Photo: Unsplash
Being a Gen X baby, I've had the privelidge of living in a time when you actually had to go outside and explore in order to stay sane. I lived in an era where kids didn't have smart devices for our parents to contact us in order to get inside for dinner. We simply had to rely on the street lamps turning on or when the sun started to set. I've also had the privelidge of living in a time when the internet started to connect strangers all around the world. Unfortunately (or fortunately), with great power, sometimes, comes great losses. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE THE INTERNET. In fact, I can't really picture life without it a this point.
In the old days when there basically wasn't any online playing, you played with your friends and siblings and at least one of you would be THE BEST at a game. Nowadays, we all suck at different levels compared to the competitive players we can easily compare ourselves to. It’s just more competitive now to be the best in the world at anything.
Back in the day, it was just fun to have a debate about sports or anything; now a person can simply pull out their phone and Google something to get the official answer on anything.
People still go to the library but it’s mostly for the quiet environment and facilities. When researching something, you don’t need to use the Dewey Decimal system anymore, you can just do a Google search to find almost everything you need to learn online.
When was the last time you had to buy a paper, open it up, smell the newsprint and get your fingers dirty from the ink to read the paper?
Sure, some musicians are making money from touring, merch, and streaming, but the revenue from selling music on top of that is pretty much gone. If someone buys an album, they pretty much buy it only to support that artist, not because they couldn’t get it for free somewhere else.
All the stories, especially the tragedies, happen so quickly that we have little to no time to sit and really understand their meaning or feel anything towards those affected.
You used to be able to watch a movie or TV show a week after the release without seeing spoilers on blogs, comments, everywhere. Now, you’ll see spoilers on the internet BEFORE the movie gets released, thanks to the people who saw the advance screening. DVDs and Blu Ray are extinct (or nearly extinct), also thanks to streaming.
Thanks to FB, Instagram, and social media in general, we know who has kids, where people have moved to, and how someone looks now.
Before the internet, if you did some stupid stuff, like toilet paper the school before graduation, or get into a fist fight with someone, you were able to move on with your life and never talk or remember that day ever again. Today, thanks to the fact that almost everybody is filming now a days, social media, and Youtube, your fight or bad deed lives forever on the internet for all future generations to see.
Thanks to streaming, on demand services like YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix, why would anyone pay to watch a 10 minute batch of commercials during a show?
Thanks to e-mail and chatting, a love letter written with a scent of perfume and glitter is a thing of the past. Do people even know how to write in cursive anymore?