Sometimes lately I’ve been feeling like a generational spy. It’s fascinating — I’d classify myself as an older Millennial, born in 1984, one of that newest generational wave that’s just starting to enter the workplace. (I don’t care for the “Gen Y” label.) And I’ve had a couple of opportunities lately to witness conversations around generational differences, especially around/with technology. Conversations about trying to grasp the Millenials, and how we work. Conversations in which I was notably the youngest person there, and perhaps didn’t really register as one of “them”.

It’s funny, I never realized there was an “us” there before. But when you think about it…

I grew up with computers. The first one I remember was from Texas Instruments, probably a TI-99/4A. I remember it had no monitor, and we always plugged it into our huge 70’s console TV. (We had that same TV until I was 15 or 16, as I recall.) I remember playing games on it with a joystick controller — I had to have been like 4 or 5 at the oldest.

After that, it was all Macs. I think the first one was a Mac LC. I remember playing Oregon Trail on it, and my mother being frustrated that I “won” after like the second time I played it. (Inasmuch as one can “win” at Oregon Trail.) From this very educational game, I learned important life lessons, like: if you shoot a buffalo, you’re golden. I also remember making pictures with graphics software called KidPix. (I always really liked the tree stamp in particular. And I still draw trees to this day.)

I must have been 11 or 12 when we first got the Internet. It was AOL at first, of course, and I remember being really confused about the difference between AOL and the World Wide Web. (This must have been around 96-97.) I also remember doing those things that freak parents out — pretending to be other people, pretending to be older, pretending to be from Hawaii. I remember reading about sex on message boards. I remember being exposed to all kinds of ideas that my parents never would have wanted me to hear. Growing up as a queer kid in conservative Alabama, with significantly different religious and political beliefs from my family, some of these things were pretty formative to me.

I learned words for things that I was and didn’t know it, and I learned that I wasn’t alone. I think it’s safe to say that the Internet and Barnes & Noble (where I would go to read books that I couldn’t afford to buy) played a pretty big influence on who I am today.

And I like that person; in fact I’m damn proud of her.

This started out as a post about generational differences around technology, and turned into something rather different I suppose. (Perhaps I’ll return to those thoughts in a future post.) Or perhaps the difference is just that I am who I am today, and without the technology that my generation grew up with, I wouldn’t be.

None of us would.