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My main gripe is using "Gen X" as "older person" and "millenial" as "young person". The youngest millenials are ~26 years old, born in 1996 according to US cen

by dtech 5y ago

My main gripe is using "Gen X" as "older person" and "millenial" as "young person". The youngest millenials are ~26 years old, born in 1996 according to US census definition. They were already 13 when Whatsapp was invented, much older when it became popular. Replace Gen X (avg 47 YO) with millenial (avg 33 yo) and millenial with Gen Z (avg 20 yo) and at least the premise of the article starts making more sense. The average Gen X had no computer in their teens. Millenial had dial-up. Gen Z had iPhones. Who is most likely to care about open internet vs walled gardens?

robertlagrant 5y ago
The article's opening paragraphs are fairly rife with silly generalisations.
brabel 5y ago
I think you're exactly right... some other commenters who are actually millenials are saying this as well: they were still children then, but they remember using KaZaa and sharing mp3's and p2p. The author just lost track of which generation is which :D but the point is a good one, I think.
stoolpigeon 5y ago
"The average Gen X had no computer in their teens." I don't think this is true. I was born towards the front end of gen x - 1969 - and I had a vic-20 as a teen. Most of my friends, including some that were definitely not in the "nerd" circles I ran in had them. I had friends with commodore 64s, tandy color computers, timex sinclairs, etc. Our high school had macs and my jr high had TRS-80s. By 96 I had a packard bell 386sx that came with dos but ran windows. AOL was a thing and it was a very, very different world than dialing up BBSs on my vic-20 as a kid. I don't know how much I agree with the author's premise, I would need to think on it more. But I think at least from the perspective of people my age - there is definitely a big difference between how we grew up and what was available compared to millenials. I didn't own my first cell phone until after 2000. By the time the first millenials were 10 in 2006, 77% of people in the US had cell phone subscriptions. By the time they were 15 in 2011 it was over 95%. I think the article's tone is problematic and some of the assertions but I also feel some agreement in terms of how I emotionally viewed technology and the possibilities it brought compared to when I talk to younger people now and how they see it.

by dtech 5y ago

robertlagrant 5y ago

The article's opening paragraphs are fairly rife with silly generalisations.

brabel 5y ago

I think you're exactly right... some other commenters who are actually millenials are saying this as well: they were still children then, but they remember using KaZaa and sharing mp3's and p2p. The author just lost track of which generation is which :D but the point is a good one, I think.

stoolpigeon 5y ago

"The average Gen X had no computer in their teens." I don't think this is true. I was born towards the front end of gen x - 1969 - and I had a vic-20 as a teen. Most of my friends, including some that were definitely not in the "nerd" circles I ran in had them. I had friends with commodore 64s, tandy color computers, timex sinclairs, etc. Our high school had macs and my jr high had TRS-80s. By 96 I had a packard bell 386sx that came with dos but ran windows. AOL was a thing and it was a very, very different world than dialing up BBSs on my vic-20 as a kid. I don't know how much I agree with the author's premise, I would need to think on it more. But I think at least from the perspective of people my age - there is definitely a big difference between how we grew up and what was available compared to millenials. I didn't own my first cell phone until after 2000. By the time the first millenials were 10 in 2006, 77% of people in the US had cell phone subscriptions. By the time they were 15 in 2011 it was over 95%. I think the article's tone is problematic and some of the assertions but I also feel some agreement in terms of how I emotionally viewed technology and the possibilities it brought compared to when I talk to younger people now and how they see it.