A series of articles asking Toshinao Sasaki about the future of technology and society.
The theme of the second issue is the ‘digital generation gap’.
The "digital generation gap" is a frequently discussed topic, with people's distance and familiarity with digital devices differing according to their age. Do you think such a "gap" actually exists in the first place?
Sasaki: Various academic studies in the past have pointed out that being elderly does not mean you are weak in IT and digital. Even the elderly can use digital tools if they need to.
On the other hand, it is true that many older people are resistant to new technologies. I think this is largely due to the influence of mass media such as television, which tends to ‘incite fear’ of new things.
For example, when AI becomes widespread, commentators say things like ‘humans may be dominated’. So I think there is a tendency for older people, who have a high affinity for television, to be easily influenced by such information.
However, the number of people who get information from television is decreasing, and people in their 30s and 40s are now mainly using the internet. So I think this is not an ‘age’ issue but a ‘generation’ issue.
When can you think of the point or phase at which the "generation" divides?
Sasaki: In the first phase, the Internet came to Japan in 1995, the year Windows 95 was launched. Around that time, Microsoft Office software, such as Word and Excel, also became popular apart from the Internet.
In our experience, it was around the year 2000 that people started using computers for work in companies, and if we use the year 2000 as a guide, a person who was 30 years old then would be around 53 now. So the current generation is almost all familiar with computers and the internet.
The second phase was around 2010, when social networking services became widespread, triggered by the 2011 earthquake, and Twitter spread rapidly as a useful tool for gathering information, with Facebook following suit. Smartphones spread in combination with SNS.
Around 2000, there was the term ‘digital divide’. At the time, there was a lot of discussion about the widening information gap between those who could use a computer to access the internet and those who couldn't. In reality, however, I feel that this topic disappeared around 2010, when smartphones became cheaply available and widespread.
On the other hand, although this is not a popular term, there is a concern that in the age of smartphones and social networking, when everyone is connected to the internet, there is now a ‘social divide’.
What do you mean by "social divide"?
Sasaki: Until then, information was obtained from newspapers, TV and magazines. Newspapers and TV magazines have a limited number of media. So if you wanted to research something, you could get the same kind of information from almost anyone.
However, the information on the internet has been increasing at a huge rate, and the major characteristic of the 2010s is that people are now getting information on social networking sites. In this way, depending on who you follow and who you are friends with, the information that flows to you is completely different. And then there's the AI algorithm that tells you ‘what you're watching most often’.
In other words, not everyone sees the same timeline equally, and the age of social networking has made it easier to create what is known as an ‘echo chamber’, a kind of island universe of information. In this way, the disparity in information is becoming apparent, depending on how far you follow the right people and how much of the right information you follow on a regular basis. This is what we call the ‘social divide’.
▶︎ echochamber
A phenomenon in which people with similar ideas and opinions gather together, making it easier for similar opinions and ideas to be shared, and for society as a whole to perceive that even extremely biased ideas and opinions are correct. This phenomenon is a frequent concern on social networking sites, where a high proportion of users are connected to others with similar interests and concerns to their own.
When it comes to the social divide, are there any generational differences?
Sasaki: That is still unclear. However, conspiracy theories are often circulated on YouTube and the like. It is said that many elderly people are deceived by such conspiracy theories.
This is according to Tatsuo Tanaka of Keio University, who says that today's elderly are of a generation that has been brought up on TV and newspapers, and have the belief that information in the media, whether on TV or the internet, is reliable. It has been pointed out that this would lead to many people believing YouTubers' conspiracy theories lightly.
In the current generation, such as those in their 20s and 30s, who have had social networking and YouTube for as long as they can remember, there is an assumed knowledge that information on the internet is false from the end, so they are less likely to trust it out of the blue. I think this is also a generational issue rather than an age issue. It has been almost 30 years since the internet and digital technology started to spread.
I think the basic attitude towards literacy may change depending on the age at which you were during these 30 years or so.
It is often said that even among young people who are called "digital natives," there are many who have never used a computer.
Sasaki: There is also the question of whether it is necessary to touch a PC in the first place, and how long PCs will last. For a long time, PCs were mainly operated using a GUI (Graphical User Interface) with a mouse, pointer and keyboard, and smartphones have also followed this structure as touch screens.
However, this year, interactive AI such as ChatGPT has emerged, and although it is currently a textual text, it will soon be able to be input by voice. Bill Gates refers to it as ‘the big change following the invention of the GUI’. He said that in the future it will be commonplace to interact with computers using natural language.
In addition, Apple has just announced an AR goggle called Vision Pro, and what I found interesting about the Vision Pro announcement is that Apple didn't talk about ‘metaverse’ or ‘avatar’ at all. So the idea is that after the GUI on a computer, gesture control on VR is what's coming next.
So probably in the future, the digital UI will change to gestures and voice. So I feel that the current use or non-use of smartphones and computers is simply a transitional phenomenon.
Do you think that, in the future, such changes in technology will tend to reduce the digital generation gap?
Sasaki: I have no doubt that this will be the case. As I said at the beginning, it is an illusion to say that people cannot use digital technology because they are elderly. And UIs are becoming more and more sophisticated.
I think that this will gradually lead to an age in which people can operate digital devices as if they were talking and living with other people. If that happens, I think the debate about whether we can or cannot use digital technology will disappear.
◉Toshinao Sasaki
Born 1961 in Hyogo Prefecture. Graduated from Waseda University, School of Political Science and Economics. After working as a reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun and on the editorial board of the monthly ASCII magazine, he became a freelance journalist. He has published several books, including The Age of Curation (Chikuma Shinsho), Layering the World (NHK Publishing Shinsho), Iemeshi ko ichiboku gochisou desu aru (The best feast is home-made food) (Magazine House) and And living is a way of life. (Magazine House), And, Life Becomes a Community (Anonima Studio), etc. (Anonima Studio) and many other books.
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