Where did the past 20 years go?

[Juan777]

We are now near our middle-age and it just seems that time has passed by fast, like just the other day it was 1999 and the world has changed so much. So many people that we are interacting with around were not even born during that time, at at the turn of the century are now over 20 years old now.

When I look at my folks then I wonder how it was like when they were 20 years old in the 50s and 60s. Does anyone also have that same feeling about been sandwiched between two different generations? I feel as a Gen-Xer, we have so much footage in terms of old movies, that depict adult life when our parents were children, so much period pieces depicting the past, that I feel I have a more richer experience of history, in terms of world events, of my parent's time than they did, lol! Yet, we've seen all this new modern tech just grow all over us and also have an affinity to the modern generation. It's like a game of musical chairs or something.

Anyone can add or relate with this?

 

[Jesus is my Superhero]

Just as time moves faster at higher altitudes,(higher in altitude, faster time moves - Search) , perhaps time also moves faster with age? I suspect though that the cares of this world steal time from the individual through distractions over time, and not being conscious about how time is being spent allows time to slip away.


Living for the weekend will do this.

 

[Juan777]

Time moves fast when you have a hard life full of setbacks.

 

[Christine19]

So much has changed. I still feel like I should be in my 20s or early 30s. I am 42 years old now. I don't know where the time went. My mother was born in 1949 and she talked about her younger years a lot. She didn't get to just have fun as she had to be her sister's legal guardian at age 21 when both parents were dead. She was always a hard worker.

 

[Juan777]

So much has changed. I still feel like I should be in my 20s or early 30s. I am 42 years old now. I don't know where the time went. My mother was born in 1949 and she talked about her younger years a lot. She didn't get to just have fun as she had to be her sister's legal guardian at age 21 when both parents were dead. She was always a hard worker.

My mother was born in 1938, and my father was in 1944, both part of the Silent Generation, whose birthdays virtually bookmark WWII events at before the beginning and near the end. Come to think of it, they were born in the right part of the world and weren't Jewish otherwise I wouldn't be here. (My dad's last name sounds Jewish, but they are Italian and were not persecuted during that time, and in fact, my paternal grandfather was involved in the Italian army in Africa during WWII).

My folks don't talk allot about their time. I mainly bring it up out of curosity because, as a Gen-Xer, growing up and living in a modern world, I don't know a society that is pre-modern or more primitive than this one here. I know one that was in analog before the digital took over, and I guess, people of today will think analog is more primitive. There are lots of period piece movies and footage that shows how life was like when my parents were children. My folks likely came of age in the 50s (for my mother) and early 60s (for dad), and both saw the moon landing on TV.

You wish you were in 20s and early 30s today? I don't regret being in my 20s in the 1990s. However, I feel the internet and e-commerce and it's development helped derail my life. I would have been more in the straigh and narrow. On the other hand, I do remember a time when I went inside the cockpit of a plane, stood next to the pilot, and watched the sky from the front of the plane, during a trip to Trinidad in 1996. This was 5 years before 9/11 and that would be impossible to do today. I do feel some sene of Nostalgia for the 80s/90s, at times, so it would seem like a happier time than today to be younger.

Thanks for sharing your perspective.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

We are now near our middle-age and it just seems that time has passed by fast, like just the other day it was 1999 and the world has changed so much. So many people that we are interacting with around were not even born during that time, at at the turn of the century are now over 20 years old now.

When I look at my folks then I wonder how it was like when they were 20 years old in the 50s and 60s. Does anyone also have that same feeling about been sandwiched between two different generations? I feel as a Gen-Xer, we have so much footage in terms of old movies, that depict adult life when our parents were children, so much period pieces depicting the past, that I feel I have a more richer experience of history, in terms of world events, of my parent's time than they did, lol! Yet, we've seen all this new modern tech just grow all over us and also have an affinity to the modern generation. It's like a game of musical chairs or something.

Anyone can add or relate with this?

Yep, I can sort of relate. I was just partying like it was 1999 and then..... I woke up and found it was post-2020. And I said, "Hey Self, what's up with that?"

But it's been this way for the last 120 years, really. Just think of someone who was born in 1899 and lived, say, 75 years and all of the advancements that person saw ...

 

[Juan777]

Yep, I can sort of relate. I was just partying like it was 1999 and then..... I woke up and found it was post-2020. And I said, "Hey Self, what's up with that?"

But it's been this way for the last 120 years, really. Just think of someone who was born in 1899 and lived, say, 75 years and all of the advancements that person saw ...

I disagree. As a Gen Xer I was already born in a modern place and think the 90s had the best of analog tech before everything turned digital. Its like a mix of heaven and hell in a warped way with the way that the internet has become this pervasive that its like water.

I cant see that the same way as horse and buggy and car, nor can we ignore 2 world wars, global revolutions to the worst atheistic dictatorships im history, or the crash and depression. The previous generations had it worst off and more primitive than the gen xers. The only thing is I dont know if today is a dystopia or an advancement. You cant say gen xers are more primitive than millemials or gen z.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I disagree. As a Gen Xer I was already born in a modern place and think the 90s had the best of analog tech before everything turned digital. Its like a mix of heaven and hell in a warped way with the way that the internet has become this pervasive that its like water.

I cant see that the same way as horse and buggy and car, nor can we ignore 2 world wars, global revolutions to the worst atheistic dictatorships im history, or the crash and depression. The previous generations had it worst off and more primitive than the gen xers. The only thing is I dont know if today is a dystopia or an advancement. You cant say gen xers are more primitive than millemials or gen z.

As a fellow Gen Xer, I'm not going to disagree with you that it feels like Technology is, as you say in your OP, "... just growing all over us..." It does grow over us but it doesn't yet feel dystopian to me. There's a ways to go, I think, before we can pickup Orwell's book, "1984," and look out over the city and think, "That's today!"

No, it's not yet dystopian, but I feel that the attitude of society is somewhat darker and steadily becoming more malcontent these days, and it seems to me that darkness is more pervasive than it was back in the 1970s or 80s, or even the 90s.

I think you're right, too, to say that Gen Xers aren't more primitive than millennials or Gen Z; other than our cell phones and computers, life is more of the same as it was for me when I was growing up.

Anyway, here we are! I understand your concern and Gen Xers like you and I will just have to make the best of it while keeping Alvin Toffler's book, "Future Shock," in mind. It came out in 1970 ... and might provide a surprising read.

 

[Juan777]

As a fellow Gen Xer, I'm not going to disagree with you that it feels like Technology is, as you say in your OP, "... just growing all over us..." It does grow over us but it doesn't yet feel dystopian to me. There's a ways to go, I think, before we can pickup Orwell's book, "1984," and look out over the city and think, "That's today!"

No, it's not yet dystopian, but I feel that the attitude of society is somewhat darker and steadily becoming more malcontent these days, and it seems to me that darkness is more pervasive than it was back in the 1970s or 80s, or even the 90s.

I think you're right, too, to say that Gen Xers aren't more primitive than millennials or Gen Z; other than our cell phones and computers, life is more of the same as it was for me when I was growing up.

Anyway, here we are! I understand your concern and Gen Xers like you and I will just have to make the best of it while keeping Alvin Toffler's book, "Future Shock," in mind. It came out in 1970 ... and might provide a surprising read.

Looks like an interesting book, just hecked it on wikipedia. Just downloaded a free sample over Kindle/Amazon.ca and if it looks good might buy it online. Yeah, today's definitely another level.

I would like to throw a wrench into the arguement that we are not yet a dystopia and want to advance the following points:
1) The LA riots in 1992 came out when a police interaction with Rodney King was video-taped and the officers were aquitted in the justice system. Fast forward today, you see police kill unarmed (usually black) suspects multiple times and see murders broadcasted on video that anyone in the world can access and nobody gets charged. If that is not dystopian then I don't know what is.
2) The mating game is ruined by OnlyFans, SwipeApps, where it appears that women have a zillion options and unless you are really a top-tier type of guy, you can't really meet anyone properly online. If a society can't create nuclear families then it's dystopian because any other mode or option of living makes more sense, then that is textbook dystopia.

We don't have flying cars, which were basic sci-fi visions for the 10s across the board in the movies (ie Back to the Future 1 & 2 and Bladerunner (1982) so you are not seeing a real jump of a level beyond the computers and smartphones, etc....

3) Climate change. Hurricanes and droughts and rivers drying up. If nature becomes unbearable, that's a climate crises and sounds dystopian in the sense of seeing too much extreme weather.

It may not be a political dystopia, but one can argue at least its a social and even cultural one.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Looks like an interesting book, just hecked it on wikipedia. Just downloaded a free sample over Kindle/Amazon.ca and if it looks good might buy it online. Yeah, today's definitely another level.

Or you could just check it out from the library ... (?) I'd hate for you to spend money on it. I have a copy I bought at a used bookstore for about 25 cents.

I would like to throw a wrench into the arguement that we are not yet a dystopia and want to advance the following points:
1) The LA riots in 1992 came out when a police interaction with Rodney King was video-taped and the officers were aquitted in the justice system. Fast forward today, you see police kill unarmed (usually black) suspects multiple times and see murders broadcasted on video that anyone in the world can access and nobody gets charged. If that is not dystopian then I don't know what is.
2) The mating game is ruined by OnlyFans, SwipeApps, where it appears that women have a zillion options and unless you are really a top-tier type of guy, you can't really meet anyone properly online. If a society can't create nuclear families then it's dystopian because any other mode or option of living makes more sense, then that is textbook dystopia.

Ok. Your wrench has been received and considered, bro.

I get what you're saying, and maybe you're right. Something is wrong with society, but I tend to sort of construct a definition of 'dystopia' from various sci-fi writers rather than attempting to look at society from some ideal. Moreover, riots have gone on many times before the LA riot of '92, as bad as that was.

As for OnlyFans or this SwipeApps thing you're talking about, I don't think those websites are a sign of dystopia. They are a sign, though, of dysfunctions (or prominent sins) being expressed via technology, even widely. I don't think they in and of themselves constitute either an accurate or full sounding of relationship potentialities which can exist "out there" in society, and we men would do well to not take everything that someone like, say, Taylor the Fiend says as the supreme litmus test.

We don't have flying cars, which were basic sci-fi visions for the 10s across the board in the movies (ie Back to the Future 1 & 2 and Bladerunner (1982) so you are not seeing a real jump of a level beyond the computers and smartphones, etc....

Have you ever seen the movie, "Metropolis," which came out around 1926/1927? As I learned long ago in a Sci-Fi and Social Science class at the university, many of today's movies borrow their basic visual and imaginative model of dystopia from "Metropolis."

3) Climate change. Hurricanes and droughts and rivers drying up. If nature becomes unbearable, that's a climate crises and sounds dystopian in the sense of seeing too much extreme weather.

Uh, yeah, but we can't say for sure if these are of apocalyptic import. They might be, though. One never knows for sure.

It may not be a political dystopia, but one can argue at least its a social and even cultural one.

Yes, I think you're right to say there's a growing problem in the world today, Juan! There's no doubt about that. Technology is doing something to us.

 

[*LILAC]

I think the increase of technology along with the increase of knowledge through the technology, can make one feel old. I remember my parents saying something along the lines of life being slower back in the day. The pace has definitely quickened the past decade or so!

 

[NinjaPirate777]

When I was younger I had to do what others said all day long and I did not have the freedom to do what I wanted. The days were long and monotonous. I call it Kid Time.

As an adult I have freedom to do what I want and time goes by faster. I have spoken to older people about this throughout my life. From what I gather it has always been this way where the older we get the faster time goes by.

I wonder about Adam who lived for 900 years. How fast did that last century fly by for him?

 

[Christopher Pineau]

I know, right? I'm learning that yes, the older you get, the faster time flies by (unless you're at work half the time). Sometimes for me it does feel like 1999 was yesterday and all of a sudden it's 2022 and where the heck did the time get off to?! I've had the same job for 21 years, now, holy moly! Feels like it was yesterday when I began it in 2001--I was at work the morning of 9-11, in fact.

Technology? Depends on your perspective. I think. IMO, "social" media has definitely made it more difficult to relate to people in real time, for sure. I also agree that dating apps have definitely made it even harder for us regular guys to get anywhere with women--those of us who are not, as I like to put it, Dwayne Johnson's long lost twin brother with President Trump's checking account attached. When smart phones are smarter than the people glued to them half the time and when technology outstrips people's ability to comprehend it, only knowing that they GOTTA HAVE IT YESTERDAY BECAUSE OF FOMO, that's when you start having problems, I think.

 

[Foamhead]

I only feel old when I do the math, or when I have to bend down too much in my job. As you get older your perspective on time changes and things seem to go faster. I won't lie that I do get extremely depressed sometimes that I am middle aged because I remember being young, carefree and uncaring. The greater question is when, when we turn into our 30's and 40's do we get in a position where we are just existing and not throwing caution to the wind and having fun.

I remember getting the gang together going to clubs, staying out all night and driving nowhere in particular just because we can. There is nothing actually stopping us from continuing to do this, we just don't want to anymore. We all get careers and move apart from those we spent our best years with, people have kids and otherwise get consumed with day to day living. I don't know why we did this to ourselves, in terms of creating a society that prevents life enjoyment.

I wish I had an end to this post that had some sort of insight, but in truth I just don't know. I don't know why we all created the society we live in, why we beat ourselves up and why we take life enjoyment out of the equation. We look back on our young years because unlike now, that is when we were happiest.

 

[YahuahSaves]

You just made me feel old @Juan777

I agree, 20 years is a long time but 1999 didn't seem like that long ago... Gen Y - young enough to be up with technology but old enough to remember what a rotary phone was!

 

[jdcastro1972]

I don't know where the years went. 51, never had a gf, never married, living in a nice house with no mortgage. Not sure if that's all a good thing but it is what it is.