I think I was born at a really neat time. (1979 for those who are curious.) As a kid I grew up with a lot of books and a lot of time outside. We watched TV, too, but the times I remember largely deal with being outside and/or reading. (Because who didn’t like reading books in trees?)
I remember that once we found a lizard in our sun room. It was really weird because you don’t see all that many lizards in North Carolina, so my sister and I were totally blown away by it. My immediate response was to run downstairs, grab the encyclopedia and go! I mean, we had to find out what that lizard would want to eat ASAP! (My sister was less interested in using the encyclopedia to find these things out.)
I remember we got our first computer capable of going online when I was in ninth grade. We also got dial-up. So I learned the joy of email using Juno and instant messaging using ICQ. My dad showed me the Encarta CDROM encyclopedia and I actually said that there was no way it would ever be as good as our 1970s encyclopedia. Later, when he talked about Altavista, and then even later about Google, I scoffed. Really, who knew if the information you wanted would even be on the internet in the first place!?
A lot of my resistance was due to my background with physical text. The encyclopedia was awesome because if you knew how to use it properly, you got THE answer. If you know how to use a search engine properly, you got AN answer, and the next day you might get ANOTHER answer. How could you find the truth if a precise behavior could generate different answers at different times?
So I find myself thinking of the child version of me as being more of a scientist. Behavior X with source Y gives answer Z. The quickly changing online world changed even that equation.
All this to say that lately I’ve been thinking about what a neat time that was. The generation before mine grew up with only books and had to adapt to the online environment as adults. The following generation grew up with the internet (in some form or another) and don’t have a memory of a time with the encyclopedia (or whatever text you’re into) was the place to go for definitive answers. Today’s generation doesn’t have an experience of a specific information seeking behavior returning a predicted response. They might have a pretty good idea of what will come up if they search “presidential caucus” but the actual result will change pretty quickly.
And I’m not sure what that means, or that there’s a better perspective. Mostly I’m thinking about how our backgrounds shape our expectations, and how for folks born somewhere in the years from the late 60s to the late 90s, their information seeking behaviors in their formative years might be quite different.
One thing a lot of us have in common, though, is Oregon Trail. (Mine was black and white.) 
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I even have a half finished blog post to the effect in the works, but have not been able to finish it. We got our first computer much sooner though- my mom was a techno-phile.
I remember playing Oregon Trail in the library for 25 cents an hour.
-Karin (b. May, 1979)
Thanks Karin! I look forward to reading your post!
I too have been thinking about our generation lately, but more so about the implications our digital/print fence strattling has on our professional expections, and how our outlook may differ from that of the generations on either side of us – even those separated by only a few years.
Oh how I loved playing Oregon Trail in the school library…
Molly (b. July 1981)
I really like the term “bridge generation.” I’ve definitely felt that way in many of my work interactions. I was born in 79 too and always felt that I was neither a Gen X-er or a Millennial (or Gen Y which is what they were calling the next one along, back when the Gen X-ers were in their 20s). I often find myself struggling trying to explain why when students are searching our various databases some things are going to count as an encyclopedia article and others will be a journal. They never used a print encyclopedia, so that background experience isn’t there when I start talking about the online version. I’m still working on my new approach.
Your family must have been near bleeding edge. I was one of the first people in my school to have internet access, but I didn’t have it until 11th grade. I pretty much exclusively used it to look up bands and movies. (Although I did play with my Encarta disc too.)
That year for Christmas I gave everyone all kinds of different printouts – one person got a photo album of pictures of her favorite band along with some interviews, one person got the script for his favorite movie, one person got a 2 binder print out of the entire Heavenly Creatures website. It’s funny how awesome they thought those were then when they couldn’t get to those things themselves and how lame they would be now. 
And since you mentioned Oregon trail, I have to share my story of how I was a student aid at a summer camp and would swap computers with the camp kids so that I could get my name on the high score board on every computer in the room (about 40 of them). It started random since I’d be on a different computer each day, but by the last few weeks I was actively seeking out the few computers left. I had kids rooting for me and others trying to knock me off. It was great fun. (and I did succeed)
Thanks Molly! I really appreciate your point about how these perspectives shape our expectations in the work environment! I do think that is really interesting (and think it will be even more so as the workforce gains millennial workers).
And Ellie, I’m with ya! I think it gives me some empathy for my older colleagues to be on the cusp. If it’s a little difficult for us to differentiate between encyclopedia and journal articles with college students… I’d imagine there’d be even more conceptual hurdles to jump if the technology all came after one graduated from college! Congrats on Oregon Trail! That’s an awesome story!