The Stepping Stone Generation

This is something that a very good friend of mine and I were discussing over lunch a couple of weeks ago.  He and I and all others of our generation - and those a little younger and a little older (but not much either way!) are in a very unique position, one that I think is safe to say will never be experience again.

This will probably come across as a couple of older guys reminiscing about the past and it may be the case to an extent.

However, the thing is that we are one of the very few who have experienced significant portions of a our lives before the computer revolution and the latter parts fully immersed in technology.


Certainly any generation can probably make similar claims.  For example, those who were alive in the early 1900's can probably make the same statement about the automobile and the irreversible impact it had on the society then.  Just the same as later generations will be able to compare their youth in the early 21st century and contrast it with the inevitable leaps and bounds of technology.

All of that having been said, I think that there is no generation that can point to a "simpler" (although not necessarily better) life before the digital revolution.

When my daughter was younger, she loved to hear "stories" of the past.  The equivalent "when I was a child, I walked ten miles to school" was replaced by my recalling how there were no cellphones, that most houses had one phone and there was no privacy as it was attached to the wall.  Or I would convey my stories of our first TV and she would giggle when I said that we had to get off the sofa to change stations or adjust the volume.

As always (and as I often say in this blog) technology has it's good and it's bad.  My only advice to people is to try to treasure those moments that aren't necessarily totally driven by technology.