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Oregon Trail Generation

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Re: Oregon Trail Generation

#41

Post by fma »

letitbeirie wrote: post #13

I feel like this could have only happened to people in this very specific age range: In 1995, when I was a freshman in high school, they trotted my English class down to the library for a lesson on how to use "the information superhighway." For the next hour or so, the librarian dispensed wisdom to us about how to open Netscape, type URLs into the address bar, and that kind of thing. Put another way, they had a woman…

Congrats? My freshman year was 1997 - and I know when I was in middle school in 1995 majority of my peers knew nothing about computers, didn't have a computer, let alone the Internet. I was a fortunate one to receive a 2nd hand computer and at that time I using Lynx (text based browser) to browse the web because I was using my local library's system as my ISP and connecting via Telix.

Rather than look down on your librarian for introducing a novel concept to students, I think she should be applauded for trying.

Everyone started somewhere.

Re: Oregon Trail Generation

#42

Post by nemo44x »

jart wrote: post #7

It's the greatest generation. I wish Wikipedia would call it Oregon Trail Generation rather than Xennial, since the latter sounds hideous like a Xenomorph or something.

I think we were a very fortunate generation. Got exposure to GenX culture at a young age (which was transformative in the early 90’s) but also were just old enough by the mid 90’s to enjoy that bubble and then get into the job world right as Web 2.0 began.

Were young enough to not be too affected by the financial crisis like GenX and old enough to ride the wave afterwards, which many millennials were still a bit too young for.

Last generation to have affordable college.

I think being such a small generation opened a lot of opportunities and options to be more ahead than GenX and Millenial.

Re: Oregon Trail Generation

#45

Post by prpl »

scottLobster wrote: post #34
codesections wrote: post #10

I was born slightly outside (after) the official years for this generation, but the description for this generation seems to fit my childhood memories much more closely than many "Millennial" descriptions. Does anyone else born in the mid/late 80s share that feeling?

Yeah I was born in 1987, which is theoretically well into "Millennial" territory by the numbers, and honestly a lot of the "characteristics" section of that article doesn't strike me as particularly well researched. "AOL Adolescence" Yeah, AOL IM dominated late elementary/middle school. "Developed relationships before social media". Myspace was the big thing in high school, with facebook taking over senior year becau…

I’m 85, and while we had chat rooms and IM in high school, and a few kids probably had LiveJournal, 2003 was really the beginning of social media as we know it, with rapid adoption in 2004+. Texting wasn’t really a thing before ~2000, and not a very popular thing until at least mid aughts because of pricing. I think every young adult basically had a mobile by 2005.

So I think there is some real line right around 85/86 where, for those younger than that, technology/social media as we know it today, didn’t exist in High School.

Other examples would include Google.

Also, for my age, Wikipedia was really emerging during college and exploding/maturing at the end (2007). If you were born, say, after 88, you would have started college in the wikipedia era (and those born after would have had it available in high school)

That said, I think you could unequivocally say that those born after ‘90 are much different than those born before ‘85, but between those years it’s a little bit muddy.

Re: Oregon Trail Generation

#46

Post by klyrs »

I'm very much a xennial, but in fact, did not ask out my first date over the phone. We used a BBS like all the kids are still doing. Right? Dammit, I'm old

Re: Oregon Trail Generation

#47

Post by bradknowles »

chrisco255 wrote: post #21
letitbeirie wrote: post #13

I feel like this could have only happened to people in this very specific age range: In 1995, when I was a freshman in high school, they trotted my English class down to the library for a lesson on how to use "the information superhighway." For the next hour or so, the librarian dispensed wisdom to us about how to open Netscape, type URLs into the address bar, and that kind of thing. Put another way, they had a woman…

Well if it makes you feel any better we spent a whole week on the Dewey Decimal system and how to look up books via index cards. Because computerized indexes and search were rapidly replacing physical lookup, I never ever used that skill again.

I worked in the library on campus from 1985 to 1989. We had both the Old Stacks (where Dewey Decimal was used) and the New Stacks (with Library of Congress). We also had some pretty serious computer systems in the basement to connect our systems up to all the other University libraries in the country and world. And we had computer terminals for checking the books out and back in.

Re: Oregon Trail Generation

#48

Post by executesorder66 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #19
jart wrote: post #7

It's the greatest generation. I wish Wikipedia would call it Oregon Trail Generation rather than Xennial, since the latter sounds hideous like a Xenomorph or something.

Well, "Oregon Trail Generation" doesn't sound like anything to people from outside US of A :).

All of these "generations" are based on the USA anyway, so they might as well stick with Oregon Trail Generation if that is a concern.

Re: Oregon Trail Generation

#49

Post by acidburnNSA »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #32

THIS IS ME. I've never identified with X-gen or Millenials but THIS. YES! I had a landline as a child but then around 12.....things started to get digital. I remember hunting bears and rabbits in my 'computer processing' class in high school in Oregon trail. Which was a class that attempted to teach kids about the new technology that was coming out but wasn't great, because the teacher was a lady in her 60's and me a…

Same.

Getting that first dot matrix printer was pretty magical. Especially since we could design our own dinosaurs by mixing heads, bodies, legs, and tails of a wide variety of dinosaurs, name them something ridiculous, and print them out. So many dinosaur printouts.

[1] https://archive.org/details/msdos_Designasaurus_1988

We had to upgrade the 386 to a 486 and install a math coprocessor to play DOOM.

Then later, it was all about SkiFree and Jezzball.

My favorite book was Windows 95 Secrets.

My small town school had a pretty solid computer class where we learned typing, then hypercard, and then digital video editing. The teacher convinced me somehow to make a movie about wheeling around a computer cart around the grounds to a soundtrack full of 'The Drifters' type music

Way later in life I found the guy who ran the one big server that brought internet to most of the community. He said the continuous bandwidth upgrade needs were driven almost entirely by porn traffic.

Re: Oregon Trail Generation

#50

Post by underseacables »

bredren wrote: post #15
underseacables wrote: post #3

This defines my generation exactly. I was born in Early 80s, and I remember our family before the Apple computer, and after we got the Apple computer. I remember street maps, talking to people on the phone, the magic of three-way, and beepers. And as I grew up I watched it all change. I was an AOL kid. It was amazing being a kid when people began emailing one another.

Me too. I love this name because I grew up in Oregon. I also saw the move from rotary to cordless to caller ID. I heard "Shh. I'm talking long-distance" and also played Commander Keen and used Trumpet Winsock to connect at the ultra-fast 14.4k to local BBS's and eventually Teleport, our local ISP. We also grew up on Nintendo, I'd say that The Wizard starring Fred Savage is possibly an anthemic film since it showed of…

Caller ID was amazing. My parents refused to pay for such luxuries and it became something of a status symbol.
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