• Eh. But what does it mean to be raised online? I think for that you need the availability of ever present internet connections in the form of mobile devices. I think the first kids raised online would have been born in 2003, and would have been 4, preschool age, in 2007 when the iPhone came out. Those kids are 16 now. If we want to set the standard for “raised online” as being “digital native” then I think we should dial back the range to when AIM was popular. Again, setting the standard for who could have been raised with that constant interconnectedness as being someone who was 4 at time of introduction would give us the first AIM connected people reaching age 30 right now.

      The reality is, I think, in the middle. The first generation we could say was raised online is basically right in between those two ages, 23. The other standard we could try to set is, who is the first generation who doesn’t remember the internet as exciting, just instead a daily part of life

    • Yeah but…ordinary people were not dialing into BBS forums back then. We weren’t “raised” online like kids now are, we were able to log off anytime and not ever need it to function in society. That started changing in the early 2000s. All my kid’s school assignments are now done on a laptop on a district-owned cloud system. He hasn’t needed a pencil and paper in…I forgot how long.

      If you’re around my age, congratulations on being the last generation to ever know what the world was like before widespread use of the Internet.