xkcd

[Kornaki]

It's actually very easy to copy and paste a URL on my phone. Chrome even has a dedicated button for copying urls now.

[Rodin]

The current comic is one of my pet peeves. Going by one definition, I'm a millenial. Going by another definition, people 20 years younger than me are. And the definition seems to keep moving year-by-year.

Maybe we need a new definition, like the Naughty Generation or something.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

The current comic is one of my pet peeves. Going by one definition, I'm a millenial. Going by another definition, people 20 years younger than me are. And the definition seems to keep moving year-by-year.

Given that a generation is supposed to be about 25 years wide, that seems to be working as intended?

My main complaint about this "generation"business is how America-centric it is. It has no correlation whatsoever with my own peers, nor, from what I've experienced, anyone outside of the US (maybe Canada?), and yet it's bandied about in "news" as if it were some universal distinction.

So, standard complaint about American navel-gazing, really, this is hardly the only place where it happens.

Grey Wolf

[Max_Killjoy]

Given that a generation is supposed to be about 25 years wide, that seems to be working as intended?

My main complaint about this "generation"business is how America-centric it is. It has no correlation whatsoever with my own peers, nor, from what I've experienced, anyone outside of the US (maybe Canada?), and yet it's bandied about in "news" as if it were some universal distinction.

So, standard complaint about American navel-gazing, really, this is hardly the only place where it happens.

It's not even all that relevant outside the media and pop-demography in the US. I have very little in common with my supposed "generation", because I grew up in a rural area outside a small town, far from the big coastal cities that get fixated on, and my parents were 30 when I was born and also grew up mainly in rural areas outside small towns.

[halfeye]

Given that a generation is supposed to be about 25 years wide, that seems to be working as intended?

My main complaint about this "generation"business is how America-centric it is. It has no correlation whatsoever with my own peers, nor, from what I've experienced, anyone outside of the US (maybe Canada?), and yet it's bandied about in "news" as if it were some universal distinction.

So, standard complaint about American navel-gazing, really, this is hardly the only place where it happens.

Grey Wolf

Most of it probably is USAian, but the baby boom was a more or less world wide phenomenon that seemed to be started by the end of WW2.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Most of it probably is USAian, but the baby boom was a more or less world wide phenomenon that seemed to be started by the end of WW2.

Sure, but that doesn't make the boomer-equivalent generation of my own country in any way equivalent in outlook, morality, politics or anything else similar to the American boomers. And yet, to hear the news tell it, "millennials" are the same the world over, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Grey Wolf

[halfeye]

Sure, but that doesn't make the boomer-equivalent generation of my own country in any way equivalent in outlook, morality, politics or anything else similar to the American boomers. And yet, to hear the news tell it, "millennials" are the same the world over, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Grey Wolf

Yeah, the whole thing's silly when they make generalisations about a generation. People are all different.

There was a baby boom though, and it probably related to WW2.

[Keltest]

As far as im aware, the "Millennials are doing X" shtick tends to be done by two groups: clickbait media and Millennials who are engaging in what amounts to a private joke at this point.

Theres also the related, but not identical "kids these days" people, which I think encompasses just about everybody over the age of about 17 to varying degrees.

[Kato]

From my very far away position of not-being American I feel like Millennial is a decent term, but not for a generation but for a subset of people from a generation. Which is true for most others as well. Maybe Babyboomers are especially homogeneous but generation x or whatever else exists as terms for others are also not identical across all people. But people who consider themselves millenials share a lot of commonalities and don't argue that. It's of course problematic / confusing when blanket statements are made about every person born between year x and y.

[Rodin]

From my very far away position of not-being American I feel like Millennial is a decent term, but not for a generation but for a subset of people from a generation. Which is true for most others as well. Maybe Babyboomers are especially homogeneous but generation x or whatever else exists as terms for others are also not identical across all people. But people who consider themselves millenials share a lot of commonalities and don't argue that. It's of course problematic / confusing when blanket statements are made about every person born between year x and y.

It's especially a thing with how quickly technology is changing society. I know, I know, hang an onion on my belt and all that, but the advent of the Internet has been a massive game-changer culturally. So it gets rather weird when people talk about millenials and their obsession with all things Internet and I grew up without it really being a thing. Those on the border of a big technological shift like that are in kind of a weird place.

[Max_Killjoy]

It's especially a thing with how quickly technology is changing society. I know, I know, hang an onion on my belt and all that, but the advent of the Internet has been a massive game-changer culturally. So it gets rather weird when people talk about millenials and their obsession with all things Internet and I grew up without it really being a thing. Those on the border of a big technological shift like that are in kind of a weird place.

I'm old enough that I saw vinyl records go from commonplace to "garbage" and back to "hipster fauxstalgia haut couture".

I'm old enough to remember 8-tracks, rotary phones and party lines, AM radio being more than a niche...

I'm older than cellphones, those big laser video disks, CDs (let alone the streaming rental music garbage), commonplace home computers, microwaves as a ubiquitous appliance, and "the web".


I have no use for streaming subscriptions, the internet of stupid useless crap things, most social media, or being spied on by advertisers "to enrich my experience".


I scoff at the notion of the singularity, and refer to it as the "rapture for nerds"... mainly because I'm already living in a world of relentless change I can't slow down, and yet the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Radar]

... I'm already living in a world of relentless change I can't slow down, and yet the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Reminds me of this xkcd strip. It does put things in perspective.

[remetagross]

So...I have to confess I have not understood this "shadow biosphere" joke. Would someone be so kind as to enlighten me?

[Fyraltari]

So...I have to confess I have not understood this "shadow biosphere" joke. Would someone be so kind as to enlighten me?

I wouldn’t, but these people would.

[remetagross]

Thanks, will remember the link :)

[Lethologica]

The problem with the latest comic: if you tell them a neural network did it, they'll expect it to keep working without any additional labor on your part as they add new photos.

On the other hand, the same problem applies if you actually train a neural network to do this...

[Lord Torath]

What's your first news memory?

Mine is probably the 1980 election. I do remember reading bits of the newspaper as my dad taught me to read (a year or two earlier), but none of the stories stuck until that one.

I vaguely remember the 1979 partial eclipse (well, partial for my area of the country, anyway), but I don't remember news stories about it.

I do remember the Challenger disaster, but I was one of the kids who went out to recess (I'd seen shuttle launches before) and came back inside to hear about it from the kids who stayed in to watch.

Does seeing your picture from the local paper count? There's a photo of me asleep in my dad's backpack baby carrier at a local parade when I was about 2-3. I remember my mom showing me that photo cut from the newspaper when I was about 4. Which would predate the 1980 election by a year or so.

[Max_Killjoy]

Let's see... Iran hostage crisis, and Carter v Reagan election.

[JeenLeen]

I got distracted by today's comic by trying to keep it consistent who was standing by who, while it appears to be changing.

---

As far as first memory: none of mine are really news-related. I guess the first big news thing I can remember with any detail is 9-11, but I was in high school during that so it's definitely not close to a first memory. I know of earlier historical events, but don't really have memories associated with them beyond small audio or video clips from the news or comedian commentary. Then again, never really watched or cared about news as a kid.

Is it thought that most folk have a 'first memory' associated with a major news thing?

[Max_Killjoy]

I got distracted by today's comic by trying to keep it consistent who was standing by who, while it appears to be changing.

---

As far as first memory: none of mine are really news-related. I guess the first big news thing I can remember with any detail is 9-11, but I was in high school during that so it's definitely not close to a first memory. I know of earlier historical events, but don't really have memories associated with them beyond small audio or video clips from the news or comedian commentary. Then again, never really watched or cared about news as a kid.

Is it thought that most folk have a 'first memory' associated with a major news thing?

No, it's thought that most folk have an earliest news event that they remember specifically -- not your first memory, but the oldest/first news event you remember.

[georgie_leech]

No, it's thought that most folk have an earliest news event that they remember specifically -- not your first memory, but the oldest/first news event you remember.

That is, some event or report on the news that you learned about via the news, rather than living it yourself. And on that subject, watching the 9/11 attacks in the school library.

[halfeye]

Mine would definitely be the JFK assassination. All the adults went bananas.

[Kato]

I feel like my first memory should be related to the Berlin Wall coming down but I really don't. I guess 4 year old me didn't care?
I have a very vague memory of some report on some conflict concerning Russia which must be from the early 90s.. If I had to guess Chechnya? I remember it because it lead to me talking to my father about him and him apparently being shocked elementary school me didn't know anything about the world wars.
If I have to put a date to a concrete memory, I guess it's 9/11, just because I don't remember dates.

[TaRix]

Depending on whether I had to see it on a news medium, it's either the Challenger loss or Tianemen Square interrupting my Saturday morning cartoons.

[Max_Killjoy]

It's one of the disconcerting effects of age... seeing people talk about things I remember vividly as their "first news memory"... or as actual history.

My high school years coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the USSR and end of "world communism" as a threat, the first Gulf War...

[John Campbell]

My earliest news memory is actually me, in October 1978, when we got our first computer, which was the first personal computer in town. (It was an Exidy Sorcerer. You've probably never heard of the company or the computer.) The Burlington Free Press ran an article about it, complete with a full-color photograph of me, at age just-barely-four, playing Hangman on the Sorcerer while my father and older brother watched over my shoulders. I remember the photographer being there for the shoot, and his disbelief that I could operate the computer.

In international news, it would be either the Iran hostage crisis or the Lake Placid Olympics. The Olympics happened while the hostage crisis was ongoing, and I'm not sure if I became aware of the hostage crisis before or after the Olympics. (Or possibly even "during".) I was born during the Ford administration, but I have no memories of Ford as President (or really any sort of public figure). I do remember Carter as President.

My very earliest memory is a vague recollection of seeing my little sister for the first time. (July 1976. I wasn't quite two yet.) I have nothing else I can specifically place in time for a couple years after that.

[TaRix]

My earliest news memory is actually me, in October 1978, when we got our first computer, which was the first personal computer in town. (It was an Exidy Sorcerer. You've probably never heard of the company or the computer.) The Burlington Free Press ran an article about it, complete with a full-color photograph of me, at age just-barely-four, playing Hangman on the Sorcerer while my father and older brother watched over my shoulders. I remember the photographer being there for the shoot, and his disbelief that I could operate the computer.

I thought Exidy was a software bunch that made early swivel-mount-light-gun arcade games--Crossbow, Cheyenne, and War (can't really remember that title exactly, but it had a Godzilla bonus round.)

[Yuki Akuma]

My first news memory is probably... Hong Kong being given back to China, which was in... 1997?

I didn't really care about the news before then.

[Peelee]

My first news memory is probably... Hong Kong being given back to China, which was in... 1997?

I didn't really care about the news before then.

It being a major plot point in Rush Hour probably helped.

[Rockphed]

I think I remember the 1996 US election. Or at least staying up late watching results come in. I definitely remember Columbine, though that is fuzzy and was probably second hand. The 2000 US election I can remember being abreast of the news (and hearing about hanging and pregnant chads out of Florida). The first one I remember following on the news on my own was the 2nd world trade center attack (where it fell apart and killed ~3000 people), but that was also probably the first event in my life where schools turning the news to it was reasonable.

Edit: Okay, and I do remember hearing about Hong Kong going back to China. Didn't the US finish handing over the canal zone to Panama about that time too?