Smarter Than the Average Bear

In a department like Film Studies, it goes without saying that there's a lot of technology to be mastered. There are dubbing systems (I'll use that term loosely, let's just say "system" stands for the more accurate "system funded and bought on University budget allocated to departments they don't really care about"), editing suites, printers, computers (PC and Mac OS), scanners, and a photocopier which I'm pretty sure is more intelligent than I am.
Nonetheless, with possibly the exception of one very stubborn vacuum in our house last year, I have never met a machine I could not operate successfully, usually the first time around and most times without the aid of an instruction manual. It's just intuitive for me, as I expect it is for many people of my generation.
In the FH, I have tried to express this, to instill confidence in my expertise, and yet every time I'm about to be acquainted with a new piece of equipment, people drop what they're doing in order to either show me how, or find someone who can. Or worse, they ask me to do something, I give my standard response of "No I haven't done that before, but I'm sure I can figure it out," and they decide they'd rather do it themselves.
More than anything else, I think this represents the differences between successive age brackets. It makes me wonder, if people older than me can't understand my communion with technology, how will the gap widen for those who come after me? When will I look at youth and not be able to wrap my head around the things they take for granted?
Already I feel myself slipping dangerously into that territory. The other day, a group of 14 year old girls did their very best to harrass me on the street. Unfortunately for them I really didn't catch on that it was directed at me until they'd given up. I guess they thought I was ignoring them but I really just wasn't paying attention. Anyway, it's a longer and more annoying story than really warrants getting into, even on this website, but the upshot was my realization that these kids had identified me as an element to be rebelled against. Which I guess to them puts me in that middle age group: not old enough to be really upset by them and defended by other adults, and not young enough to risk my getting my posse together and coming after them to beat down their smart little asses.
Although I'm still not old enough to think that wouldn't be fun. I don't think I ever will be.
Hmmm.