I am a thirty-something year old “Older Millennial” mom. I have a side part and wear skinny jeans. My youth was (thankfully) not documented across social media. I don’t know the latest Tik Tok dance trend. I was still using my original aol.com email address until a few years ago.
Unlike my childhood, my children will grow up surrounded by digital technology.
My tween daughter was telling a story at the dinner table a few nights ago. At one point, I looked over at my husband and it was clear that neither of us understood the majority of her slang. The world is a vastly different place today than it was during my childhood. As my daughter gets older, she will move further and further away from the world that I grew up in.
This has really made me think about all of the things from my childhood that my children will likely never experience. Here are a few:
- The high-pitched sound of dial-up internet – Can you hear it in your mind?!
- The excitement when your crush signed on to AIM
- The snake game on the indestructible Nokia cell phone
- The stress of putting together your MySpace profile. It was vital to choose the right layout, the perfect song, and your top friends.
- Burning CDs off of LimeWire
- Floppy disks on the school supply list
- The TGIF lineup: Sabrina, Full House, Boy Meets World, Dinosaurs, and Family Matters were the best!
- Avoiding hidden mines on Minesweeper
- Accidently recording the latest episode of Dawson’s Creek over VHS home movies
- Calling the movie theatre to listen for showtimes
- Watching the latest music video on MTV
- Stressing out about forgetting to feed your Tamagotchi
- Carrying around separate devices to listen to music, make phone calls, take pictures, take videos, tell time, make notes, and keep a calendar
- A trip to Blockbuster to rent a video
- Using heavy encyclopedias for research
- Old school projectors being rolled into the classroom
Continuing on this trip down memory lane, what are some other things that you can think of that Gen Z and even younger generations will likely never know?
