[mattlondon]

The article seems to focus on "remembering a time before ...<foo>" and a general reverence of non-digital lifestyle etc like that is the important bit.

I guess I am a xenial, and I remember this cross-over period as one of epic excitement and wonder as this "internet thing" took off and became something amazing. I was lucky enough to be online when a 14.4 modem was fast and seeing the internet grow and develop since then at the same time as I grew and developed into an adult was quite the thing to experience. Fuck "knowing the analog days" - being there as the internet took off and changed was brilliant for me. Eager anticipation of genuinely big technical leaps that duly arrived and changed our lives significantly - broadband, MP3 players, smart phones, WiFi, pervasive 3g etc

This was world-changing stuff happening in our hands.

Kids today get what? To experience that time when Instagram/TikTok/<next app> went viral? How underwhelming.

[emerged]

I grew up during the transition into the internet era and don’t recall feeling cynical about digital or analog. I was intensely drawn into the internet, software, programming, but never thought “boy I’m glad stupid analog is going to be replaced”

But now we’ve got cynicism everywhere about both analog and digital. Old analog technology is stupid and obsolete but new tech is clearly ripping our society to shreds in a variety of ways.

So I guess I miss being happy with what we had AND being excited about the future.

[bredren]

I experienced this but I wouldn't discount TikTok going viral. I saw the early side of that product starting before the Boss Walk, and it really was sensational. The product is carving out a new form of expression and has evolved.

I also wouldn't cede the biggest communication change in the past X years to our adolescence either. I think that immersive VR experiences in the metaverse will be a bigger change than no internet -> smartphones.