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I’m a xennial and it’s always funny to see genX referred to as some kind of tech-illiterate generation like Boomers Younger generations are “digital natives”,

I’m a xennial and it’s always funny to see genX referred to as some kind of tech-illiterate generation like Boomers Younger generations are “digital natives”, sure. They grew up using the digital products and services built by GenX

Ekaros 3y ago
I always felt that most technically proficient people are likely later half of GenX and first half of millennials. The people who could learn the harder parts of technology. And just not the pure web or app world. Like they should know what is a folder...
- beej71 3y ago
  I like to think I'm part of that group, having learned program on microcomputers in the 80s. Doesn't do me much good now, though. I've been turned down for programming jobs because they felt I "wasn't passionate enough about programming". Never mind that I've been doing it for 20 years professionally and that I've written books about it and that I started a company to do it. I always wanted to be a teacher anyway, and now is a good time for that semi-retirement. And the job even has a "pension" (I had to look it up, too ;) ). So it all worked out. But all you programmers in your 20s having the time of your life right now, be forewarned: you're going to have to make some changes in not too long... I honestly hope I'm wrong and people who love programming will be able to continue to do it until they retire. That's just rare these days, is all.
  - potta_coffee 3y ago
    I'm 40. I've been programming for 30 years. I get turned down for jobs all the time but it's almost always during the coding interview where I get asked to solve some brain teaser that has nothing to do with real work. The most ironic questions are the ones the interviewer doesn't even know how to solve (this has happened 3 times now).
- mingus88 3y ago
  Yeah that’s my microgeneration, xennials, alright. We grew up with analog childhoods and transitioned to a digital lifestyle during the mid-90s with the early web during our teenage years I had to teach my parents how to use basic office equipment like printers. Meanwhile my nephew knows everything about mobile but never learned to type on an actual keyboard. Kinda blessed to be born when I was. I have seen GenZ try to call us digital nomads but I’ll take this any day. Sad to see how kids are growing up today with no concept of privacy or living offline.
  - mikebelanger 3y ago
    I'm in that early millenial/xennials bracket too, and my observations/sentiment of the younger generation are similar to yours. It's funny too, because there's lots of otherwise ingenious, intelligent GenZ out there, but they have a hard time understanding the idea of keeping their data private, even for just some of the time. I'm not sure if its because their experience with computers has been largely through web apps and mobile apps, or if it's more of a nihilistic, everyone-is-tracking-me-anyways-so-why-even-try attitude. To some degree, I don't blame them if it's the latter.
hmcq6 3y ago
> They grew up using the digital products and services built by GenX This didn't sound right to me so I had to think it through. If you google "Is Steve Jobs Gen X" google says yes, but if you look up his date of birth you'll find he's a boomer. Gates - Boomer. Torvalds - Gen X. Shawn Fanning - Gen X. Chris Sawyer - cusp but Gen X. Barry Appelman - creator of the AIM buddy list - Boomer. Kenneth A. Williams - Sierra - Boomer. Michael Morhaime - Blizzard - Gen X. I could keep going but... I concede, you're right. Way more Gen X in that list than I expected.
- mingus88 3y ago
  I am also thinking about social media as being the defining digital experience for Millenials and GenZ, an innovation of GenX. Jack Dorsey/Twitter - GenX Tom Anderson/Myspace - GenX Jeremy Stoppleman/Yelp - GenX Sergey Brin+Larry Page - Genx There's some elder millenial crossover with Zuckerberg and the founder of Reddit but if you consider them Xennials then it still works for me.
cafard 3y ago
Ah, those tech-illiterate boomers. Steve Wozniak, b. 1950 Guy L. Steele, b. 1954 Guido Van Rossum, b. 1956 Anders Hejlsberg, b. 1960 (Am I an old, bitter, Boomer? Guilty on all counts, but pleading diminished responsibility on two.)
- silverquiet 3y ago
  Yeah, I find myself beating this drum here. My grandparents were greatest/silent generation and half of them did the deer in the headlights thing when a computer came up. My grandfather on the other hand worked on PDP stuff back in that era and my grandmother made a point to learn it all. Perhaps they were exceptional, but it was learnable even for them. My boomer dad brought home a 486 when I was a kid and told me not to tell my mom how much he paid for it. He probably didn't need it back then, but it was the start of the internet and he thought it was cool.
- mingus88 3y ago
  Yeah I don't mean to malign the contributions of Boomers who were scientists and engineers. But there is an overwhelming cohort of Boomers who "got theirs" during the unprecedented decades of post-war prosperity who simply never bothered to learn modern technology. I started my career in IT support and even highly educated Boomers simply didn't see any reason for them to learn basic computing skills. Literally professional office workers who flat out refused to adopt to a modern office environment. Calendars, emails, printers, website updates, no thank you. The attitude I heard frequently is that they got this far without learning how to send an email, so why bother now? I think it was only when technology became a simple glass slab with no buttons (and their kids/grandkids photos) did you see them start to adopt it. There is just no way anyone born after their generation could have that mindset.
  - kcplate 3y ago
    > I think it was only when technology became a simple glass slab with no buttons (and their kids/grandkids photos) did you see them start to adopt it. I’m not sure it’s reasonable to criticize a generation for not adopting technology until they had a real reason for them to do it. Why would they?
dragonwriter 3y ago
I’m GenX and its always funny to see Boomers referred to as a tech-illiterate generation, when my father, technically a Silent but right at the cusp of with the Boomers (who spent most of his working life in sales in line/middle management at a large farm machinery company, not “in computing”, though he did both things like physical network setup in the office and mainframe programming in the days before that was restricted to a closed high-priesthood of people with softeare-related job titles) is who developed my interest in computing by involving me in what he was doing.

Ekaros 3y ago

I always felt that most technically proficient people are likely later half of GenX and first half of millennials. The people who could learn the harder parts of technology. And just not the pure web or app world. Like they should know what is a folder...

beej71 3y ago
I like to think I'm part of that group, having learned program on microcomputers in the 80s. Doesn't do me much good now, though. I've been turned down for programming jobs because they felt I "wasn't passionate enough about programming". Never mind that I've been doing it for 20 years professionally and that I've written books about it and that I started a company to do it. I always wanted to be a teacher anyway, and now is a good time for that semi-retirement. And the job even has a "pension" (I had to look it up, too ;) ). So it all worked out. But all you programmers in your 20s having the time of your life right now, be forewarned: you're going to have to make some changes in not too long... I honestly hope I'm wrong and people who love programming will be able to continue to do it until they retire. That's just rare these days, is all.
- potta_coffee 3y ago
  I'm 40. I've been programming for 30 years. I get turned down for jobs all the time but it's almost always during the coding interview where I get asked to solve some brain teaser that has nothing to do with real work. The most ironic questions are the ones the interviewer doesn't even know how to solve (this has happened 3 times now).
mingus88 3y ago
Yeah that’s my microgeneration, xennials, alright. We grew up with analog childhoods and transitioned to a digital lifestyle during the mid-90s with the early web during our teenage years I had to teach my parents how to use basic office equipment like printers. Meanwhile my nephew knows everything about mobile but never learned to type on an actual keyboard. Kinda blessed to be born when I was. I have seen GenZ try to call us digital nomads but I’ll take this any day. Sad to see how kids are growing up today with no concept of privacy or living offline.
- mikebelanger 3y ago
  I'm in that early millenial/xennials bracket too, and my observations/sentiment of the younger generation are similar to yours. It's funny too, because there's lots of otherwise ingenious, intelligent GenZ out there, but they have a hard time understanding the idea of keeping their data private, even for just some of the time. I'm not sure if its because their experience with computers has been largely through web apps and mobile apps, or if it's more of a nihilistic, everyone-is-tracking-me-anyways-so-why-even-try attitude. To some degree, I don't blame them if it's the latter.

hmcq6 3y ago

> They grew up using the digital products and services built by GenX This didn't sound right to me so I had to think it through. If you google "Is Steve Jobs Gen X" google says yes, but if you look up his date of birth you'll find he's a boomer. Gates - Boomer. Torvalds - Gen X. Shawn Fanning - Gen X. Chris Sawyer - cusp but Gen X. Barry Appelman - creator of the AIM buddy list - Boomer. Kenneth A. Williams - Sierra - Boomer. Michael Morhaime - Blizzard - Gen X. I could keep going but... I concede, you're right. Way more Gen X in that list than I expected.

mingus88 3y ago
I am also thinking about social media as being the defining digital experience for Millenials and GenZ, an innovation of GenX. Jack Dorsey/Twitter - GenX Tom Anderson/Myspace - GenX Jeremy Stoppleman/Yelp - GenX Sergey Brin+Larry Page - Genx There's some elder millenial crossover with Zuckerberg and the founder of Reddit but if you consider them Xennials then it still works for me.

cafard 3y ago

Ah, those tech-illiterate boomers. Steve Wozniak, b. 1950 Guy L. Steele, b. 1954 Guido Van Rossum, b. 1956 Anders Hejlsberg, b. 1960 (Am I an old, bitter, Boomer? Guilty on all counts, but pleading diminished responsibility on two.)

silverquiet 3y ago
Yeah, I find myself beating this drum here. My grandparents were greatest/silent generation and half of them did the deer in the headlights thing when a computer came up. My grandfather on the other hand worked on PDP stuff back in that era and my grandmother made a point to learn it all. Perhaps they were exceptional, but it was learnable even for them. My boomer dad brought home a 486 when I was a kid and told me not to tell my mom how much he paid for it. He probably didn't need it back then, but it was the start of the internet and he thought it was cool.
mingus88 3y ago
Yeah I don't mean to malign the contributions of Boomers who were scientists and engineers. But there is an overwhelming cohort of Boomers who "got theirs" during the unprecedented decades of post-war prosperity who simply never bothered to learn modern technology. I started my career in IT support and even highly educated Boomers simply didn't see any reason for them to learn basic computing skills. Literally professional office workers who flat out refused to adopt to a modern office environment. Calendars, emails, printers, website updates, no thank you. The attitude I heard frequently is that they got this far without learning how to send an email, so why bother now? I think it was only when technology became a simple glass slab with no buttons (and their kids/grandkids photos) did you see them start to adopt it. There is just no way anyone born after their generation could have that mindset.
- kcplate 3y ago
  > I think it was only when technology became a simple glass slab with no buttons (and their kids/grandkids photos) did you see them start to adopt it. I’m not sure it’s reasonable to criticize a generation for not adopting technology until they had a real reason for them to do it. Why would they?

dragonwriter 3y ago

I’m GenX and its always funny to see Boomers referred to as a tech-illiterate generation, when my father, technically a Silent but right at the cusp of with the Boomers (who spent most of his working life in sales in line/middle management at a large farm machinery company, not “in computing”, though he did both things like physical network setup in the office and mainframe programming in the days before that was restricted to a closed high-priesthood of people with softeare-related job titles) is who developed my interest in computing by involving me in what he was doing.