How young is everyone?

[RokinAmerica]

5 kids here. All adult (at least they think so) but only one married and she just had my only grandchild so far, at 34.

I am very fortunate because my wife watches her during the week and I have worked from home since Corona was no longer just a good beer.

My aim is not to rile, my aim is that we don't get hung up on labels, initials, names or whatever. Get hung up on those around you. There is never a wrong time to do the right thing. And make sure those you care about know you do. My parental units pretty much sucked. But I was able to learn what not to do. So the rest had to be a bit better. Love your family, and that includes those not related to you but battle with you every day, at work, school, with health issues, whatever. Everything else is just noise.

 

[shadow puppet]

I'm also not here to argue. My posts were coming from seeing how these labels have caused harm and/or pain to some. If that doesn't agree with you or results in me getting the laughing emoji as some here have done, then that's more a reflection of you, not me.

 

[millerj123]

This thread seems to have quickly descended into chaos/arguing from my perspective... just answer the question or don't. Pretty simple.

Well, MR's had trolls attempt to use fun threads for market research, etc.

 

[RokinAmerica]

Ah, the old "what you say bounces off me and sticks to you" response/deflection/I am the white knight. Giddy up!

 

[RokinAmerica]

OP asked a question and now he/she (not sure if I should label them? It?) is somehow labeling generations? Like that even matters. As Popeye once said "I yam what I yam" so does it matter what you call me?

 

[sam_dean]

OP asked a question and now he/she (not sure if I should label them? It?) is somehow labeling generations? Like that even matters. As Popeye once said "I yam what I yam" so does it matter what you call me?

I suspect boring weekends induces people to bicker.

If I was older than me and have enough money to fear being robbed by some cyber punk that I would go over to bhphoto and buy myself a birding lens and body and take up birding.

Exposure to sunlight, fresh air and forced exercise to go up and down the trail to look for birds will knock out the boredom out of anyone.

Post some photos on MR to get likes.

Just make sure you follow birding ethics or the bickering starts again over birds that do not believe in ethics.

 

[rm5]

I have no idea what this means or what you're trying to say, @sam_dean. I said I was gonna back out of this, but apparently that's not going to happen...

God, this is reminding me of a recent conversation in a Discord server where the guy was just completely invalidating what I was saying...

 

[dotnet]

A fixed age is not accurate enough to steal your privacy.

It doesn’t hurt to take precautions, though. For that reason I change my age frequently, about once a year. Can’t be careful enough…

 

[Jessica Lares]

The point is that you shouldn't be bothered being called a Gen X, a Millennial, a Boomer, etc. The negativity people associate to those labels are their problem and show their ignorance of how different people half a decade apart in age can actually be. They are still necessary markers and you can't just say things like "But I feel like a late Gen X" just to get over that. You can like whatever from that era, but that's different to actually being there when specific things that happened resulted in the way that generation thinks and how they spent their 20's, etc.

Those words have no business being in the same space as actual harmful language. With that kind of thinking, anything and everything eventually becomes a harmful label as long as enough people get on board with it.

Also, people need to realize that being a 60 year-old person now is different to being a 60 year-old person 30 years ago. They didn't just get their iPad yesterday and probably know a fair amount of things. You need to tell them like you would anyone else, put a link to Apple's documentation for that specific thing, and go from there. Have some patience, show some manners when you correct something they get confused with. That's why they're telling you their age to begin with. There should be no shame in that.

Those same people need to have some patience with younger people. It goes both ways.

 

[ian87w]

I'm old enough to experience tech from analog days of cassette tapes and laserdiscs to now, the age of smartphones. It's quite amazing seeing the progression.

 

[eyoungren]

The point is that you shouldn't be bothered being called a Gen X, a Millennial, a Boomer, etc. The negativity people associate to those labels are their problem and show their ignorance of how different people half a decade apart in age can actually be. They are still necessary markers and you can't just say things like "But I feel like a late Gen X" just to get over that. You can like whatever from that era, but that's different to actually being there when specific things that happened resulted in the way that generation thinks and how they spent their 20's, etc.

Those words have no business being in the same space as actual harmful language. With that kind of thinking, anything and everything eventually becomes a harmful label as long as enough people get on board with it.

Also, people need to realize that being a 60 year-old person now is different to being a 60 year-old person 30 years ago. They didn't just get their iPad yesterday and probably know a fair amount of things. You need to tell them like you would anyone else, put a link to Apple's documentation for that specific thing, and go from there. Have some patience, show some manners when you correct something they get confused with. That's why they're telling you their age to begin with. There should be no shame in that.

Those same people need to have some patience with younger people. It goes both ways.

I'll just say that I identify more with my wife's end of Gen-X than with later born Gen-X members. She was born in 1965 and I was born in 1970. There is enough of a five year gap that some of the things that were part of her childhood I had no experience with. She was five when I was born.

But those born say in 1978-1980 I'm more out of touch with. These are people who were 10 or 11 years old when I was 21. There's always respect of course (when I was 21 I was the DM (Dungeon Master) for a group of teens playing Dungeons & Dragons), but a lot of their touchstones weren't mine.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm old enough to experience tech from analog days of cassette tapes and laserdiscs to now, the age of smartphones. It's quite amazing seeing the progression.

I like looking at how I connected in 1984 to how I do it now.

1984: 300bps modem, BBS. Dialup, wait for tone, slide switch to connect and hang phone up. Wait for the terminal program to register the connection, load the welcome screen and then log in.

2023: Always on Gig-E internet connection, forums. Open browser, click bookmark.

Lots has changed in-between.

I did have a CD player by 1986 though. Had it connected to my dual-cassette Sanyo stereo. I was able to successfully talk my parents into changing the return of an unwanted microwave to an exchange for the stereo.

 

[rm5]

@eyoungren You old enough to remember LaserDiscs? I've only heard about them, have never seen the real thing.

 

[dmr727]

But those born say in 1978-1980 I'm more out of touch with. These are people who were 10 or 11 years old when I was 21. There's always respect of course (when I was 21 I was the DM (Dungeon Master) for a group of teens playing Dungeons & Dragons), but a lot of their touchstones weren't mine.

Yeah, I'm in that group you speak of - I definitely feel like I'm in a sort of no-man's land. Like you said there's not a lot in common between our formative experiences. But on the other end millennial doesn't feel right either. Not that I care - being angsty about this stuff would be really GenX of me.

 

[eyoungren]

@eyoungren You old enough to remember LaserDiscs? I've only heard about them, have never seen the real thing.

Yes, but laserdiscs were something that people with more money than my family had would have had. However, my friends and I were regular players of Dragon's Lair at the arcade. That was the very first arcade game to use laserdisc. Fluid animated graphics in a sea of other 8-bit graphic arcade games? Yes please!

 

[dukebound85]

In college, I had a discman where I listed to cds with ~10 tracks and the batteries lasted maybe 2 hrs

I remember hearing about email in middle school and how cool it was......now it is the source of constant work stress and is the worst thing to happen imo

 

[dukebound85]

@eyoungren You old enough to remember LaserDiscs? I've only heard about them, have never seen the real thing.

I do, it was a treat when they rolled those into the classroom when I was in middle/hs

 

[sam_dean]

The point is that you shouldn't be bothered being called a Gen X, a Millennial, a Boomer, etc. The negativity people associate to those labels are their problem and show their ignorance of how different people half a decade apart in age can actually be. They are still necessary markers and you can't just say things like "But I feel like a late Gen X" just to get over that. You can like whatever from that era, but that's different to actually being there when specific things that happened resulted in the way that generation thinks and how they spent their 20's, etc.

Those words have no business being in the same space as actual harmful language. With that kind of thinking, anything and everything eventually becomes a harmful label as long as enough people get on board with it.

Also, people need to realize that being a 60 year-old person now is different to being a 60 year-old person 30 years ago. They didn't just get their iPad yesterday and probably know a fair amount of things. You need to tell them like you would anyone else, put a link to Apple's documentation for that specific thing, and go from there. Have some patience, show some manners when you correct something they get confused with. That's why they're telling you their age to begin with. There should be no shame in that.

Those same people need to have some patience with younger people. It goes both ways.

I once read of a comment of an older generation picking on my generation for faults of say M, N, O and P.

Then someone replied that those younger generation wouldn't have those faults if the older generation did not raised them wrong.

Which brings to mind tht this applies to all generations back in time or forward in time. My guess is that those 2 who elected to be more than 100yo were given hurtful labels by people who were born prior to 1901 who started the US-Spanish War in 1898..

I am sure that my generation will also affix some "old man wisdom" and say the generation of the furbabies are A, B and C awful without realizing that they turned out that way because my generation failed to do their part to do better by them.

Before someone points to my last paragraph as proof that I am dog fighting organizer out for blood of the pooch I am not. So keep your imaginations with the paint brush!

 

[sam_dean]

I do, it was a treat when they rolled those into the classroom when I was in middle/hs

My dad asked my mom to bring back a Pioneer CLD-3030 for us during a late 80s trip from HK.

For more than a decade we enjoyed renting Laser Discs of Star Wars, Indiana Johns and other movies in crystal clear image quality on our then 21" Sony CRT. It even had weird digital f/x that made the images into a checkered flag-pattern of the video.

First time to experience media that had more than 1 language option when I watched Japanese Ultraman & Godzilla LaserDiscs. Had to call the LaserDisc rental shop as to why everyone werent speaking English. They walked us through over the landline on how to select the English audio track.

It was way better than the Betamax tapes (popular VCR format outside of the US) we rented down the street.

When my dad heard that the LaserDisc rental space was closing down a decade later he bought out whatever used music video LD that suit his fancy. Sadly he never watched them again and now is gathering dust like his LP collection.

I guess I should have learned from my dad's media collection when I started stockpiling CD-Rs and DVD-Rs in the early 00s. Money would have been better spent in year 2001-onward on an iPod for music.

HDD in a HTPC connected via component video from 2000-2007 and HDMI port from 2007-onward. When HDD is nearing 5 year warranty sell as used to buy a new 5 year warranty HDD and double the capacity.

But in hindsight... maybe all these video distractions of the last 4 decades would have been better reduced to <20% so I'd get better quality of sleep and be on time to my best destiny.

 

[sam_dean]

I like looking at how I connected in 1984 to how I do it now.

1984: 300bps modem, BBS. Dialup, wait for tone, slide switch to connect and hang phone up. Wait for the terminal program to register the connection, load the welcome screen and then log in.

2023: Always on Gig-E internet connection, forums. Open browser, click bookmark.

Lots has changed in-between.

My equivalent would be

1996: 1st experienced the Internet at an ISP my aunt was working at. Sysadmin stated they were on a T1 line that had a throughput of 1.544Mbps... months later we got our unlimited 0.0288Mbps dial-up that was shared during the day at work and at night at home.

That was the key technical reason why we preferred it over cable Internet that was fixed to 1 location only that topped off at 0.112Mbps when dial-up sped up to 0.056Mbps before 2000.

Pay per install location for 2x the speed or pay 1x the charge for any location at 1/2 the speed.

2023: On a 100Mbps fiber connection that I set a reminder 1 month before contract ends to downgrade to the cheapest possible plan. Our use case does not require >25Mbps per person.

Looking forward to the day that 100Mbps is $10/month with unlimited domestic landline calls even when we use the 4 decade old landline # for incoming calls only.

unwanted microwave to an exchange for the stereo.

Let me guess... fear of radiation? A culinary classmate of mine had parents who experienced WW2 and thought the devil was inside a microwave oven and would give them cancer.

They did not realize that their ingredients choices had more of an influence of their NCDs than anything remotely related to radiation.

Changing habits formed over a lifetime is much difficult than getting cancer from a microwave oven.

 

[sam_dean]

I'm old enough to experience tech from analog days of cassette tapes and laserdiscs to now, the age of smartphones. It's quite amazing seeing the progression.

It amazes me that the 2021 iPhone 13 Pro Max 5nm that I have with me has more raw performance than this 2012 iMac 27" BTO 22nm that I am typing from.

Apple would lose massive Mac sales by doing this but it makes me wish Apple would allow for macOS on the iPhone when its future Thunderbolt 3 40Gbps port is connected to a Thunderbolt 3 dock to allow for a I/O port collection like below.

Sure performance will lag to any M1 chip but I'm coming from a decade old Intel Mac whose use case has not been updated since 2015.

That smartphone's gonne be whip quick.

 

[sam_dean]

That may be your situation (and if so, you are in a fortunate position), but there are many people who face obstacles, short run and long run, in their daily lives due to how they are labeled by others. For example, a thought experiment related to discussions on MacRumors is to consider the tone and words one would choose when writing a reply to

”I’m a senior citizen. How do I turn off my iPad?”
vs.
”I’m a senior in college. How do I turn off my iPad?”

There are exceptions to the rule though.

I have a 40s friend who is more computer illiterate than his 70s mom.

Sometimes it is school/home/work exposure to tech that determines skill sets.

I once joked that his mom acts more like someone his age and he acted like his mom's age.

I was once accused of doing email for my mom by her MBA friends. I told them straight up that my mom did her own email from a 2006 MBP 15" ;-)

Stereotypes are helpful to someone give an idea what a stranger possibly like or not as its survival function. Yes, it is hurtful in societies that are not nearing monoethnic.

I defy stereotypes though. I like content created by the US/UK over content of my home country. Although the only thing I enjoyed living in 34109 is Amazon shopping.

Online shopping exploded here during COVID but in terms of response time, turn around time and customer service I prefer Amazon Prime to a US freight forwarding address.

 

[eyoungren]

Let me guess... fear of radiation? A culinary classmate of mine had parents who experienced WW2 and thought the devil was inside a microwave oven and would give them cancer.

They did not realize that their ingredients choices had more of an influence of their NCDs than anything remotely related to radiation.

Changing habits formed over a lifetime is much difficult than getting cancer from a microwave oven.

LOL! No, no.

My parents bought the microwave as an anniversary gift for my aunt and uncle. They already had a microwave so they didn't want it.

My dad was an electrical engineer who worked in aerospace from the 1960s to 1995. So, no tin-foil hats in our home.

 

[compwiz1202]

Yeah. There are some uses for Facebook, such as Messenger, Facebook Marketplace, etc (which I don’t use, my parents do) but I personally am not on social media. I literally don’t see the point of TikTok.

Does the MacRumors Forums count as social media?

FB is the only one I like. I keep it to Friends, and sometime read other things, but try to minimally comment. And yes, I think forums are SM.

 

[compwiz1202]

Again... if you are the smartest person in the room... you're in the wrong room. It simply means be with people that you can learn from rather than be the person always teaching

I love teaching people who appreciate it. I don't like the ones who can't remember and keep asking the same question or who keep arguing even though you are an expect. And sometimes you can learn things from people who are not as smart.

EDIT: And one of the absolute greatest feelings is when you see someone you are helping's eyes light up and the light bulb appears.