>When I bought cells for my parents, I shopped for ones that had bigger buttons and an easy-to-read display,
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>It will be interesting to see what happens as our generation ages. Many of us have a much more comfortable relationship with technology than our parents, but it's still a mixed bag.

Well we've seen some of it already. My grandmother knew telephones since childhood - was born in 1912 - but those were something strict and mystical, that only police, army, railway and post office used. They were surrounded with rules, unavailable for common folks, and she always feared them. I managed to get her on the phone maybe once a year, when it just happened nobody else was around, and she'd be so confused.

My dad got his first car when he was 37. While he always managed to get around, and actually drove quite a lot and very far, it didn't feel natural; for most of the things he had to think a bit before doing them (and some things he never got right - he'd, say, signal his turns far too early, sometimes to the point of confusing everybody else; I'm glad he gave up driving before causing any trouble); OTOH, using the phone and typewriter were like second nature to him.

We got our first computer in the house when our second daughter was two weeks old (both deliveries were a bit behind schedule ;). She's a programmer now, and tinkering with her hatchback is her hobby. My wife has an embroidery machine, which is a de facto robot - it can be programmed, and even though she was saying for years that the only thing the computers are good at was to save a lot of time shuffling the deck for solitaire, now she's quite comfortable with the software to program that thing. Which I'm not - it's too complicated ;).

Besides, steam engine, hot iron with live embers inside, soapmaking, horse riding, knitting, basket weaving, anything we have a "how to" for - those are technologies too. Each one of them requires some knowledge, some getting used to, and some time to begin feeling natural.