In
the opening scene of Company as
Bobby’s friends prepare for his surprise birthday party, Joanne messages him:
“Anyway, you’re thirty-five. Who wants to celebrate being that old?”
Today’s
thirty-five year-olds, including Bobby and his peers, have lived through major
shifts in technology, world events, and the shape of relationships. Here are
some significant milestones Bobby and his friends have lived through.
1983
– Bobby is born. Ronald Reagan, the first divorced person to serve as
U.S. president, is in office. The Cold War, which the U.S. had been pulling
back from for over a decade, heats back up. The first stand-alone Mario
Brothers game is released. If you want to play it, you go to an arcade. Apple
releases the Lisa, the first commercial personal computer with a graphical user
interface.
1989
– Bobby turns six years old. The Berlin Wall falls. The first Gameboy
comes out, putting the arcade in the hands of a lone player for the first time. It is the 10th anniversary of the Sony Walkman, and the device
receives a major upgrade to bring the hardware up to speed with high-end home
cassette decks. Intel introduces the first 486 processor, which doubles the
performance speed of personal computers.
1993
– Bobby turns ten years old. Apple introduces the Newton, an early PDA
that has features that will define handheld computers for decades. Intel
introduces its first Pentium microprocessor, significantly improving the
ability to include graphics and music as part of the personal computer
experience.
1996 –
Bobby turns thirteen years old. Palm introduces the first Palm Pilot,
which revolutionized handheld computing devices.
1998 –
Bobby turns fifteen years old. President Bill Clinton tells the nation
in January, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” In
September, the Starr Report is released. It includes excerpts from Monica
Lewinsky’s sworn testimony detailing her sexual encounters with the President,
prompting a nationwide discussion of, among other things, whether watching the
evening news is suitable for young viewers.
1999
– Bobby turns sixteen years old. There is global fear that computers
will crash worldwide at midnight on New Year’s Eve due to a problem referred to
as the Y2K bug.
2001
– Bobby turns eighteen years old. Hijacked airliners destroy the World
Trade Center Twin Towers in New York. Another airliner slams into the Pentagon.
A fourth plane, probably with the intended target of the White House or the
U.S. Capitol building, crashes in a field in Pennsylvania.
The War on Terror
begins with the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The first Apple Stores open,
Microsoft releases its first Xbox, and Apple releases iTunes and the iPod.
2003
– Bobby turns twenty years old. The U.S. invades Iraq and topples the
regime of Saddam Hussein. MySpace is founded; while not the first social
networking site, it takes off fast and ushers in the widespread use of social
media.
2004 – Bobby turns twenty-one years old. Facebook
is launched with the original intent of being a networking site exclusively for
university students.
2006
– Bobby turns twenty-three years old. The verb, “to Google” is
added to dictionaries. Nintendo’s Wii is launched, bringing a new level of
interactivity to the gaming experience. Twitter is launched.
2007 – Bobby turns twenty-four years old. The Amazon Kindle is
released, revolutionizing how readers access and interact with books. The Apple
iPhone is released, introducing the era of the smartphone.
2009 – Bobby turns twenty-six years old. Facebook overtakes
MySpace to become the most widely-used social media site among users in the
United States. “Unfriend” is the New Oxford American Dictionary’s word of the
year.
2010 – Bobby turns twenty-seven years old. Angry Birds is the
best-selling mobile game; there will eventually be over 2 billion downloads of
the game and its sequels. Apple introduces the iPad, extending the iPhone’s
revolution of user/device interaction.
2011 – Bobby turns twenty-eight years old. Siri is introduced;
your phone is now your friend. Snapchat is launched.
2012 – Bobby turns twenty-nine years old. Facebook acquires
Instagram, shoring up its corporate domination of social media. Tinder is
launched.
2014 – Bobby turns thirty-one years old. The Gamergate scandal
unfolds, exposing serious and pervasive misogyny in the gaming industry.
2015 – Bobby turns thirty-two years old. Apple Watch is
released, bringing users into constant contact with the Apple environment.
2016 – Bobby turns thirty-three years old. Subscribers to
Facebook Messenger top 1 billion. The spread of fake news on social media is
believed to have an impact on the U.S. presidential election, in which Donald
Trump, a real estate developer and reality television personality, defeats
Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State and the first woman
nominated for president by a major political party in the United States. The divorce rate in the U.S. hits a thirty-five-year low.
2017 – Bobby turns thirty-four years old. iPhone X is released.
It includes Face ID technology, allowing the user to unlock the phone just by
looking at it (the technology also raises privacy concerns). Now, your phone
can see you. The #MeToo movement spreads virally on social media, igniting a
national and worldwide conversation about sexual assault and harassment.
2018 – Bobby turns thirty-five years old. Augmented reality,
which promises to create a bridge between the physical and digital worlds, is
expected to be one of the top tech trends this year.
Additional references
