Everything old is... still old

I'm now officially over all these idiotic photos of antiquated or obsolete devices accompanied by cutesy captions inveigling me to 'Like' if I know what this is.

I understand the desire to feel superior to others. And I am sympathetic to that desire when it manifests as an urge for older folk like myself to feel that our age and experience makes us in some way better than the younger generation, which often if not always seems arrogant, clueless, and aggravatingly heedless of our wisdom... and even more irritatingly, the apple of the world's eye and the focus of all media attention, while our steadily aging generation often seems to be overlooked if not entirely forgotten.

I get all that, I do.
...
But the fact that you can look at a picture of a channel changing knob on a 70s era TV set and know what it is, and your teenage or twenty something child will not, does not make you better or smarter or wiser than your teenage or twenty something child. The fact that you take pleasure and pride in such a dubious and pointless non-accomplishment does, however, indicate that in fact, you are no smarter, no better, and absolutely no wiser than ANYone else, much less anyone younger than you.

I guarantee you, there are many many pictures of devices and artifacts, there are many many words and phrases, that your teenage and twenty something child will immediately recognize, and you/I will not. This does not make them smarter, better, or wiser than us.

Yes, they are arrogant, yes, they do not respect us, yes, the world and its media dote on the young, and it's really, really annoying. I know this. I understand it. I get it.

I was young once, too.

Now, I'm not.

It doesn't make me any better than anyone else who is a different age from me. It doesn't make me worse, either. My age is neither something to be proud of, nor something to be ashamed of. The fact that I can identify a 45 rpm single converter for a turntable, an 8 track tape, a 3.5 and 5.25 inch floppy disc, an ethernet cord, and name every member of the Silver Age Justice League of America... means nothing.

Get over it.