What Makes You Feel Old?

[Inkidu]

I find myself criticizing the youth of today. :P

[Lilias]

The soundtrack of my angsty teens now qualifies as 'classic rock'. And if that weren't bad enough... I didn't know how to feel when the Spawn's class learned 'Living On A Prayer' for showcase assembly in Year 6. :P

[Hrairoo]

I passed 25 years of using the internet without even noticing it. I've been on the internet since I was eight years old, back when it was ancient dial-up and I had to ask permission, because it would occupy our phone line. I'd fire up netscape navigator and... honestly... I don't even remember what I did online back then. Played games? Really, I don't remember anything I did online until I was 12 or 13 and stumbled into online roleplaying.

This one hit me today when I saw a dial-up meme about kids these days being impatient for a 5 second download. And I tried to think about it, tried to remember what it was like, and I really couldn't. I remember spending hours clicking through page after page of search results on Elfwood(the big art site) looking at art and OCs, or going down Wikipedia rabbit holes with my own little list of search terms as my interest expanded with each article like water ripples(back then, self learning was an ever widening tunnel of starting to read an article and getting interested in a blue word, clicking, starting to read that article, finding another blue word that piqued curiosity, etc. etc. And I would just make lists to keep track of things I wanted to search next, or other things that caught my eye that I wanted to look into but needed to go down a different pathway first), looking up Gamegenie cheat codes for SNES games.

Anyway, I remember how I spent my time online. However, I don't remember how I felt about how slow things moved. Did I notice? Because there was nothing to compare it to, that was just how fast things went. Was I ever irritated or impatient? Did I do things while I waited? Like doodle or read? I don't remember. However, I know how I'd react now to pages loading slow or internet taking any amount of time other than "instant" to boot up. Hell, I always get just a little worried, thinking something must be wrong when there is any sort of 5-10 second delay in anything online, lol.

[BlueOrange]

OMG, kids in this thread thinking that ‘slow downloads when they were a kid’ makes them old <3

The first time I felt really old, I was having a conversation with my son while I was driving. A song came on the radio, and I recognized that it was a cover. I told him I preferred the original, and he looked at me as if I was the stupidest, least relevant person in the world. And in that horrifying moment, I realized he was right.

That was 19 years ago.

[Esoterica]

What makes me feel old is the fact some Elliquians are half my age. Lol. And can be here according to the rules.

[LunarMoon]

A local radio station was playing songs from the 90's the other day that I remembered listening too as a kid. Just made me think about how fast time really moves and we're just living it.
Oh, and watching old cartoon's from the 90's too! Rocket Power, Rugrats, Hey Arnold-- ya know, those ones? Sometimes I show them to my younger cousins and think, "Dang, has it really been THAT long since the shows aired?"

[BlueOrange]

It's like the fact that there's a Powerpuff Girls reboot.  It's like "Wait a minute, when exactly did the original series end?"

[Secretwriter]

Realizing that kids born when I was in my late teens and early 20s are in their  late teens and early 20s now. 

[Conqueeftador]

I'm not really that old, but I can already notice the generational difference. The fact that I own, and prefer,  a computer is enough of a difference between the generation below me. It seems everyone prefers to use mobile devices for everything! I find them cramped and limiting.

[SummerDawn]

Realizing that kids born when I was in my late teens and early 20s are in their  late teens and early 20s now.

Yeah. Or realizing kids in University never knew a world before 9/11.

[Azy]

I'm not really that old, but I can already notice the generational difference. The fact that I own, and prefer,  a computer is enough of a difference between the generation below me. It seems everyone prefers to use mobile devices for everything! I find them cramped and limiting.

Yeah, definitely that.  I've discovered a few games that come in handy when I get bored.  If I'm not home and need to look something up, my smart phone is handy.  But when I am home I prefer my computer.  I don't get the unlimited data plan because I don't need it.   

Also, people not knowing that dial up internet was a thing. 

[SummerDawn]

LOL. That really dates me Azy. I didn't get dial up until I was in my early teens. I remember tying up my dad's phone for 2hrs while I downloaded the trailer for Startrek Insurrection.

[Oniya]

Yeah, definitely that.  I've discovered a few games that come in handy when I get bored.  If I'm not home and need to look something up, my smart phone is handy.  But when I am home I prefer my computer.  I don't get the unlimited data plan because I don't need it.   

Also, people not knowing that dial up internet was a thing.

ANSI graphic 'door' games on BBS's run from someone's basement.

[gaggedLouise]

I'm not really that old, but I can already notice the generational difference. The fact that I own, and prefer,  a computer is enough of a difference between the generation below me. It seems everyone prefers to use mobile devices for everything! I find them cramped and limiting.

Yes, that's a real divide for sure. I'm a "computer person" or even an analog media lady (books, physical CDs, LPs and dvd's) far more than a smartphone person. The thought of having my private life packed onto a mobile phone that might get lost or mislaid relatively easily - or worse, hacked - is frankly unappealing to me.

The recent passing of Michail Gorbachev felt like a bit of an age marker for me too. I'm old enough to clearly remember the times when he was president of the USSR - and the whole map of those days, the awareness that Eastern Europe was a kinda shut-off and dangerous realm, a world with lots of secrets and closed locations (camps, prisons, entire cities and regions) and where travel was restricted (especially within the Soviet Union of course). I hope we won't be going back to some of that climate again...

[BlueOrange]

ANSI graphic 'door' games on BBS's run from someone's basement.

Did you get the phone number for the BBS from the newspaper?

And we’re you excited by the possibility that your BBS might join one of those open-access internet collectives?

[Oniya]

Did you get the phone number for the BBS from the newspaper?

And we’re you excited by the possibility that your BBS might join one of those open-access internet collectives?

Oh, I got the number handed to me on a napkin at a social event.  One of them actually had access to USENET.

[BlueOrange]

I miss USENET. Ahh, for the days of the global village. Before it became a global sprawling metropolis!

[Krispythekritter]

I use to play the game Tetris all the time while I was growing up. Now at work when we need to make objects/items fit into spaces I tell my younger coworkers to use their Tetris skills. Some of them look at me confused while others just tell me they have no idea what that is or have never heard of it.

I also remember going to go roller skating during the weekend but I don't think there are many of those places around anymore.

[MoonWolf]

Found my monkey webkinz from middle school

[persephone325]

Scrolling through a drop-down box to find my birth year.

[Stella]

Y2K fashion coming back.

It was terrible the first time around, guys.

[salaciouspen]

People telling me something happened or came out a decade or so ago and my first thoughts automatically go the 1990s, getting confused when I have no recollection of what they're talking about for that specific time frame, and then grumpily realise they're talking about the early 2000s.

[DragonflyAlice]

That all my cousins and siblings are "proper" adults. Some are even married and have children! (Some have died :()

[BlueOrange]

That all my cousins and siblings are "proper" adults. Some are even married and have children! (Some have died :()

Ouch.  That's a connection to mortality that I do not envy you!

I've started having weird thoughts about whether my kids are going to get their act together and turn me into a grandparent.  I never suspected that I'd ever think such a thing.

[RedRose]

90's stuff. Socks in sandals, Docmartens, skirt on leggings, thick shoes...all back.