So I'm actually 3 years younger than you. But I see things differently.
Yeah, The Breakfast Club was my movie. I waited in line at payphones to get my friends to the mall. I recorded hits from the radio - the AM band, no less, in some cases (because I grew up in France, and it took them forever to "liberate" the FM band). I saw Björk in concert when she was still part of a sweet, obscure Icelandic band. I was in college when the Iron Curtain fell - grew up in Western Europe with that constant reminder we were just a missile short of getting nuked by the Soviets or retaliating Yankees. I also was an exchange student in the U.S. in the 80s. I remember the double-decker Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco. The advent of cell phones was amazing - suddenly you didn't have to rely on payphones. Oh, and the internet. I remember using Mosaic on a Windows 3.1 system. I remember using Gopher. I remember having my mind blown when I downloaded an image file of Barlow from the EFF FTP server. Soon I was part of the first Tech Bubble, employee #300-something in a company founded by two Stanford kids. Made a lot money, lost a lot of money. But did OK for myself. So far. So I'm old(er).
Anyway - I love reddit because sure, I regularly am reminded that I'm a senior citizen to many of its users. But I often forget it - because the conversations are so damn refreshing and interesting or hilarious. Although once I went on one of those endless stubborn pissing contests with someone else, someone who had argued that if they learned tomorrow they were about to die, they wouldn't care and welcome it. I kept going that he didn't know how he'd react. He told me he was sure he would be OK with it. Took many posts until I found out he was 20. Ha. What the fuck was I doing arguing with a 20-year old who apparently was still living with his parents and seemed generally unhappy with his life? I had forgotten I wasn't talking to someone my age. I remembered being the brooding type too at that age. Death? Sure. Lemme rewind that Joy Division tape first.
Look, I find it fantastic we share inside jokes, jargon and references, beyond borders, socio-economic circles AND age.
It's the beauty of this community. No fucking profile photo, as much anonymity as you're willing to have - it actually bridges more than it divides, paradoxically.
I like it.
Maybe it's also because I don't feel old. I am pretty free to do whatever I want, even if I have a lot responsibilities I didn't even have a few years ago. I am not 100% free - no one is - but I feel free.
In any case, I don't feel old here. Sure, once in a while I'm reminded that I'm dealing with kids who were born using the internet, who never watched a black-and-white TV (and were not used as a walking remote by their parents), who never used a rotary phone, and who were raised being told that Japanese products were cheap knock-offs. But I find that pretty awesome.