I am currently reading a book  “Thank You For Being Late” by Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist with The New York Times. He discusses the acceleration of change mainly in three areas; technology, marketing and Mother Nature.

I listened to a talk he gave recently on a public radio station. The talk got me thinking about change and more specifically how older people dislike change in their lives.

He cites 2007 as the key year of acceleration.

The iPhone was brought to market in 2007 together with some other technological advances. Friedman talks about how the iPhone created newer ways to get things done from how we hail a taxi to the fate of nations to our most intimate relationships. Internet marketing forever changed the way we make our purchases. And as for Mother Nature, there are now more and more earthquakes, tornados and tsunamis than there ever were before.

Art Bell, on his radio show Coast to Coast, talked about this phenomenon many years ago and although the acceleration was nowhere near what it is today, one could compare what he referred to with natural events in the past and just know that things were happening faster. He called it the “Quickening”.

I remember in about the year 2000 telling one of my friends who I shared computer and ham radio topics with that in the future the desktop computer was going to be a thing of the past and something that you could hold in your hand was going to take its place. A few years later we had the iPhone, which has about the same power of the desktop computer.

But I digress

Older people dislike change.

Why?

They dislike being uncomfortable.

Changes have happened faster and faster in the past and this acceleration is nothing new. It has just gone exponential on us.

Because of this speeding up of changes, older people find it hard if not impossible to keep up with technology and new marketing trends.

And because they can’t keep up they feel virtually abandoned in society and it makes them uncomfortable. Many people older than me are afraid to touch a computer. They are afraid that they will mess something up so bad that it can’t be undone. My older siblings are like that.

I just got the book a few days ago and am anxious to delve deeper into Friedman’s theories. I’ll just have to post again on the subject when I see where he ultimately takes me.

Just sayin’.