There are many ways to date somebody.
There are things that put us into a certain age group and a certain time. These aren't things that tell generations apart but can identify people within just two or three years of each other.
Music has a big role in placing us at one point in time. It's not what music we listen to, but how we listen to it. I know what cassettes and CDs are, even eight tracks and vinyl, which are making a comeback, and while most are really before my time, CDs aren't. Even so, I have bought maybe a handful of CDs in my life.
It's strange what one or two years can mean for people because my sister, who trumps me by just two years, has all kinds of CDs. It's not that she listens to music anymore than I do. Two years is all it takes to make people either jump to the latest tech or cling to the past.
I made one of my coworkers, who is three years older, feel much more aged and crotchety by the revelation that I've bought only three CDs because those things were already dead when I started listening to music.
I was 14 when the first iPod was released. That wasn't even remotely close to being the introduction of the MP3 player, even though it is the most successful. That's what I grew up with. Individual music files is what I like and what I'm used to.
Now, all physical media is outdated and will soon be gone with the greater use of cloud computing throughout the household and Bluetooth connectivity to all your other devices.
It certainly isn't the same for everyone, but just two years separates how my sister and I grew up listening to music.
Cellphones date us as well. I don't know many eight-year-olds, but I would guess that most in Canada have smartphones. I've recently had cousins in elementary school who had them. They may have been 12. Regardless, when you bought or received your first cellphone dates you.
Mine was my first year of college, which would have been 2006. It's not that long ago, but now it would be unheard of to go through high school without your own cellular device, and soon kids will get them on their first day of kindergarten.
If you got your first cellphone before heading to school, you're under 23.
Back in 2006, Facebook was still only available to students and by invitation only. It wasn't until my sister's second year of university that the social-networking site was even open to universities in Canada. I can even recall her complaining when it was opened up to the world that everyone would ruin it.
Her concerns were only a little off base. The network works best as a limitless hub of people, just like the Internet that powers it.
When and how you got on Facebook also dates you. I had to sign up with my student e-mail address after receiving an invitation to join.
If you weren't invited to a party called Facebook that was attended by just your immediate friends, you are either younger than 23 or older than 28.
These are only examples that date my generation, but we all have them. If you didn't understand most of what I was talking about, that may date you.
