Too old to trust the new technology in old-time Phoenix


As someone who is trying to hang onto a youthful, if not middle-aged, attitude about life, I often think about what it means to be too old to trust the new technology. I live in the 21st Century, and my experience has been that people tend to draw a line against new technology at a particular age. I've seen people draw that line at thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, wherever they feel necessary to say that they can't possibly trust any particular new technology, whether it's self-driving cars, or cell phones. Of course, this makes me wonder about old-time Phoenix.


There are many examples of new technologies in old-time Phoenix, but my favorite one is the "horseless carriage" - what we would call an automobile, or car, today. And when I imagine what people are thinking in the 1904 picture at the top of this post, I try to read the mind of the man in the horse and wagon. He wouldn't have trusted those darn things! You wouldn't get him in one of those, no sir-ee!

And there would have been many things that old-timers wouldn't have trusted around that time. There would be elevators, and aspirin, and electricity, and zippers. The list goes on and on, I'm sure you can think of more turn-of-the-century new technology!

Speaking for myself, I wonder when I'll be too old to trust the new technology? It really hasn't happened to me yet, I'm enthusiastic about all of the new inventions happening around me, and I can't wait to try them out. And I try not to stereotype someone, just because they might have grey whiskers, as being "too old". Heck, my whiskers are grey, and I'm in line for one of the first self-driving cars.

But I've learned to recognize that look in someone's eye when they're about to rant about some "new-fangled" thing, which is just a bunch of tom-foolery, and like to get us all killed. And I just smile and let it go. Because what I hear is, "Get a horse!"

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