I am old enough to appreciate more traditional form and style. Your initial paragraph could be speaking right to me. I do not care, but some might!

Just saying :D

Made a decision during the early 00's: embrace the new. Flow.

Basically, I am willing, and often do the work to remain able to return comms to me, or that I encounter, using the same transport, norms and style.

This has not been all that tough. Often, doing it is super interesting too.

I have had entire emoji / gif conversations with younger people, for example. I found out having a pen on my phone gave me superpowers too. Uber decorations! My 3 yr old granddaughter can't read yet, but does understand emoji and texts then to me all the time.

What will the norms be when she comes of age? I may live long enough to find out! And it will be fun.

The thing that got me moving this way is time spent with my own kids online. Old era chat. Being with them was like immersion.

One day, I dropped a string of typical chatter on a forum where us parents were talking about kids online. I translated it to make a point.

That point was lost amidst a ton of meta from parents:

YOU CAN READ THAT?

Yes, and could speak it then too.

I had broadband, most homes did not. I would come home from work to see a pile of kids all doing stuff online on the old machines I kept setting up. Had a few older workstations as Internet stations.

Edit: side note, those kids used Win NT, Win 98, Linux, IRIX (lol, an indy) and did not care, other than for how to launch a browser and find a file, or make a picture. /side note

Until that moment, I had no idea there was such a profound chasm and that many people have trouble getting across!

Truth is, the younger peeps among us are often where the fun stuff is. And nobody has to know you are old on the Internet.

:D

My inner 12 year old is always pleased when I find myself on the occasional lark into strange lands online. Younger family members know this. They will reach out, and when I respond in like kind, they share. More people should try it.

At any given time there is a sea of younger people seeking to establish their norms and identity online, and the difference between now and back then is everyone doing that fresh (so many getting online together), where today many have done it and have solidified some, leaving newbies to their play more isolated.

This appears to work just like music used to.

Anyone old enough, pre Internet basically, remembers decades of music. Most imprint during their teen years. And they sort of lock in, quit exploring.

Interestingly, I love experiencing new music so much that I also made a similar decision in the 90's having felt music begin to move on without me. That is to sample the new and talk to people during their formularive years for insight as to where the trends are. New music is fun! (And can be strange, annoying, beautiful, all that)

TL;DR: We all get old, and getting older sucks. If we do the work to retain our sense of play, getting older sucks a lot less.

Play. You will live longer and have more fun and likely not get an optimal output from your life too. But you will have had fun and will likely improve on the net happiness in the world.