This is an age where everything and everyone is categorized. The age we live in, the crowd we associate with, the generation we’re born into. We are either left or right wing, low income, middle-class, or upper-class. We are cis, we are trans. We are queer, straight, bi, pan. We are Generation Z, Millennial, Gen X, Boomer, emo, goth, bohemian. We’re a society who believes that labelling and profiling is wrong, yet every person is labelled, assigned a role, and put into a box of sorts. These roles define us and shape the way we live, both in the present and in our futures.
I was born on the cusp of Generation X and Millennial. I am referred to as a Xennial. As much as I protest against labels, I admit that reading about the characteristics of Xennials is pretty interesting.
Xennials have what was called an analog childhood and a digital adulthood. We weren’t born into the digital language, we had to learn it, as one learns a second language. We remember the time when emails were sent through the house phone and computers were used primarily by our parents in office jobs, or by us in libraries, both in and out of school. In childhood we played outdoors, listened to cassette tapes, and called each other on landlines. Cyberbullying wasn’t invented yet, nor was online dating. If we wanted to date someone it was someone we had already met, in person, which meant we would not see anyone naked until a date had gone extremely well. (In other words, no dick or tits pics sent as dating resumes over the cloud).
By the mid-’90s, people were starting to talk about the internet; in fact, I remember clearly when I first heard of it, and, you know what? I thought the idea was kind of preposterous. I didn’t understand how a world that involved no actual personal contact could possibly take off. How wrong I was.
As a labelled Xennial, I’m going to write about the struggles and triumphs I face as someone who is neither old nor young, not particularly technologically inclined, but not tech-adverse or tech-dumb either.
I may get nostalgic for the days of old, but I have just enough cynicism and just enough optimism to accept my challenges and share my very strong opinions, both personally and politically (and, being a Canadian, probably politely).
I hope you’ll join me for the ride.