[chrbutler]

Author here: I was putting these events together as a zeitgeist aligning with entering adulthood for people my age. I probably should have added a "then" in between the Y2K and election references. But I wan't trying to draw a sequential connection.

[hugs]

Thanks for the reply. From a zeitgeist point of view, though, the events of 9/11 seemed to wipe the map of everything else, including Matrix like tech fears. By 2002, tech was in a dotcom winter and the zeitgeist was all about the "global war on terror". The general vibe at the software company I worked at from 2000-2007 was basically "we're all just happy we still have a job". But heh, this is just opinion vs opinion, and am happy to agree to disagree.

[chrbutler]

I hear that. And I don't think it's in opposition to what I'm focusing on in this piece. Ultimately, the point is that The Matrix provided a relatively novel metaphor for the kind of world re-entry a young adult makes when they go off on their own, and that, for me, it was part of a group of events that solidified a certain paranoia and cynicism that I think is somewhat unique to late GenX/early Millenials.