this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Memes

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[–] voidavoid@lemmy.ca 43 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Someone's underestimating the age of the internet.

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeah but...ordinary people were not dialing into BBS forums back then. We weren't "raised" online like kids now are, we were able to log off anytime and not ever need it to function in society. That started changing in the early 2000s. All my kid's school assignments are now done on a laptop on a district-owned cloud system. He hasn't needed a pencil and paper in...I forgot how long.

If you're around my age, congratulations on being the last generation to ever know what the world was like before widespread use of the Internet.

If you're around my age, congratulations on being the last generation to ever know what the world was like before widespread use of the Internet.

This is why I always insist that the cutoff between millenial and Gen Z is 1995. There's a pretty obvious generational split along this topic and 1995 seems to be the birth year of the divide

[–] Cube6392@beehaw.org 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eh. But what does it mean to be raised online? I think for that you need the availability of ever present internet connections in the form of mobile devices. I think the first kids raised online would have been born in 2003, and would have been 4, preschool age, in 2007 when the iPhone came out. Those kids are 16 now. If we want to set the standard for "raised online" as being "digital native" then I think we should dial back the range to when AIM was popular. Again, setting the standard for who could have been raised with that constant interconnectedness as being someone who was 4 at time of introduction would give us the first AIM connected people reaching age 30 right now.

The reality is, I think, in the middle. The first generation we could say was raised online is basically right in between those two ages, 23. The other standard we could try to set is, who is the first generation who doesn't remember the internet as exciting, just instead a daily part of life

[–] Lileath@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am sorry to disappoint but people born in 2003 would be either 19 or 20 years old now. I know that it is hard to accept getting old.

[–] Cube6392@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

I am bad at math

[–] Unaware7013@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

Seriously, Eternal September was like 30 years ago.

[–] Vigge93@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it's fair to say that those in their late teens now are the first generation raised online. Sure, previous generations where raised alongside the internet, but the current generation is raised with a much larger presence of the internet.

[–] JonVonBasslake@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Nah, the zoomers are IMO the second generation to grow up with the internet. Sure it's even more present for them and gen alpha, but I'd argue us millennials are the ones who first really grew up with the net. While we weren't on the net all the time back then, we were the generation that grew up with the net as it became what it is today, for better or for worse.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Yeah I’m 28 and was consuming memes in middle school. I was not aware at any point where the default solution to a question was anything other than to look it up on the internet when you get home. I quit Facebook in high school.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz -1 points 1 year ago

But it certainly wasn't the internet listed there at least not until the very tail-end of "growing up".

[–] Tavarin@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Grew up with it, but weren't raised by it.

[–] CorruptBuddha@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I say I grew up online. I was a gamer/geek, and there was a massive gaming social presence online in the 90s.

[–] Tavarin@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

But not a massive social media presence, not a massive streaming presence, little to no influencers. We didn't grow up online like kids today, even if we played some Runescape on dial-up.

[–] xilliah@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Remember Fredryk Phox?