Same Old Story

I'm getting old.  Next week I will turn 29, and while I don't consider that to be "old" as such, I can't deny that I am growing older.  As much as I like to think of myself as still being young, there are many things that serve as reminders that I am not.  I have spoken before about the fact that this is 2017 and there are 17 year olds alive now who weren't even born in the same millennium as me, and the coming year when 2018 finally arrives there will be 18 year olds too.  However despite that being in the back of my mind, there was something else that made me come face to face with my youth, or lack of it.

From time to time I like to watch videos on youtube of people playing games.  Playthroughs and "Let's Play" series as some youtubers call them let you live vicariously through others, they let you see other people experience something for the first time and see how they react and in the case of puzzle and strategy games that interest me the most, it lets me see how other people think.  Every now and then however I like to revisit games from my youth, and there is one game in particular that I was quite fond of and which most people still regard in high esteem - Super Mario World for the SNES. 

I was about 5 when I first played it as I was born in 1988 and it wasn't until around 1993 that I actually got an SNES.  Super Mario World itself was released in 1990 which makes it 27 years old this year.  What served as a reminder of my age however was an off the cuff comment this youtuber made about the game - "I wasn't even born when this was released" which they said in passing as reason why they had never played it and that stayed with me longer than it should.  It stayed with me because it served as a reminder that there are people who are adults, in their 20s, who have lived their entire lives without experiencing things which formed such a big part of my life when I was younger.  That serves to remind you that despite the fact there may only be 5 or 6 years between you and them, you're part of a different generation. 

That word is hard to define, "generation" - in the 90s it was used quite a bit with the term "Generation X" and later to a lesser extent "Generation Y" which would imply Millennials would be Generation Z, the last generation, which says a lot about the world and the way it is today.  The question is which do you fit into?  The definition I see most widely used for Millennials is anyone who turned 18 on or after the year 2000, which includes everyone born in this millennium, but as this millennium approaches its 18th year next year there does seem to be need for a new term, or to revise what counts as being part of it. 

I was born in the 80s which would make me an 80s kid, yet being born in 88 means I didn't experience anything in relation to pop culture from the 80s as a child, it was the 90s that formed the bulk of my chilhood from age 2 to 12.  I realise this is putting a lot of emphasis into labelling your childhood which is not the intention, rather the intention is to get a better understanding of who I would be most likely to have things in common with.  I'm from that middle generation that experienced both dialup internet and broadband when growing up, that experienced analogue satellite and digital satellite and the jump between the two.  Going from 56kbps internet to 2mbps at the time, and going from 30 something channels on Sky Analogue to 300+ on Sky Digital back when it was actually called Sky Digital.

I still remember the first mobile phone I had, a black Phillips BT Cellnet phone that was like a brick and had a screen with a 2 line LCD screen like a calculator.  I remember each handset I had over the years up until today having a smartphone that has more power than the first computer I ever owned.  Even with computers I've gone from an Amstrad CPC-464 with a green monochromatic display with a command line operating system, through the many computers I've had over the years up until my current desktop. 

I do feel anyone around my age may suffer from an identity crisis of sorts as technology and society and culture moved so fast in such a short period of time there haven't been many things that have remained constant that you can anchor yourself down to.  I guess this could also be fuelled by the fact the world right now seems to be going through an upheaval and there is a lot of change happening, and throughout my life everything has been about progress and moving forward and for the first time there seems to be an actual desire being expressed sincerely by others to go back and to regress.  I don't want to do that. 

As much as I look back on things with nostalgia, I value the advances that I have experienced.  I value fast internet, I value having a world of choice which admittedly can be overwhelming but I would rather be overwhelmed than be left unsatisfied.  I'd rather be given so much choice that I don't know what to pick, because it means I can pick anything, than be put in a position where I have no choice at all, because that's no way to live a life, if anything you're actively removing the spirit of life itself and forcing someone into monotony by doing that. 

What is life worth if all you do is sleep, wake, wash, eat, work, eat, wash, sleep, and repeat?  What is the difference between you and a robot on an assembly line if you can't use the one thing that makes you different - the freedom to make choices - why would you want to give that up?