I was talking to my 17-year-old nephew and he brought up the historical basis of the income tax. I said the income tax amendment was ratified in December, 1913. He took a quick look at the iphone or strawberry or whatever it was in his hand and replied, “You got the year right, but not the month. It was February.”

My next huge undertaking will be to get a phone like that kid has.

The funny thing is there is very little discussion of what can no longer be called the Generation Gap in technology.

It has long since ceased to be a mere Gap. It has gone away beyond the Generation Chasm.

I guess it could now be called The Generational Ocean.

This makes a big difference because it is hard for many BUGSERS to understand just how alien the Internet is to a 70-year-old man.

In fact, all of my four brothers and sisters can only use the Internet because I insisted on coming and teaching it to them. No one else could have but another old man.

It reminds me of James Thurber who was writing about his grandfather driving one of those new automobiles. The old man kept pulling on the guide handle and saying “Gee!” and other things his mode of transportation would understand.

Thurber’s readers thought that was hilarious. But I have a strong feeling that it was true.

I saw a study that might as well be true that said that in tests, 75% of people ended up shouting at their computers.

This can be a useful observation, but if you younger folks shout at the machine, can you even imagine how alien it is to us old folk?

There is quite a reversal here. In earlier ages the Wise Old Folks would try to realize how alien this Brave New World was to young folks. Today most of us old folk are trying to maintain our Wisdom Superiority in the face of the fact that you can look it all up in a hand telephone.

I have one enormous advantage. I have papers to prove I am, as I have told you so many times you’re sick of it, that I am psychologically disabled. That beats the hell out of admitting that I am just plain OLD.

But one untold story of our time is the gap, the chasm, the ocean between our generations.