I'm 40 and honestly I think I got the best of both worlds. Growing up I didn't have a cellphone or computer or any of that. As a kid I remember just playing outside with friends, riding bikes, having supersoaker fights, catching lizards etc. My first computer was probably around 6 or 7th grade and it was for my families business. I did not have any internet or anything but it started getting me interested. Then probably around high school maybe a little earlier I got internet and my own computer and really started getting more into it. Still there was no social media like we have now. We did have forums though and chat rooms and I personally enjoyed them and made many online "friends". It was all very kinda niche specific, I was into filmmaking and web design so all the forums and chats revolved around those topics. Anyways I was really into it and so were my close friends. We would have LAN parties in the computer lab playing Age of Empires etc. It was great, I think in part because while it was "online" there was still a large in person aspect to it. I guess it also felt new to us even though I'm sure it had been around for a while then, but you could do simple things and really feel like you were doing something really cool and new.
Anyways I feel around the time Facebook came around is when it started really going down hill. Then we got smart phones which allowed us to have access to this 24/7 365. Now while I still use social media and technology in general for my work. I try to use it less and less and prefer going back to not being connected at all. Maybe it's like when you find some food you really like then you start eating everyday until you become sick of it and never want to eat it again.
