Penelope Trunk Says I Am Older Than My Mother
Very busy peeing and compiling the World’s Longest Blog Post. (Actually, that’s horseshit. Have you read Steve Pavlina?) In the mean time, I’ll share this charming nugget.
Over at Brazen Careerist, Penelope Trunk wrote a post last year suggesting that what generation you’re in should be assessed not on your year of birth, but by your use of and comfort with technology. (There’s a lot of drama over at BC about generations. People go whacko in her comments, laying the smackdown on everyone from Boomers to Gen-Yers. Seemingly only infants are safe.) Anyway, she put up a little quiz with some tech stuff to see where you’re at on the cool beans scale. My score indicates that I am part of Generation Jones, or those born between 1954 and 1965.
FYI, I will be celebrating my 27th birthday in March.
I don’t have a cell phone, let alone send text messages. I hate instant messaging with a passion generally reserved for Nazi war criminals. I set up a Facebook profile a little over a while ago to freak my husband out and haven’t really looked at it since. YouTube makes me insane and right now is the first, last, and only time you will read the word MySpace on this blog. I feel dirty even writing it. But considering that 100% of the money that comes into this house is made online and I’m the one making it, I think I’m pretty fucking hip for my “age”.
Next Post: Frugality Vs. Reality: Cash Flow When Working From Home
Mmmmm…27. I used to eat 27-year-olds for breakfast. Hell, I used to eat 19-year-olds for breakfast (when I was 27). But that was a LONG time ago.
Time sure flies, I wouldn’t know what the heck to say to a 19-year-old today.
“No you can’t IM me, call me on the friggin’ phone! If I am going to XXX you up against the wall, the least you can do is talk to me like a person.”
BTW: first!!
Congrats, Stephen. You are indeed first. You win one 19-year-old to eat for breakfast, as part of a complete, balanced diet.
Nice, I guess I’m actually behaving my age. It pegged me dead on as Gen X.
Btw… I’m going to have to think twice about reading this blog. Your use of language is distressing. I can handle the swearing but then you had to go say M_S____ ;) (Shudder… the only time I’ve had to use that word was to explain to my mom why it wasn’t creepy for my little sister to have met her boyfriend on her M_S____ page.)
Having an online business should automatically qualify you as Generation x at least. Too bad that’s not included. I’ll be 27 in June myself. If it makes you feel better, I hate cell phones and IM too. I’m very picky about who gets to disrupt my work and when. I chat with clients by IM sometimes if we make an appointment to discuss something concrete, but I can’t work if I keep it on.
I’ve been thinking of dropping Myspace since I visit it like once a month, but I’ve got too many old friends on there that might think I died if I did. I do hate that site. I like facebook though. It feels like you are in a bubble in there, but at least the design and functionalities are pretty nice.
Oh, I don’t know, I think there’s more to it than what Penelope says.
There’s more to life than being connected all the time, with 8000 different gadgets and services and widgets, oh my!
I think eventually people figure this out, like when they have their first child, or experience the death of a friend or family member.
One thing I’ll always remember, was when I was officially (in my mind) “mature”. I’d finished a hard day’s work and was basking in the hot August sun with the group of guys who had been working on the project. Ages ranged from young (me, at the time, 28 - wow, where’d the time go) to late 50’s.
Yet, we were all the same. Shooting the bull, drinking a couple of beers and admiring what we had built.
I had made it.
Generation What? Who’s to say what is hip, and what is not?
If your personal sense of “hipness” is dictated by comfort and use of technology (that has been invented by someone else, and sort of thrust upon you), then you are not really too hip in my eyes.
But Naomi - you are definitely pretty damned hip. And so am I.
(Oh, and I’m modest too.)
PS - that link is to my prototype throw-away make lots of mistakes blog page. Dammit, I’ve already run into what I’d call a show-stopper with the free stuff, so I’ll be getting a ‘real blog’ soon…
So, I just took the test and I am unsurprisingly Generation Y with a vengence; This suggests that I am narcissistic, have too much free time on my hands, and outside the internet I have all the social graces of a fart in a monestry.
All of this is, in fact, a giant heap of crap, I’m too apathetic to be narcissistic, I wouldn’t know free time if it jumped up and kicked me in the head and I like to think that i can hold a conversation with anyone without directly insulting then within the first 5 words, maybe 10.
I have a profile on MySpazz and Facebook solely to stay in contact with uni friends who don’t know what a phone is. I’m rarely at home, so I have a mobile instead of a landline, and I text when I don’t really want to get a reply.
Incidentally, by this test my great aunt, who will be 78 this June, is also in the Gen Y category, however she also likes tea-dances, afternoon sandwiches and leisurely strolls in the park in favour of computer games, beer and rock concerts.
Would I rate someone as being in my generation solely based on age? Probably. Would I base someone as being in my generation by their ability to use technology? Hell No!
Viable test? My Arse
PS - when I did the test, it said I was Gen Y.
I prefer to think of myself as a “timeless classic”… :)
Perhaps there needs to be a new category:
Generation We.
You are the “Hipster” of the Marketing “Tipster”…
Not even 27 yet? Geez… I feel old… at… 27. Haha.
Maybe my new addition to the family and you can share a birthday - he’s due in a few weeks…
Well, it says I’m a Gen Xer instead of a Boomer, but it fails to consider a few things. Do I text/email my parents? Well, no, and since my mother is dead and my father now lives with me I don’t phone or snail mail them, either. YouTube? I might watch some if I lived where there were alternatives to dial up. And I have IMd some friends in the distant past to figure out how it worked, but asynchronous communication is just easier!
Can I be Generation Hermit?
Call me Gramps at 36, then Chris.
Gen X here with a touch of Gen Y. I knew that loooong ago and have the classic symptoms. What can I say? *shrugs* Doesn’t change who I am, how I act, or anything, really. It’s a label. Got enough of them these days.
(need more coffee to make intelligent, witty conversation.)
This is cracking me up, it seems that this little quiz isn’t too accurate… (well, wouldn’t expect it to be, really, as it is for fun)
I should email Penelope a question.
I used to work on a finite difference code that simulates the thermalhydraulics in the steam generators for nuclear reactors.
That should count for something, right? Perhaps it means I’m from some generation in the 23rd century…
(Either that, or I’m just really “wierd”…)
Rose - I’m sorry, dude. I won’t say it again.
Some other Naomi - Isn’t that weird about the people who think you’ve died when you’re not on Facebook or M*S****? You want to say, you know… it’s not necessary as part of my constitutional obligations, you know.
Brett - You are indeed hip. And you have a blog, now, dude! I’m so impressed!
Greg - Too apathetic to be narcissistic! I love it!
Charlie - Nice! I like it. Very sneaky there.
Chris - Dude, are you not telling us something? If you’re not tellilng us what I think you’re not telling us, then congrats!!
Mary Anne - If there is a Generation Hermit I want them to sign me up! Far better than the alternatives, IMHO.
James - Get more coffee. Right now you just sound grumpy. And, uh, old.
@Naomi: I fit the Gen Xer profile, nothing’s changed. I found it amusing since I no longer have a cell phone, can’t stand MySpace or Facebook, and have never sent a soul a text message in my life.
@Brett: We’re never going to live that down, are we?
@James: From one Gen Xer to another, seriously, you’d better have more coffee before you IM me this morning.
@ Naomi - well, thank you! And I have to thank all of you for the encouragement, to get out there and do something. I am learning as I go, from the best.
@ Harry - :) it is one of my weirdisms, I think weird should be spelled “wierd” because that makes it weirder/wierder…
@ James - just remember to keep the liquor out of the coffee until after 3 pm and everything should be okay. Speaking of that, time for more coffee.
Naomi, you are just a mass of contradictions and yet, at the same time, entirely consistent. It boggles the mind.
Apparently, I am a technological Gen-Y, which is cool, I guess. But I’m soldily Gen-X. I still remember the wonder of the Rubic’s Cube, having a guide on how to win at Pac-Man, and seeing all the original Star Wars movies when they were brand new in the theaters. And I’m so excited for the new Indiana Jones movie I might just wet myself. (But I won’t wet myself because I am indeed only a Gen-X and still in firm control of all of my bodily functions.)
My dual Gen-X/Gen-Y nature was pretty well summed up in a comment to an earlier blog post: I have a cell phone and know how to change the ringer to a tune I downloaded (Gen-Y!), but have chosen to change it to the theme from Magnum P.I. (Gen-X!).
Hi Naomi, thanks for leaving a comment the other day.
I always think these kind of quizzes have weird assumptions - like you say, there’s a difference between not being able to use an internet tool and not wanting to use it…. (have to admit my opinion may be influenced by the fact that that quiz also put the wrong age on me)
Holy crap, I’m generation Y. Someone tell my lower back.
And my crow’s feet.
And my bunions.
Bunions, dude? The lower back pain and crow’s feet can be explained by poor mattresses and the rock and roll lifestyle, but the bunions can only be the result of too many high heels in the 80s.
I think that your attitude re: technology is pretty realistic. Tech doesn’t exist for its own sake; it exists to make life better, however you define better. I’m somewhat of a geek, but I don’t get (god help me, I almost wrote ‘I don’t grok’) people who use Twitter, ovulate spontaneously at the thought of an iPhone, or find a periodic purging and restoration of their computer’s files to be just a normal part of life. I use what I need, and I ignore the rest. It sounds as if you do, too.
Yeah, way off: I’m Gen X by her quiz but will turn 60 nine days from now..
You are still just a baby. I discovered twitter back in December and love it. I’ve made connections to people I never thought I would, been able to help others, and others have helped me. I guess just like blogging isn’t for everyone neither is twittering or other social media outlets.
I meant you are still a baby at the young age of 27. You write with the insight of probably someone who could be your mother if they grew up using the Internet. :-)
This is why I love your blog Naomi. You can’t tell who is 27 or 57 because all the commenters are intelligent and a bunch of smart asses. My favorite people.
Maybe you should create a quiz that determines coolness factor rather generation. I’d be way more into that.
@ Sandra - HA! You see how snarky people get about years of birth — imagine if we added the subjective element of coolness! There would be lynchings!
*pokes to remind you about MOO card post* ;)
Are we poking now? Can I poke gratuitously?
Yes, bunions. I actually always had bunions, something to do with my pitifully non-athletic alignment of hips or knees or something, but yes, made much worse by too many high heels in the 80s.
Fortunately, my hair was never this big:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjapoodles/1781605101/
@ Kat - *Ducks post on the grounds that she has no recollection of what you’re talking about.* Uh, oops?
@ Sonia - That was you, wasn’t it? Don’t lie to the internet. The truth will out.
[…] the Penelope Trunk/What Generation Are You? post, Stephen wrote “First!” in my comments. For those of you who are not blogging […]
Haha…Penelope. Don’t get me started.
How can a real live Baby Boomer be a Gen Y??? According to this ‘quiz’ I’m well and truly in Gen Y, but I can tell you now that I clearly remember the late 50s, fuzzily remember the 60s (no-one who was there remembers them clearly!), remember most of the 70s with a clarity that frightening, am trying to forget the fashion and music of the 80s, and the 90s are just a blur that disappeared way too quickly…
[…] how I blocked that word out? Remember when I said that a certain occasion would be the first, last, and only time I would use that word on my blog? All about keeping the […]