Better for you now or in the past?

There are two dimensions (at least) of that for me. One is more a 'me' thing, the other is society's evolution.

On the me front, I feel I was born old - you know how people in their 70s often say they still feel 21? I think that in my teens/20s/30s I was kind of always around 40, looking forward to a time when the stuff you're supposed to find fun (partying, hardcore drinking and socialising, being on-trend and into cool- as defined by that years specific fads, stuff like that) would give way to the moment when it was OK to do what I'd always done instead - someone who'd prefer a trip to the library than a night at the pub, or a quiet walk to a rowdy get-togther. I remember getting to 40, thinking 'I've arrived, I can just get on with being me' - and then at 41 I had a nervous breakdown having realised I'd maybe been too safe and become uncomfirtably anomalous. This was pre-diagnosis, but began the path to that of course. Now, as I watch 40 rapidly disappear in the rear-view mirror, I realise just how transitory and illusory was that one year of imagined relative comfort.

On the technology front, I agree with much of what you say - there are many benefits, including finding one's tribe without having to rely on geographical blind chance to get that 'thank god it's not just me' reassurance. On the other hand, I think my/your/Sparkly's generation (I think we're broadly in the same age range) was the last to be born into the analogue age (we still have sensory memories of using rotary phones!), and we've therefore had the most exhausting adaptive battle to fight. Too young to opt out of the newfangled (like my aunt's partner did - retired a few years ago and has never touched a keyboard in his life, and never will), too old to have gotten the nice intuitive user interfaces and early-age immersion that makes it all so smooth and effortless for Generation Z or whoever. Instead, we got the clunky learning curve of going from limited exposure to BBC Micros, to maybe an Amstrad in the home, to the early rough edges of the nascent internet, to Office programs that were fiddly rather than easy to navigate, and prone to crashing, and vulnerable to viruses etc. In other words, navigating all the difficult birth pains of digital tech becoming a necessary but unwieldy presence in all areas of life. And finally, we go to the age of the smart phone, where things started to feel a little more like they were meeting our non-digital-native mindsets more than halfway to compensate for all that discomfort of being put in front of devices that made the very air around them nervous with their brittle auras of 'get it right for god's sake or you'll lose your night's work' and all the attendant stress of that. 

All very necessary of course. Is anyone ever entirely born at the 'right' time? In the far future, the first immortals will be. Until then, people of my age can be grateful that we got a pretty decent trade-off - maybe even the best one? A childhood with some gentle modernity - raised on the soothing tones of Oliver Postgate and Blue Peter instead of the frenetic relentlessness of the Cartoon Network, and TikTok and whatever else. But still able to selectively opt in to YouTube videos, and podcasts, and Twitter and other things that amuse, divert, and entertain in ways that let us be in control of our own 'schedules' while still finding time for the reduced ambient complexity that any middle-aged person needs to go back to to stay healthy (or at least I do anyway). I could say a lot more, but I'm aware this is a bit of a stream of consciousness now, so will make myself stop. And return when more cohesive thinking on the subject has had time to percolate a bit.

There are two dimensions (at least) of that for me. One is more a 'me' thing, the other is society's evolution.

On the me front, I feel I was born old - you know how people in their 70s often say they still feel 21? I think that in my teens/20s/30s I was kind of always around 40, looking forward to a time when the stuff you're supposed to find fun (partying, hardcore drinking and socialising, being on-trend and into cool- as defined by that years specific fads, stuff like that) would give way to the moment when it was OK to do what I'd always done instead - someone who'd prefer a trip to the library than a night at the pub, or a quiet walk to a rowdy get-togther. I remember getting to 40, thinking 'I've arrived, I can just get on with being me' - and then at 41 I had a nervous breakdown having realised I'd maybe been too safe and become uncomfirtably anomalous. This was pre-diagnosis, but began the path to that of course. Now, as I watch 40 rapidly disappear in the rear-view mirror, I realise just how transitory and illusory was that one year of imagined relative comfort.

On the technology front, I agree with much of what you say - there are many benefits, including finding one's tribe without having to rely on geographical blind chance to get that 'thank god it's not just me' reassurance. On the other hand, I think my/your/Sparkly's generation (I think we're broadly in the same age range) was the last to be born into the analogue age (we still have sensory memories of using rotary phones!), and we've therefore had the most exhausting adaptive battle to fight. Too young to opt out of the newfangled (like my aunt's partner did - retired a few years ago and has never touched a keyboard in his life, and never will), too old to have gotten the nice intuitive user interfaces and early-age immersion that makes it all so smooth and effortless for Generation Z or whoever. Instead, we got the clunky learning curve of going from limited exposure to BBC Micros, to maybe an Amstrad in the home, to the early rough edges of the nascent internet, to Office programs that were fiddly rather than easy to navigate, and prone to crashing, and vulnerable to viruses etc. In other words, navigating all the difficult birth pains of digital tech becoming a necessary but unwieldy presence in all areas of life. And finally, we go to the age of the smart phone, where things started to feel a little more like they were meeting our non-digital-native mindsets more than halfway to compensate for all that discomfort of being put in front of devices that made the very air around them nervous with their brittle auras of 'get it right for god's sake or you'll lose your night's work' and all the attendant stress of that. 

All very necessary of course. Is anyone ever entirely born at the 'right' time? In the far future, the first immortals will be. Until then, people of my age can be grateful that we got a pretty decent trade-off - maybe even the best one? A childhood with some gentle modernity - raised on the soothing tones of Oliver Postgate and Blue Peter instead of the frenetic relentlessness of the Cartoon Network, and TikTok and whatever else. But still able to selectively opt in to YouTube videos, and podcasts, and Twitter and other things that amuse, divert, and entertain in ways that let us be in control of our own 'schedules' while still finding time for the reduced ambient complexity that any middle-aged person needs to go back to to stay healthy (or at least I do anyway). I could say a lot more, but I'm aware this is a bit of a stream of consciousness now, so will make myself stop. And return when more cohesive thinking on the subject has had time to percolate a bit.

Shardovan said:

people of my age can be grateful that we got a pretty decent trade-off - maybe even the best one?

I think this is correct.