I’m on the old side of the Millennial generation and for a long time, I thought that meant I was perfectly placed to stay hip to the modern era.
Old enough to have spent a childhood without broadband internet, but young enough that when my family got connected, I dove into the World Wide Web headfirst and haven’t looked back since.
Heck, being on top of the internet trends is a big part of my career now.
Even up through the twenty-teens, I thought I was perfectly straddling the two sides of the divide. I can keep up with and utilize current technology and apps, while still being in touch with what it felt like to live in a world without instant messaging or Google.
Admittedly, I never *quite* understood Snapchat.
It was the first of the new social media platforms to come along where I decided that not only was it “not for me,” but I actively wasn’t interested in learning how to use it beyond the basics.
Naively, I used the excuse of preferring still images and text over video and audio. As though it was a snack preference and not a vestige of the internet age I’m most accustomed to.
And then TikTok happened and it took about thirty seconds for me to mute the app.
Then another minute before I just uninstalled it entirely.
By that point, I’d simply come to terms with the fact that I’m officially old enough to start saying “back in my day.”
Back in my day, I could sneak a peek at Twitter during a meeting without music autoplaying behind every post.
Back in my day, I could answer my parents’ questions about the latest phones or social media scams. Now I just shrug.
Maybe I’ll come to terms with it eventually, but right now I’m still in the throws of denial, convinced that Reddit is better than TikTok simply because I understand it.
But give me a few more years and I’ll be in full-blown “get off my lawn” mode.
