What's this phenomenon called?

[dstebbins]

If this doesn't have a name, it definitely needs one, since it's a clearly observable facet of human behavior.

 

It's the tendency of older generations to blame new technology for all (or most of) the world's problems.

 

• People of today blame the Internet for all types of suicides, con artists, etc.
• A few years ago, grandparents were blaming violence/obesity/just about anything on video games.
• In the 50's and 60's, grandparents were blaming that stuff on television.
• Old people during the time of WWII blaming mass panic on radio (as you can read about in the #3 entry of this article)

 

If an old person hasn't grown up with the technology, it's suddenly the Devil! The world would suddenly convert to a utopia (like it was when they were young) if we just got rid of this technology or that!

 

What's this phenomenon called? It happens often enough - and reliably enough - that I think we can safely say it's part of "human behavior," and thus should be included in sociology studies.

 

Besides, if we had a name for it, we could silence quite a few of these types of people (we'll never silence all of them, but we'd silence quite a few) by simply explaining to them, in a nice, succinct manner "Dude, you're just doing _____________." Kind of like how somebody in a political debate may accuse his opponent of being subject to "confirmation bias," or how they're "arguing a peptitio principii." When you have it nice and succinct like that, you can convert a lot more people than if you recite an entire scholarly article to them.

[iNow]

You seem to be thinking of something along the lines of a Luddite, more specifically new-Luddism... Or perhaps you're thinking of someone just being a bit of a technophobe, maudlin or otherwise.

 

With that said, there's another word for people who think that merely having a specific name or label is enough to silence others and render moot their opinions, or that such opinions should even be silenced in the first place. I'll leave you to figure that one out for homework.

Edited December 29, 2014 by iNow

[StringJunky]

I call people resistant to new technology or ideas Luddites.

 

 

The Luddites were 19th-century English textile artisans who protested against newly developed labour-replacing machinery from 1811 to 1817

In contemporary thought

The title Luddite developed a secondary meaning: a "Luddite" is a term describing those opposed to, or slow to adopt or incorporate into their lifestyle, industrialisation, automation, computerisation or new technologies in general.^[23] In 1956, there is a parliamentary speech that said 'Organised workers were by no means wedded to a Luddite Philosophy'.^[24]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

 

Cross posted with iNow.

Edited December 29, 2014 by StringJunky

[ACG52]

It's called "Old fartism".

[Robittybob1]

It's called "Old fartism".

Do you think that is a bit sexist? Men fart but women just pass wind.

[Manticore]

Nothing changes:

 

William Cobbett 'Cottage Economy' - 1822

 

"The drink which has come to supply the place of beer has, in general, been tea. It is notorious that tea has no useful strength in it; that it contains nothing nutritious; that it, besides being good for nothing, has badness in it, because it is well known to produce want of sleep in many cases, and in all cases, to shake and weaken the nerves. It is, in fact, a weaker kind of laudanum, which enlivens for the moment and deadens afterwards. At any rate it communicates no strength to the body; it does not, in any degree, assist in affording what labour demands. It is, then, of no use."

Edited March 9, 2017 by Manticore

[Argent]

As an old fart I would just like to observe that not all grandparents blame modern technology for the ills of the world. I venture to suggest that those who do were ignorant fools when they were teenagers, thirty somethings and middle aged. You do have to admire their consistency.

 

I "blame" human nature applied in an artificial environment for such ills as exist. Since the artificial environment changes from generation to generation it is not surprising that the less perceptive members of society misread the cause as being related to those changes.

[Velocity_Boy]

If this doesn't have a name, it definitely needs one, since it's a clearly observable facet of human behavior.

 

It's the tendency of older generations to blame new technology for all (or most of) the world's problems.

 

 

• People of today blame the Internet for all types of suicides, con artists, etc.
• A few years ago, grandparents were blaming violence/obesity/just about anything on video games.
• In the 50's and 60's, grandparents were blaming that stuff on television.
• Old people during the time of WWII blaming mass panic on radio (as you can read about in the #3 entry of this article)

If an old person hasn't grown up with the technology, it's suddenly the Devil! The world would suddenly convert to a utopia (like it was when they were young) if we just got rid of this technology or that!

 

What's this phenomenon called? It happens often enough - and reliably enough - that I think we can safely say it's part of "human behavior," and thus should be included in sociology studies.

 

Besides, if we had a name for it, we could silence quite a few of these types of people (we'll never silence all of them, but we'd silence quite a few) by simply explaining to them, in a nice, succinct manner "Dude, you're just doing _____________." Kind of like how somebody in a political debate may accuse his opponent of being subject to "confirmation bias," or how they're "arguing a peptitio principii." When you have it nice and succinct like that, you can convert a lot more people than if you recite an entire scholarly article to them.

 

It is resting and mistrusting entities that we are unfamiliar with and do not understand.

 

And a person who denigrated a new technology almost certainly is not accept at using it, and is also using his hostility towards it to mask his fear at being left behind, as well as his anger at himself for not being intelligent enough to grasp it.

 

We get a Sour Grapes dynamic at work as well........Hell, I can't do this, so, it sucks! And we don't need it! It was better the old way!

Edited March 12, 2017 by Velocity_Boy