It’s just a little disturbing to realize that baby boomers are the last living generation to know a world without social media. There was no way for us to leave the house and have someone be able to contact us. The notion that someone could call us on a small communication instrument was not even in our minds. Following each other on Facebook or TikTok as seemingly everyone does now was not on our radar in 1965. We were still using landlines and if you called someone and the line was busy (just the term sounds so old school), you had to try again later. Try explaining this experience to a GenZer and you get the blankest of blank looks. Answering machines were the height of our technology and did not come into popular use until the mid-eighties.
If we did get into trouble while out and about, it was important to know your home phone number because that was the only way we were going to get help. It also meant we had to knock on someone’s door or go into a place of business to ask if we might use their phone. We were not low-tech – we were no-tech!
And yet…we survived. Some would say we thrived. It’s safe to assume that every generation looks back on their youth with a fondness and nostalgia for those simpler times. But when you tell Gen Xers and Millennials about making mix tapes or Sadie Hawkins dances, they think our simpler times were some very sweet times.
And they were, but not totally devoid of angst. Teen years in particular could be brutal but compared to the way adolescents are tortured on social media now, we escaped with minimal psychic damage. Our mistakes were not posted online for all to see (and live on forever). We were not obsessed about who was following us on social media. We had actual friends. We did things together. In person. Sometimes we did stupid things but we survived. In fact, we made it to the point where we’ve dived into the technology that younger generations take for granted. I could have used Microsoft Copilot to write this BoomSpeak post, but I’m saving AI for a day when I’ve lost all reasoning. Hope I’m still sentient.
Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.
