Debate Rages Between Generations Over Whose Experience Sparked Viral Idea

Newsweek

3 days ago

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A viral post has sparked a generational conversation about what it means to grow up—and keep growing—with technology.
Threads user @iblamekaixin captured the feeling in a post that has since garnered over 353,000 views and nearly 30,000 likes: "THERE'S A GENERATION THAT WITNESSED THE WORLD GO FROM NO INTERNET, TO BUYING THEIR FIRST COMPUTERS, TO USING FLIP PHONES, TO ADOPTING THE IPHONE, AND NOW, EXPERIENCING THE RISE OF AI. THAT'S CRAZY," she wrote.
The post prompted responses across generations, with some disputing which group truly lived this arc.
"It's called GenX," posted Kim Marie. Generation X includes those born between 1965 and 1980.
Others felt younger generations were equally impacted. "And it's Gen Z. majority of Gen Z too. gen z wasn't born yesterday like older people think," commented Aaron, 25.
And, for some, the tech evolution has come full circle. "And I am now reversing it all. Going back to flip phone, CDs in the car, getting rid of social media and entertainment apps, and regulating my nervous system," wrote Kelly Rein.
For experts, it is clear that millennials—those born roughly between 1981 and 1996—hold a particularly unique position in history.
Elika Dadsetan, born in 1979, is the executive director of VISIONS, Inc., a nonprofit focused on repairing relationships across lines of difference. She told Newsweek about the psychological impact of this transitional identity.
"What's unique about this generation's relationship with technology is that they didn't grow up with the expectation that every interaction would be mediated by a screen—and yet they have become deeply fluent in it. That fluency is both a bridge and a burden," Dadsetan said.
She described millennials as the last generation to remember a predigital world and the first to face adulthood in a rapidly shifting tech landscape—from dial-up to broadband, flip phones to smartphones, and social media to AI. This relentless adaptation, Dadsetan said, has shaped not only their behaviors but also their sense of identity, memory, and trust in institutions.
From a clinical psychology perspective, Dadsetan called this state 'temporal dissonance'—holding multiple technological realities in one nervous system. Millennials, she said, have developed resilience and agility, but not without a cost: burnout, identity fragmentation, and a nostalgic grief for a more-embodied way of life.
Stock image: A woman sips her drink in a coffee shop with a laptop.
Stock image: A woman sips her drink in a coffee shop with a laptop.
AndreyPopov/iStock / Getty Images Plus
Christina Muller, LCSW and a licensed workplace mental health strategist at R3 Continuum, shared similar reflections as an elder millennial with Newsweek. She recalled the slow pace of dial-up internet and the sudden gratification of AI—and the jarring psychological whiplash in between.
"We're the only generation to have straddled both an analogue and advanced technology world," Muller said. Unlike Gen Zers, millennials had no digital road map, learning to adapt on the fly. That constant pivoting, she added, can lead to a sense of fragmented reality.
Millennials have known life both offline and online, and research confirms the two don't offer the same psychological rewards.
"We know the thrill of laughing with friends more often than typing 'haha' on our devices," Muller said. "Socialization in older age may look different for us. We could see the rise of online support chatbots instead of going to the local senior center like our grandparents enjoyed."
That challenge of adaptation now extends into parenting. Titania Jordan, chief parenting officer at Bark Technologies and author of Parental Control, told Newsweek: "Millennials are parenting in uncharted territory. We grew up playing outside, now our kids are confiding in AI.
"We're tech-aware but not native, which makes us cautious, curious, and sometimes overwhelmed trying to keep up. The constant evolution of technology, especially AI, is forcing us to rethink how we guide our kids, protect their identities, and model healthy digital habits in a world that's never turned off."
Others, like Ryan Regan—born on December 25, 1979—embrace the entire arc of progress.
"I have seen: rise of video games from Atari to PlayStation 5, the birth of home internet with America Online all the way to fiber, broadband, and 5G. The rise of cellphones to now smartphones. AI, VR, AR, the Hubble Telescope, the James Webb Telescope, Bluetooth, YouTube, Google, Windows, Mac, etc. I have seen the before and after of a lot. I love it," Regan said.
And as one user wryly observed: "The peak irony is that it's the same generation that grew up with all apocalyptic sci-fi movies where humanity gets controlled by artificial intelligence and robot."
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