Through the generations

Maya Kornyeyeva

Article by Payton Zolck Design by Isabelle Nunes

In today’s day and age, sitting behind a computer screen has become a normal part of life.Though high school has become synonymous with technology, this hasn’t always been the case.

The constant change of culture and environment insured no generation would grow up the same. The four most recent generations, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, have all experienced differences in the amount of technology available to them. Ultimately, these differences shape them as generations and individuals alike.

Baby boomers

The Baby Boomers generation consists roughly of those born between 1946-1964 and who attended high school between the 60s and early 80s. This generation witnessed a change in society’s culture, emphasizing ideas such as freedom of speech. While experiencing the complexities of the 60-80s, this generation’s high school years consisted of vibrant times.

According to research done by the New York Public Library, the 60s witnessed an upsurge in ideas of free speech. This growing movement was accompanied by the uprise of Cold War politics, the Vietnam war, other civil rights movements, and student protests.

Jackie Cockreham, a class of 1970 Carlmont alumni, talks about what it was like being a teenager when she was in high school and some of the societal changes during that time.

“It was the prime era for the hippie generation, people were starting to look towards individual freedom of speech, and there was a start of unrest. It was the environment of the 60s; there were a lot of riots, like at Berkeley. LSD became an issue as well,” she said.

With this national change came a melting pot of different cultures within the generation, which created differing individual experiences and perspectives. Those born on the edge of Baby Boomers and at the beginning of Gen X, such as Erik Migdail, a Carlmont English teacher, witnessed a different high school environment.

“There were still the cliques and the popular and less popular kids. There was still the underlying social dynamic,” Migdail said.

Despite some of the consistencies throughout different eras in high school, the technological differences pose an important distinction between the Baby Boomers generation and later generations.

Technology was not the widespread tool it is now, but it did play a role in the lives of the baby boomers.

“There was no technology, and you would go to the library down the street to do our research there. You had your many books, and many were out of date. The only sort of technology that affected me and lifted me up for future jobs was typing [on a typewriter] and using shorthand. The typing definitely made a difference as I couldn’t have gotten the jobs I did without it,” Cockreham said.

However, a rather technology-deficient generation changed as new technology started to form with the transition to Gen X. Migdail emphasized this change of technology that he witnessed during his teenage years.

“I had an electric typewriter. There were film strips and overhead projectors in the classroom, and xerox machines started to become more prevalent. Telephones were landlines. You had TVs and radio. Eight-track tapes had gone out of popularity while I was in high school, and cassettes had gotten big. I remember my friend got one of the first walkmans I had ever seen,” he said.

Ultimately, baby boomers were the first generation to experience the impact of technology on their highschool education.

Photos by Sofia Sharron

Generation X

Gen X, the generation between Baby Boomers and Millennials, consists of those born between the mid-60s and early 80s. Gen X is seen as the first generation that experienced the start of accessible modern-style technology.

“Technology was virtually lacking. We had film strips, and when the video cassettes came out, that was like ‘wow.’ You were lucky if you had a television with a VCR,” David Gomez, a current Carlmont history teacher, said.

Alongside the spread of video cassettes, computers started to become more readily available and individually accessible. A study from the IPL research site points out the introduction and surge of popularity of “personal” computers and brands such as Apple, Commodore, and Tandy during this era. These new computers also started being introduced into schools, businesses, industries, and homes.

“When I was a junior, I took a computer class, and it was my first class ever to have personal computers. The computers back then didn’t have mouses, and you had to do all the programming yourself. We were at a basic level; even the computers were called basic. You couldn’t even do much with them; there wasn’t any internet as far as I know,” Gomez said.

An evolution of technology occurred within the generation as Genevieve

Tep, Carlmont’s choir teacher who is on the cusp between Gen X and Millenials, explains some of the technology available when she was a teenager.

Tep said that when she was in high school, they were just starting to adopt cell phones. She had a brick-sized cell phone which had a tiny battery. Tep also pointed out the introduction of pagers, a device that digitizes voice messages, a prelude to the modern-day text.

Gen X, the first generation to witness the first shift regarding technology, was the first to adopt current everyday items such as computers. Yet, despite this introduction of new technology, everyday reliance on such resources were not present.

“We had classes that were like, ‘let’s learn the internet,’ and like [the internet] existed but, it wasn’t a thing that was used,” Tep said.

Generations growing up in a technology-dependent period may not realize that using technology was a skill to learn and not just something everyone instantly knows.

Technology is not the only thing that has changed throughout the years; culture and the high school environment have changed as well. Tep points out the change in how the world is seen regarding safety.

“I think the perception of how safe the world is has changed. Even though violent crime has gone down, and the world is arguably safer than it was 30-40 years ago, the perception because of what’s on the news has really changed,” Tep said.

For Gen X in high school, the weight of the “Atomic Age” was felt as, according to npr, students would have to practice drills in class. Images of nuclear war were constantly present through their TVs and news.

“We had drills to get under our desks for the Cold War and were always getting under our desks in case of a nuclear attack,” Gomez said.

The sudden accessibility of technology led to an increase in exposure to the media, which according to Cigna, can be linked to an increase in fear and anxiety regarding violence.

While the shift to becoming more cautious started with Gen X, the impacts of technology on the idea of safety is more evident in the school systems today.

“Now we’re always concerned about intruders and violent gun attacks where someone comes on to campus and shoots and kills people. When I was in high school, we didn’t really have that fear; we didn’t have drills to prepare for intruders,” Gomez said.

While the baby boomers were the first generation introduced to technology at a young age, Gen X was the first generation that felt the effects on a larger scale.

Millennials

Millennials consist of those born in the early 80s to the mid-90s. While the increased availability of technology accompanied Gen X, millennials experienced the modification of technology to become more user-friendly.

The rise of jobs in the tech industry was followed by an increase in pressure to go to college for millennials.

“There were a lot of expectations for us. For me, there were a lot of emphases that we were all going to go to college, and there wasn’t a lot of exploration of alternative opportunities. There was a lot of pressure that we would all follow one path, and that path was college,” Carlmont alumn Jessica Senderson said.

During the millennial era, technology was on the way to becoming more convenient for its users. Cell phones became available to the public in 1984, so people no longer needed to rely on landlines for calls.

“We had our flip phones, and we didn’t have individual class computers, but teachers used them with projectors. I think my senior year Facebook came out,” Senderson said.

The use of technology in classrooms also became more popular in the millennial high school age.

“We were able to turn in some assignments online. I think at that point when we were in high school is when we were kind of starting to make that turn, where there was a lot more technology in classrooms, but it wasn’t there for us yet,” Senderson said.

Although often overshadowed by all of the positive impacts of technology, the increase of technology also caused increased levels of stress in millennials. According to the American Physiological Association, 48% of millennials are worried about technology and social media, affecting their mental and physical health.

In general, while millennials were met with more user-friendly technology, they also faced more of the downsides of said technology than prior generations.

Gen - Z

Born between 1997-2012. Gen Zers are no strangers to technology as computers and cell phones are used on the daily for school, work, and social lives.

“With instant messages and current technology, especially in Corona times, it’s just like you are able to connect to other human beings even if it’s not in person. Just being able to see someone’s Instagram post and be like, ‘Oh, looks like they are having a good time,’” freshman Marlo Lewis said.

In many ways, the advancement of technology allows people to connect more and be in touch without seeing each other in person. However, Migdail also believes that it can affect people experiencing “the fear of missing out, (FOMO)” or being torn down by their peers instead of feeling supported.

As a result, Gen Z faces the commonality of cyberbullying and negativity reflected on the internet. Bullying within the school environment and the formation of cliques can now follow someone home via social media and instant messaging.

Looking in books for hours for the correct piece of information is a thing of the past when all it takes is a quick one-minute search to find articles about any and every topic. Senior Nicole Klein goes to point out that this easily accessible information can also have negative impacts.

“While we have access to so much information, at the same time, it becomes more vital that we are able to navigate all this information and not just fall for fake or false information,” Klein said.

The internet is a place where you can find a lot of valuable information, but it’s also littered with fake news. As such, it’s important to be able to navigate the internet and be able to decide for oneself what is real and what is fake.

Additionally, social media has been programmed to be addictive causing many to be glued to their phones.

“There is potential for people to get addicted to technology. Technology can cause many negatives such as wasting time, comparing yourself to others you see on social media, feeling left out, and technology can also sometimes lead to depression,” Klein said.

The integration of technology into our everyday lives has also had many positive impacts regarding advancement, communication, and accessibility to information. According to a study done by Pew Research, 52% of adults in the U.S. see technology as a positive due to an increase in the ability to communicate and find information quickly and possible improvements in health, medicine, and medical research.

As technology has become more and more intertwined in day to day activities, it has become a platform for Gen Z to voice their opinions, advocate for important issues, and participate in activism.

Nicole Coleman

Technology has not only advanced, but become more accessible through the generations. While the baby boomers had little contact with technology, Gen Z has never known a life without phones and computers at their fingertips. Consequently, each generation had slightly different high school experiences.

High school is a stressful time in and of itself as many teens struggle to juggle classwork, extracurriculars, and a social life. The integration of technology has only increased this stress as teens now have to fight an algorithm engineered to be addictive.

According to the American Physiological Association (APA), one-fifth of Americans see technology as a source of stress. The APA points this to be because of the reliance and constant checking of technology, which increases stress levels.

There are good and bad things that come with everything in life, and technology is no different. As it has progressed through the generations, the consequences and benefits of using technology have grown along with it.

Although what comes next is unknown, it’s important to go into the future weighing the positives and negatives of the new advancements.