The blind nature of the Web is amazing. Am I a grey-haired old African-American woman? A buffed-up surfer dude with a deep tan? Patrick Stewart? You don’t know, do you?
Well, yeah, I have all those pictures at the top of the page. But those could be anybody’s pictures.
And, yeah, well, some of you know me. But maybe I’m pretending to be the guy who’s typing this blog — I mean, maybe the guy who’s typing this blog isn’t really me. I mean …
Well, you get the point. When you get a comment, or an e-mail, you have no idea who that person is. You see a name, perhaps glean a gender, but that’s it.
And when someone writes to you say, “Hey, wicked site!” your natural reaction is to blush, accept the kudos from your peers, and return the favor by going to see their web site (conveniently included in their e-mail).
And read there a note in a post there that “I’m almost 19.”
Okay, now I’m officially Old.
When I was 19, I had no idea of doing something as a peer of a 40-something person. Such a person was an elder, a person who had vast experience with life, a person who was wise, accomplished, worthy of respect and being called “Mr.” or “Ms.”
Sort of like my folks.
Someone twice my age. It would have been unthinakable.
Yet here we are on the Web. And it is, in fact, the great equalizer, at least in terms of opportunity. I can be a young whippersnapper and still throw up content and format that demands (and receives) respect, even from Much Older People. I can send folks an e-mail and not be automatically dismissed as a teenager. (Or, conversely, as an Old Man.)
The peer pool widens quite a bit.
Okay, that’s probably enough aging angst for a moment, and that’s not what this post was intended to be (nor was it meant to be a screed to insist that Young People Today Have No Respect For Their Elders).
I just thought the expectations I was carrying around were interesting.
Or you could be Tom Bosley. Just disguised in mustache and beard.
Consider our gaming group, with the relative ages of the participants spread over nearly two decades (17 years between Randy and Jackie?), or well past three if you count Justin (which I’m not entirely sure is warranted yet, but he’s getting there).
When you were playing in college, Jackie was somewhere between 7 and 11. I was just starting to GM for the first time (10-13), but I hadn’t found my first ‘serious’ gaming group (that happened in 86, when I was just turned 15).
And that’s a pretty insular type of social group, though less so than some other types.
So maybe it’s the era, or our youthful natures…
or the fact that we mostly met via the internet. 🙂
I think that one of the unique things about your in-laws (the Kleerups, for the uninitiated) is that they have for many years created cross generational events. They were actually interested in their children’s friends as people, and included them in the dinners and other events at their home. This is probably why those friends of Margie and Eric have remained close to the K’s regardless of the children’s presence.
One decade I can handle, either direction. (Well, sort of. The realization that “You mean you never watched X on TV when you were growing up?!” sometimes jars.)
Two decades, though, and when I say things like, “You have a nice web log, too,” I feel like I’m inviting someone up to my flat to eat candy and look at my etchings.
And, yes, the Ks are very special that way. A lesson worth learning and carrying on.
My cow-orkers tend to be about 20 years my junior. Typically, our interests overlap in the areas of computer games (they love Diablo, but have never heard of M.U.L.E.) and comic books (but any mention of Amazing Spider-Man #121 brings a quizzical look to their faces). Aside from that, I can’t really relate to them. I can’t believe there are so many people living who’ve never heard of Jack Benny or Glenn Miller! (I’m ancient.)
Ah, yes, the age thingie. I get cute notes from whippersnappers telling me that they hope that when they get really, really old like I am (51) that they will still be enjoying life like I do. I particularly cherish the e-mail from an incredulous teen who was clearly stunned that my journal implies that the spousal unit and are still um, er, ah “doing it” at our advanced years. He clearly felt we were freaks of nature. Well, I must be off. I think it’s time for my Metamucil …
51! Gee, that’s … that’s …
… uh, closer than I’d like it to be.
Oh, you rock, gramps…
*giggle*
Liz and I are a decade apart, and every now and then we look at each other and say, “wow, that was really weird” when the differences in our ages impact what we have done or said.
But it hardly happens.
And gamers, the whole lot of us, are remarkably easy around others in our gaming peer group who may be much younger or much older…
There was one game at ACN when someone said their character was going to do a certain thing and I looked up in shock thinking “What?” and looked at the young woman and thought, “wow, she’s really young.” – But that is rare, too. And I hope I get a chance to someday game with that individual again. It will be a pleasure to see her viewpoint again.
Keep me young, it just might…