Having a chat with the parents often has something of a reality check. Especially, when talking about new technologies and applications. I just showed my 61-y/o Dad (Internet affine!) things like Bloglines, Plazes, Dopplr, Scobleizer’s Blog, Qik and others. Me talking away with some considerable enthusiasm.

The omnipresent Question of his was “Who needs that, anyway?”. I thought my question “What can you do with all this?” was much more exciting. But my Old Man is right. We techies tend to take everything new for granted very quickly and through all the enthusiasm about the possibilities forget that there must be someone to use that stuff.

I spend my professional life explaining what things are good for – at least to a professional audience. But do we PR people reach a broader public (mums, dads, grannies, grandads, just to name a few), who will sooner or later also be affected by new technologies? Our parent’s generation hasn’t really come to understand or acquaint themselves with the notion of total networking, the social graph. Their social life happens IRL. Opening themselves up online, giving away personal data is somewhat dubious to them. That said, it’s even more important to conclusively explain the older generation what Internet apps are good for, why they as individuals might need them.