holding it and he is standing next to its inventor. Can’t get any better than that!
Happy Friday, everybody!
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8/20/2010
Back In My Day (BIMD) Friday | The Millennial Lab
via aliciablain.com
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