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 title: Turn of the Century
 date: 2024-04-23 06:11:00
 device: AlphaSmart 3000
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Ask anyone over the age of 30 when "the turn of the century" was,
and I would wager that you are nearly as likely to get the year
1900 as you are 2000.

What a weird fucking concept, to have two semi-active definitions
of a point in time separated by 100 years.

I'm not a sociologist or linguist or historian (or whatever other
profession might actually study this), but I suspect it has to do
with memory.

"The turn of the century" evokes a kind of antiquated time period
in my mind; a time that I did not live in, nor do I remember. It
brings up sepia-colored visions of war and poverty and a slow,
analog world.

What it does not do is make me think of middle school, which is
when the _most recent turn of the century actually was for me._

But that's what it will mean to my children. An antiquated time
before _their_ memories. A time before digital cameras and
smartphones and virtual reality and the modern ubiquity of The
Internet. A time where our homes had their own phones, our
computers had their own rooms, and the television played _whatever
the hell it wanted, whether you were watching it or not_.

In both cases, I think the world feels slower in retrospect, and
while nobody reminisces about the early 1900s, I think those of us
who came of age at the turn of _this_ century yearn for the moments
before the rush of life collided with the beginnings of adulthood.

>> This is post 044 of #100DaysToOffload

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