The Internet. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a teenager starts throwing slurs at you.
What generation are you?
This community features a very specific type of article, and I'm wondering what age groups are reading them, and also how different age groups feel about them. I'm 17, on the edge of generation Z, and some of these articles are kinda creeping me out. It's hard to say why. Maybe its because things I've always seen as 'Just the way it is' are being analysed like an alien culture. It feels weird. Anyway, comment how this sort of article makes you feel!




I'm 36 and on the cusp of X and millennial. I used to be pretty fascinated with generation type stuff until I felt like millennial stereotyping was getting out of hand.
I feel like I interact with a lot of Generation Z on the internet ("on the internet" being probably an old fashioned phrase) and I don't get all your memes but I still think you all are pretty neat.
Yeah, the generational stuff is mostly bullshit, but I do find the cultural implications of "growing up on the interwebs" fascinating.
I think the fascination goes both ways. Every now and then one of my parents will mention a time they used a card catalog, and I just have to stare at them for a moment. Like, I know what a card catalog is, but only in the way I know what a phonograph is. I've never used either, and they both feel like history. And the thought of not being able to answer every question I have, within minutes? A world where I can only talk to people in person, by snail mail, or by phone? Those modes of communication all seem so formal! In that world, I wouldn't have gotten so much feedback on my writing, I never would've met so many people with mental disorders like mine, and I would probably just know a lot less, in general. It's pretty crazy.
The especially weird thing is, I often try to remember a world without an omnipresent internet and I can't really come up with much. I was 15 the first time I got online (I'm sort of estimating based on when I remember getting a computer with a modem) and at first it seemed like just a weird hobby or fad.
yeah I'm a few years younger than you, and I'm never really sure where I fit, since I feel like I don't entirely fit in with any (stereotype) of an age group. But even beyond stereotypes, my experience being (just barely) of age during 9/11 is vastly different from someone 10 or even 5 years younger than me.
I thought about 9/11 also. For a while demographers were going to call the early 80s babies "the 9/11 generation", but I think they realized how awful that sounds. I very clearly remember what I was doing on 9/11, hour by hour. It's the first time I used the Internet in real time to follow a big news story--i still remember obsessively clicking on yahoo news and I remember when they put a breaking news type story directly on their search page as a link. Earlier this year I was in some silly Facebook meme group and so many really tasteless 9/11 memes were popping up and I was like, wut. But it dawned on me that young millennials and generation Z kids have a totally different relationship with the events of that day.
Did you ever listen to the first season of the Serial podcast? Even without the true crime angle, it is sort of a time capsule to the hot tech of 1999, and it's fucking fascinating.
I felt like by the time I considered listening to Serial, I was so tired of everyone talking about it constantly, and I was also so far behind, that I didn't consider it worthwhile. Maybe I should go back and do it now. I think a timecapule of 1999 would be interesting.
It really is hard to explain what it was like coming of age during 9/11, and the huge shift that it made in my life. I wonder what it will be like for 17-21 year olds now, coming into adulthood as trump takes office.
Is there a specific article that you can cite as what you think seems creepy?
Keep this in mind. Most mainstream content is created by Baby Boomers and Gen X. They're more established, so those perspectives are going to be the most represented in the media, and they don't understand it as well, especially the BBs.
I think the absolute creepiest, at least so far, (I'm still working my way down the page,) was "When every moment of childhood can be recorded and shared, what happens to childhood?" It seemed like the author was really trying to make it seem like 'kids these days' are closer to aliens than humans, or something. I can't even say what part of it I disagreed with, exactly. It just made me feel weird. You know those thought experiments that go, "If an alien came down from space, with no idea of our culture, what would they think of this situation"? It feels sorta like that. The author was considering the influence of the internet on kids in a bizarre way. I keep trying to wrap this up by stating my opinion, but I don't really know what my opinion is right now. So... I'm just gonna stop typing now.
They said the same things about kids who grew up with radio. They said it about TV, and then MTV. It goes back to books, even. A lot of those articles are judgmental, and a way for grumpy old people to bitch about young people. The generational labels don't even really mean anything either. Publications profit from coining the terms and writing about it. I personally find it demeaning.
Yup! It's all been said before.
well, I think that is true to some extent, but there is something to be said about what comes across as a lack of privacy that many of us older folks enjoyed, that "kids these days" simply don't.
I think of myself at 14, and if my entire life had been recorded and was available to basically anyone who bothered to look closely online, that would be pretty horrifying to 14 year old me.
There's also a lot to be said about the influence of social media in how we interact (not just young folks, everyone) and how we are always seen (and often feel) like we have to have this "social media presence" and a "facebook persona" that can be incredibly stifling, even for adults. I think that is one of the draws of Imzy, we can set aside some of that baggage for a time, we can interact as people, not just as personas we have to groom and manage in the same sort of way as Facebook.
I think it's fair to be fearful of a big brother government watching our every move, but also think that anonymity can cause people to behave poorly when there is no accountability, and that there is a very important lesson in knowing that there can be some serious repercussions.
I must say, this is one of the conversations I love Imzy for, it’s so interesting! I never thought of myself as belonging to any generation in particular and didn’t know much about the time spans, so, I had to look them up. I gladly disclose (being anonymous and all… -0_0-) that, being born in 1962, I am probably a “young baby boomer” or a “ripe Gen-Xer.” I was an old man of 34 when I started using (and working with; I’m a web designer and online editor) The Internet. It was amazing at that time and, to me, has lost a lot of its greatness, mostly because it has become such a vast shopping mall, and most everyone who starts a website wants to make money off it (something that still seems inappropriate to me—the web I would love would be a place to freely exchange knowledge and ideas).
But of course it’s still something great, too, and if I hadn’t told you my age, by even writing this I’d probably given it away. I think that most younger people couldn’t even imagine a world without the net—as some of your posts already do point out.
But I have to say, statements like this,
are quite alien to me! I am really having a hard time dealing with the fact that most of my acquaintances, friends, even family (my daughter is a Millennial), are mostly communicating online. I miss actually talking to people (in person or by phone) so much that it almost hurts! I certainly miss snail mail, too; many of the letters I sent and received were true works of art; collages, drawings, doodlings, with an additional haptic and olfactory quality… Same as listening to a vinyl album, by the way. OK, I admit it, I’m totally old-school.
On a different matter, I’m more old-school than even most of my fellow baby boomers or Gen-Xers: I don’t use any mobile phone, mostly because those little machines undermine any attempt to maintain privacy. Which, to me, is of very high value, to most others, not so much. That scares the shit out of me. Not because I would do anything illegal, but because a mind that, consciously or unconsciously, feels monitored works differently from one that is free from surveillance. Reading David Eggers’ “The Circle” or Daniel Suarez (“Daemon,“ “FreedomTM,” “Kill Decision”) was a strong confirmation of my aversion.
My ideal world would of course include the web but still have a strong focus on anonymity and real-world encounters. But that’s not very likely to happen. So, I feel more and more alienated.
I hope you don’t mind me cc’ing @Cris, @jammin, and @JayTimesAdam; I’d much like to know what you all are thinking. I’m really not one of the “grumpy old people” who “bitch about young people” but still have my issues with some of the current developments.
Hope you don't think I was judging all Baby Boomers as grumpy old people that do a lot hypocritical bitching about young people. I know some really awesome Boomers that are better with technology than GenX or Millennials. :-P
No one really agrees on the generational boundaries, except for the Boomers. I think 62 would be an early GenX. I was born in 1981, so am an early Millennial, but some people define 1979-1982 as its own generation (the Oregon Trail generation) because they were born during a technological transition. Computers were introduced to us in early elementary school, but the internet didn't become mainstream until junior high or later, so we are the last people that have some practical experience of life before and after (even if we don't exactly remember it). Things like the card catalog were gone by the time we had a real need to use it for research. The smart phone isn't really a phone; it's a pocket computer that happens to be capable of making calls.
The internet should have revolutionized the peer-to-peer economy, but there are very few examples - eBay is one of the few - and it's become a total mess. Good information can only be found by the very savvy. It also wasn't intended to be free, and the pursuit of ad revenue and page views makes the internet a mostly terrible, dishonest place.
Privacy is much less of a concern for me because I know that it is basically an illusion. There's very little privacy left in the real world too. CCTV is everywhere. Smart phones are an incredibly useful tool, so I operate knowing that everything can be tracked (real world and online) if someone had the inclination, and that guides my behavior. I would say most people are not aware of the deeper implications. They can't reasonable teach their children how to use the technology responsibily, so I agree that it is a problem because it's mostly viewed as entertainment when that's not really the case.
Thanks so much for your reply; and no, I didn’t suspect you to be anti-baby boomers :-)
Couldn’t agree more on most of what you said, of which I like this particular sentence a lot, “the pursuit of ad revenue and page views makes the internet a mostly terrible, dishonest place.” The privacy bit I see a little different, mostly due to the fact that I reside in a very rural area with only very little surveillance apparent. (Which is not everyone’s cup of tea, I know.)
Regarding smart phones, I believe them to be very useful if you are out a lot. To me, having access to my computer at almost all times, I don’t see any use—only the downsides, and what you say about them being viewed as entertainment is very true.
Thanks for the link to that great article on the Oregon Trail Generation, too! “Precisely at the time that you were becoming obsessed with celebrities, music and the opposite sex, you magically had access to ‘the internet,’ a thing that few normal people even partially grasped the power of at the time.”