"Anyway, you're thirty-five"

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. 

source: extremetech

          

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 10^th 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.

source: Kevin Eikenberry  

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.

Source: Wikipedia

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.

2000 – Bobby turns seventeen years old. George W. Bush is elected President of the United States in one of the only presidential elections in U.S. history where the results were contested. The first camera phone is introduced, and within a year most new phones have cameras.

Source: Wikipedia

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. 

source: fema

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.

source: bgr

2008 – Bobby turns twenty-five years old. Caused largely by volatility in the mortgage lending industry, the Great Recession strikes. Unemployment doubles, and recent college graduates are among those most affected. Barack Obama is elected the first African-American President of the United States.

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.

source: everyipad

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.

source: i-carercase

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

Glen, Devon. "The History of Social Media from 1978-2012," AdWeek, 16 Feb. 2012, http://www.adweek.com/digital/the-history-of-social-media-from-1978-2012-infographic/

“Timeline of Computer History.” Computer History Museum, 2018, www.computerhistory.org/timeline/