Today, one lifetime can cover as much as 8 decades, depending on one’s physical condition and constitution.
I’m now towards the end of my 6th decade. In my lifetime so many huge happenings have transpired and are still occurring that have impacted on my generation’s outlook, behavior and lifestyle.
I was born in 1951, which makes me a full-fledged member of the Baby Boomers generation (born from 1945 to 1965). I grew up with pre-mobile technology, such as radio, television and landline telephones. The main technology breakthrough in my time was the rotary telephone and tube television and record player (be it mono, hi-fi or stereo.) We did not have videogames or cell phones in our childhood. Our main entertainment was playing outdoors with other children in the neighborhood, where social skills and life lessons were practically learned. Hence, technology did not play a pivotal role in that era, unlike with today’s Gen X or millennials.
To be honest, I was in my early 30s when the first IBM PCs and Apples came to the Philippines. I wasn’t too keen about them because my mind resisted the computerese that one had to master. It had little impact on my everyday life. I continued to use the typewriter for my writings. It was after many years that I finally learned to use the Mac and loved it, because it was designed for “dummies.” I was not a digital native, more of a digital immigrant, albeit a reluctant one.
But aside from computers, I have never seen so many technological innovations coming one after the other in such a short span: the pager/beeper, video recorder/player, audio cassette player, compact disks, flash drives, Internet, e-mail, Facebook, Youtube, Google maps, smart TV, wide flat screens, mainstreaming platforms, cell phone, laptop, not to mention ATMs and credit cards, and lately, online entertainment and business transactions, as well as business meetings and conferences.
The so-called screen time started with us for we were the first generation to make television a central part of people’s lives. We were able to witness news as it happened and enjoy diverse entertainment never before available in such a medium. However, we were also the first to be pervasively bombarded by advertising.
In the same lifetime, I have seen the devastation and catastrophe wrought by some of the worst natural calamities and disasters to come upon our nation: the Baguio earthquake of 1990, Mt. Pinatubo eruption of 1991, Typhoons Ondoy and Yolanda.
Along with natural cataclysms, there were also political upheavals such as martial law, political assassinations, Edsa Revolution 1 and 2, and the series of attempted coups by restless military adventurists.
Globally, we have witnessed the onslaught brought about by terrible wars, terroristic bombings, racial hatred and divisions, as well as havoc being done to our environment and natural resources.
On the medical front, thanks to evolving technologies and new medicines, life spans have been extended. Diagnosing a medical condition is now faster and more convenient.
I wasn’t born yet when the nuclear bomb came into this world, but it was during my generation when the era of space exploration began, one of the highlights being the landing of the first men on the moon.
And as if these were not enough happenings, convulsions and disruptions to put into the memoirs of one lifetime, here comes the Covid-19 pandemic, the first real viral pandemic of this lifetime, because AIDS, Ebola and SARs were just sort of previews.
Trying to recall all these happenings reminds me of Billy Joel’s famous list song, “We didn’t start the fire” a litany of historic news headlines from the time of the singer’s birth. In my case, what I see are blur images flashing and flicking in my memory’s eye.
I will no longer list down the tragedies and disappointments that my generation has been through, individually and collectively. Those are also too much for one lifetime.
From digital technology to a viral pandemic, our boomer generation has had it all. I’ve always believed in living life to the fullest, but I never expected it to be filled to the brim with so much.
Can we say that we are a lucky generation that we have seen so much happening so fast, all within our lifetime? We have witnessed the greatest amount of advances in technology but the question is: with all these, has mankind changed for the better?
There is certain ambivalence about it all. I embrace it all, sure it was great to live through it, but I made sure I wasn’t carried away by it all. Perhaps I sensed the pitfalls. I lived in a time of transition. While we were entering a modern era where certainties and verities have gradually vanished, I still felt the tug of old values and traditions.
There was a sense of guilty pleasure in enjoying the new level of conveniences and comfort brought about by technical innovations. As a Catholic, I learned to value the virtue of self-denial and self-restraint. In maturity, I took on the Buddhist perspective of the material world as an illusion and the attitude of non-attachment.
At the same time, I was also taught to be grateful for blessings. These advances in technology are to me God’s gifts to mankind, after all.
We have made our mark. It’s time to release the reins. Once it was our world, today it is the millennials’ and soon, the world will be taken over by the next generation.
Technology will continue to evolve and this technological evolution will keep on changing the generations’ behavior and lifestyle. Millennials have often led older Americans in their adoption and use of technology. The one thing that dismays me is that we will be leaving a world to a generation that is becoming more isolated while becoming more connected.
But don’t dismiss us just yet. We are still writing the last chapter of our generation’s story. If so much could happen in the past seven decades, who knows what exciting new discoveries and previously unimagined advancements can still happen in the last few pages of our story.