How innovation connects generations
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One of the most pressing issues of all time is the generational conflict, which over time gives rise to more and more new issues. How should parents behave, how to communicate with children, how not to lose contact between generations, how to communicate in the era of technological development, how to perceive innovations used by young people?
These conflicts are especially aggravated in the period of great changes. After all, as history has repeatedly demonstrated, it is much more difficult for the older generation to adapt to them.
Today, with the development of technology, the world is changing so quickly that each subsequent generation is significantly different in its consciousness and outlook on life from the previous one. However, you should not, as they say, “discount” the older generation – it is better to involve its representatives in the world of technology and help them understand that this will only bring benefits in communication.
Progressive VS conservative
It is generally accepted that young people are more progressive and do not adhere to traditions very much, while adults, on the contrary, are more conservative and focused on traditional values. If the opinion about progress and conservatism can still be confirmed in most cases, then there is an important point regarding values.
As the survey of the Kyiv International Research Institute shows, the situation in Ukraine is somewhat different. Regardless of age, our people value Ukrainian traditions (78% of respondents). The percentage of respect for traditions among young people is even slightly higher. For example, at the age of 18-29, as many as 80% of people believe that traditional Ukrainian values should be encouraged, and among people aged 50-59 – 74%.
Moreover, respect for traditions does not appear just like that – it must be nurtured from an early age.
Digitization of generations
It should be recognized that the development of technology always complicates the perception of the world by an older person. Our brain is designed in such a way that over time it rejects attempts to introduce something new, because it becomes more and more difficult for it to learn. Technology seems to be something incomprehensible, and sometimes harmful.
However, there are many studies that show that mature people are capable of learning, although not to the same extent as young people. For example, in 2015, scientists from the University of Iowa conducted an experiment to find out whether it is really more difficult for retired people to learn. The authors designed a task and asked two groups of people to complete it.
The average age of the participants of the first was 24 years, the second – 66.5 years. The older group showed lower reaction speed and accuracy, but the overall level of learning ability was similar to that of the younger group. Moreover, the older group began to show better results on the second day of the experiment.
With this research, we can find confirmation from our recent history: in particular, the third stage of the scientific career of the famous scientist Boris Paton began when he was already over 70 years old.
It was at this respectable age under his leadership that the Institute of Electrowelding in cooperation with the Oleksandr Shalimov Institute of Surgery and Transplantology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Central Hospital of the SBU created equipment for electrowelding living tissues. This advanced technology, which allows for low-traumatic surgical interventions, is currently patented in more than 40 countries of the world.
The second Ukrainian inventor worth mentioning is Petro Bobonych. He is the author of more than 150 scientific works and textbooks. The scientist patented his first invention, a non-invasive glucometer, at the age of 62. For the next 18 years, Petro Bobonych created various models of the device, for which he now has 10 patents.
Representatives of creative professions are also not far behind in maintaining a sharp mind and productivity at a respectable age – let’s remember our national pride, the poetess Lina Kostenko! Lina Vasylivna turned 93 this year, but neither age nor hard times stood in the way of writing wonderful poems.
So, returning to innovations, it is worth noting that modern means of mass communication have allowed representatives of different generations to be much closer to each other. If in 2015, 58% of Ukrainians aged 55+ did not use the Internet at all, then in 2022 their percentage will drop to 22% (according to a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology).
Sociologists predict that in the near future even more elderly people will use gadgets. If we talk about Ukraine, it is primarily the current events that lead to this. When a full-scale war broke out in the country, many families found themselves on different sides of the front line. Those who are in uncontrolled territories began to use the Internet more often – not only as a way of obtaining information, but also for communication.
Innovations in the field of mobile applications also do not stand still – the events of recent years encourage developers to create more and more applications that make life at least a little easier in military conditions. For example, TacticMedAid is a guide that collects international medical protocols, thanks to which you can learn how to stop bleeding or what to do if a person loses consciousness.
“Air Alert” is an application that notifies Ukrainians about the threat of shelling. Dobre.app, in turn, helps Ukrainians from the frontline areas to quickly notify their loved ones in case of danger. All these programs are made simple enough to be accessible to representatives of different age groups, and literally unite generations – because they can save lives at a critical moment.
Innovation and the new life of cultural heritage
Full-scale war in a bizarre way contributed to the development of another technology that is critically important for our society and unites generations. In particular, we are talking about digitization, thanks to which we are creating an electronic archive of national heritage.
It is a sad fact, but it was after February 2022 that the processes in this area became significantly more active both at the level of the state and volunteer organizations – because only now have we fully realized the fragility of material monuments, which can be wiped off the face of the earth by a Russian missile at any moment or projectile
In particular, the Ministry of Culture and Digital Policy in partnership with UNESCO has developed a digital platform for national heritage management.
And some grassroots initiatives go even further in the application of innovative technologies – for example, Lviv activist Yulian Chaplinsky, together with Ukrainian companies, scans architectural monuments and makes 3D portraits of them, so that in the event of the worst-case scenario, these models can be used to reconstruct as closely as possible. Thus, thanks to modern devices, cultural heritage, which is a powerful link and common marker of different generations, gets a chance for a new life.
In this case, it is essential that technologies help not only to store, but also to distribute information. In a certain way, they are returning to us the culture and history that the enemies tried to take away for centuries. Now, due to easy access to information, we not only have the opportunity to learn how our ancestors lived, but also to understand the motives of their actions in difficult circumstances.
Therefore, disseminating quality research in age-friendly formats, such as educational videos on YouTube, brings together people with distinct historical backgrounds and allows for public consensus on controversial issues.
Quality life means quality communication
Medicine is a field in which innovation plays an extremely important role. Traditionally, the elderly have the most health problems, and often these problems become a barrier to functioning in society and communication with representatives of other generations. All the more important are new technologies that make it possible to live fully.
For example, an Odessa startup has launched a project that prints human bones and organs on a 3D printer for medical purposes. Employees are also developing a platform with virtual atlases of patients’ bodies, thanks to which it will be possible to print the necessary anatomical detail right in the hospital.
This futuristic plot, which has actually already become our reality, has a direct impact on the quality and length of life of Ukrainians. And the longer our grandparents live, the more time they will have to communicate with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Therefore, today we should not talk about the conflict of generations, but about how innovations unite people of different ages, coin our cultural code and Ukrainian identification. Tradition and technology can and should work together. The IP office, in turn, works on the development of domestic intellectual property culture, on the basis of which new and new inventions will appear that not only change our lives for the better, but also become a connecting element between generations.
Olena Orlyuk, head of the Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovation, Doctor of Law, Professor of the Department of Intellectual Property and Information Law of the Taras Shevchenko KNU, specially for UP. Life
Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect exclusively the author’s point of view.
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