Young people today have a defining event of their own, a revolution that may be greater in its long-term effects than Vietnam, the cultural revolution of the 1960s or the death of disco. Generation X faces a brave new world, one made up computers and routers, bits and bytes, World Wide Web pages and e-mail addresses.
In less than a decade the Internet has become a real force in peopleâs lives. It has allowed Serbian dissidents to broadcast their political views despite government censorship. It has been the meeting place for virtual support groups. It has seen people find each other and fall in love in ways that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago.
Christy and Scott certainly never imagined how their lives would be changed by the Internet. Despite the fact that they are separated by 1,000 miles they met and fell in love on an Internet bulletin board run by the Iowa State Computer Association.
In the beginning Christy, who is a college student in Missouri, says that they were just friends, friends who lived 1,000 miles apart. Then one fall, after having known each other online for over two years, things began to change.
ãSo one night he mentioned that it would be nice to finally hear the voice of the friend that he had been talking to for 2 years and we ended up talking on the phone,ä Christy writes through e-mail. ãWe spent many, many hours on the phone between October and December just talking.
ãWe found out that a lot of our views on certain issues were the same and we had a lot in common. Sometimes I was surprised at just how well we understood each other. Finally, when school got out for the semester in December, he had decided that he wanted to meet me.
ãThe night we met in person, we both knew that we wanted a
lot more than just a friendship and we knew we were in love. It's strange how you can feel so much for a person and not even have any type of physical interaction.ä
Christy and Scott plan on getting married, and Scott is going to move closer to Christy after he finishes in college in May.
Christy says that despite the difficulties and the odd way they met she and Scott are happy.
ãIt's very difficult to live so far away from the one that you love, but if the commitment is there then it is so much easier,ä she says. ãI have found Îthe oneâ and it just so happened that we initially met over a computer, which in my opinion, was almost better than meeting at a party or other place. We got to know what each other was like on the inside.ä
For more and more people like Scott and Christy, the Internet is a lot more than the latest whiz-bang computer craze orchestrated by people that used to be the nerds everyone beat up in high school. For them the over-hyped ãInformation Superhighwayä is more than a high tech sound byte to be used in a politicianâs latest campaign speech. For people like Christy and Scott, the Internet is as life changing as the first antics of Uncle Milty on television were for their parents and grandparents.
ãI believe it (the Internet) is comparable to the advent of the television,ä said David Visschedyk, the editor of the Internet Herald, an electronic magazine aimed at Generation X. ãWhen our parents first saw a television a whole new world opened for them.ä
Visschedyk sees the Internet not only as a new way for old ideas to spread, but as a means of self-discovery. He said that the Internet can be a tool that lets twenty-somethings discover and reshape their identities.
ãAdvertisers have found a new way to try and sell us their pre-washed dreams. We found a new way for lunatics to spread their rhetoric,ä he says. ãBut, we've found ourselves. The Internet is one of the only ways most Generation X people can put some sort of control into their lives. We can reinvent ourselves until we find the 'person' we want to become.ä
As an Internet consultant at the University of Alabama's Seebeck Computer Center, Patrick Crispen sees Generation Xers get their first taste of the Internet. He said that members of Generation X have an easier time of adapting to the newest trends in technology than older people.
ãThe earlier people of Generation X grew up with Pong and the later people of Generation X grew up with Atari and Nintendo,ä he said. ãGeneration X seems much more likely to adopt the new technology of the Internet. I think theyâre really almost on the cutting edge of what it means to be on the Internet.ä
ãI think the impact of it [the Internet] has been that itâs allowed a level of communication that has never been seen,ä said Crispen.
Lovers, friends and family are keeping in touch over the Internet via e-mail and chat rooms. These days you donât even need a computer of your own to keep in touch. A lot of public libraries and campus computer labs offer access to the Internet these days, and services like Hotmail, Rocketmail and Mailexcite offer free e-mail access from any computer in the world with access to the World Wide Web.
One thing that people are doing with the huge amount of information available on the Internet is job-hunting. World Wide Web sites like Careerbuilder, The Monster Board, and Intellimatch all offer job listings, help with your resume and career planning. They also offer customized job searches in which you specify what youâre looking for, and get back a listing of jobs that meet your needs.
The Internet is also great for networking. The Internet plays host to numerous professional organizations, topical mailing lists, and trade and professional publications, from the Inland Empire Hoo-hoo Club #117 (a forest industry organization) to the Society of Professional Journalists.
The bottom line is that the Internet isnât going to turn your life into something out of Star Trek. It isnât going to make you a happier, more fulfilled person. It isnât going to be your all-in-one life appliance that slices, dices and purees. What it will do is let you more easily communicate with people, regardless of where they are, and give you access to storehouses of knowledge that dwarf most of the great libraries of history.