Generational Advancement

Today, it hit me that that people now reaching adulthood don't remember a time before smart phones.  They don't remember a time before laptops and tablets.  They don't remember a time before new automobiles came with a screen.

Forget the time before the internet, or even flat screens, they won't be able to remember a time before the internet was accessible from a handheld, wireless, touch-sensitive screen less than a quarter inch thick.  Information about anything they can imagine is a voice command away.  They may watch videos about that time, but they'll have no first-hand knowledge.

Libraries must seem like archaic relics.  Looking up books in the card catalogue, going to shelves, and flipping pages must seem like medieval ceremony.  Anything printed with 'current' news must seem so anachronistic.

My grandfather was born before airplanes, mass-produced automobiles, household electricity, radio, television, computers, and space travel.  All of those things would to come to pass in his lifetime.  I can't imagine what he must've thought of my generation, who would be born not knowing a time before they existed.  Kind of makes the internet and screens seem a little anti-climactic.