The analog to digital undocumented decade

Grace and I were born into an analog world of rotary phones, knobbed-tube televisions, cassette recorders and fax machines. Everything took time. Patience was a necessity and rushing it was non-existent. I remember turning on my boom box, waiting patiently for my favourite song to come on the air. My hands would shake as they held the record and pause buttons simultaneously – wishing with all my heart that if I was lucky enough to hear the song, my hand-eye coordination and timing would be impeccable. If I was successful, I didn’t let myself get excited just yet. There was still the chance of the radio announcer talking at the end of the song. Fingers crossed. This kids, is how we made iTunes playlists in the '90s.

Our generation is typically known as the tail end of Gen X, but I like that we’re also known as “Xennials” - defined as the Oregon Trail generation, having had an analog childhood and a digital adulthood. Oh, the days of Oregon trail, and making sure you don't die of dysentery.

Everything today is instantly available. Technology has replaced jobs, created friendships, is your wing-man in the dating world, has torn apart relationships, is a vehicle for cyber-bullying, allows for virtual schooling, opened communication channels but, closed how we communicate. Every move we make is documented through social media, the internet, GPS, cameras, journey mapping, Geo-tracking, secret servers and networks – 24/7.

Yes, that naughty text you sent is saved on servers in Asia and Russia; that song you asked Alexa to find for you, now has a recommended playlist suggestion on your laptop, that phone call you just made was recorded by the guy sitting next to you at Starbucks, your social media likes and internet bots have your shopping habits and your secret hobbies nailed. Your period, banking, social interactions, sleep and even your steps are tracked by Apps. Siri is kind of like that mean girl in school who says she's your friend to your face but is really talking about you behind your back.

And you know what? I couldn’t be more grateful for having a toe in each pool.

Where I’m ridiculously grateful about growing up analog was that all my shenanigans… and I mean all of them – live in this beautifully private utopia in my mind, or in the temporal lobes of those who participated in the tomfoolery. If you were fortunate enough to have a camera you could capture some moments – but 99% of the time… we didn’t want to. We naturally wanted to be present and share in the experience together. The only distractions we had were if someone was doing something dumber than we were, in the same place, at the same time. And we relied on phone calls at night with our friends or passing notes the next day to share our stories. Except when ICQ came along in 1996. That's another story. Uh oh!

So, how did we survive this?

• No selfies – we just looked in the mirror or paid to use a photo booth at the mall
• No nudie pix – none of us wanted our photos to be seen by the dude that works at the Loblaws photo center because he was in your Spanish class
• No proof of anything – and the only reason my Mom would have found out is if one of my friends (so called that is) squealed or she found a note in my jeans pocket from school
• No cell phones – GASP! and we survived using pay phones and said things like, "here’s a quarter, call someone who cares."
• No home computers – we used paper and pen (or typewriter if your parents had one)
• No cyber-bullying – if you wanted to say something to hurt someone, you had to have the courage to say it to their face
• No internet – our house had a set of encyclopedias that we could look through or we used that public place with all the books
• No Siri – the only thing that came close to voice activated anything was when using a fast-food drive thru
• No texts – they were physical phone calls or passed notes
• No FaceTime – that was done in-person (ironic that they call it face time… as though doing it in-person was unheard of) 

And for shits and giggles, I wanted to share what watching TV was like for Grace and I, compared to how we have it today. BTW, Grace was only allowed one (1) 30 minute TV time slot a day… now that is nuts, even for me... and I was there with her!

TV growing up back then:

1. Find the TV Guide that came in that week’s newspaper, not last week's because you’ll just be disappointed if you missed last week's episode (vintage FOMO)
2. Get off the couch and walk up to the TV
3. Turn the ON/OFF knob and listen for the tube to warm up (because you don’t go back to the couch until you know it’s on), maybe whack the side if the screen is fuzzy
4. Now turn the channel knob to find the channel you want to watch
5. Sit down
6. Not liking the show, get back up and turn the channel to something else
7. Stand there for a few minutes of that show
8. Decide if you want to watch it or move on
9. Rinse
10. Repeat 

TV growing up today:

1. Pick up remote
2. Turn on the TV
3. Talk into the remote and ask it for a specific channel or at least the interactive guide
4. Sit back on the couch and surf
5. Know that just because some people might not “understand you” - there was a point in time when those very same people weren’t understood either. In 30 years, kids today will be talking about their TV-(or tablet, or computer, or iPhone) watching-experience with their kids mocking their ways. 

Your parents were cool once too.

Love,
Patricia