I have people I enjoy watching and soforth who have Instagram and Twitter and... oh God. So much of it relies on my phone. I HATE MY PHONE. I'll pick it up, look at my WhatsApp, respond, and set it down again all day.
Now for some of the younger folks on Twitch who don't seem to realize that a generation came in between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials, we're here :) In fact a lot of us make the technology you're currently on or using. Let's take a quick look at Generation X.
We were born in the years between 1965 and 1980. Compared to the generations we're wedged between, we're TINY and usually ignored (which we're thankful for). We did make a huge impact though. Gen X started Google, Amazon (Bezos is borderline X), Twitter, YouTube, just a multitude of companies. We're entrepreneurial and tend to take risks. We're not bad at technology, we're still designing what you use (hardware and software). This makes us the worst evil villains in the world, or if you're making money off of one of those platforms or using them, well. You decide.
But we were also the last kids not to be hooked up to what I now think of as a damned leash. If you've watched Stranger Things, that was our childhood (minus the monsters and the Upside-Down and soforth). Or "It" (the theater version)... that was us also (minus Pennywise). We're NOT technology averse or unused to it. especially those of us raised in the Bay Area, like me and lots of others - technology doesn't excite me because it's always been around growing and changing. I've adapted, I know the platforms, and what it comes down to is that I'm just not interested anymore - not in these older platforms and not in the breathless "OMG!!!" of anything new. It's one reason I moved out of the Bay Area in the first place.
Like we've always been, and like I still am, Gen X is a little bit jaded. Stuff comes, it goes.. and with a huge study of history under my belt also, it's always been that way. One generation passes to the next and the next and for a while the previous generation is THE most "uncool" thing on the planet. Then about 50 years go by and the newest generation wants to wear the same clothes as their great-grandparents and are fascinated by it all, etc. Life is a cycle. Always has been. I grin when kids say "BOOMER STUFF!!!" as some sort of epithet because time flies, and in a few years Gen Z (and younger) is going to look at these people who are closing in on 30 and think, "Oh my GOD they're so OUT OF TOUCH" I already see it happening. And then those kids, well, if they're lucky? They live long enough to be uncool and out of touch and everything. They'll be going "What the hell happened? We were so cool!". No. None of us EVER were. We were just young.
So knowing that, I am happy as I am and where I am, and I'm happy not jumping on every new or old thing,. I pick and choose what I like to use, wear, read, decorate with, be around, etc. - and the era it's from doesn't faze me. If I need a faster system I'll build one (always have). If I ever choose to look at my phone more I'll get a better phone and plan, but the reason I moved away from being right next to everyone is so that I could socialize when I want, and NOT socialize when I want. Part of that is just not giving one damn about my phone. I have my own stuff to do that makes me happy, and I'm not going to jump every time something chimes at me. When I'm on, I'm on. When I want to NOT deal with people and instead indulge in some quiet and creativity? I'm off. And up here in this beautiful forest haven? I can do that :)
Remember though, Gen X doesn't exist ;) We REALLY are happy to keep it that way ;)
