Like a lot of elder millennials, a term the internet popularized last year, I joined Facebook in college. It wasn’t long after its 2004 launch, when only students could.
It felt exclusive and easy to use, a far cry from the digital drama of MySpace’s Top 8 with less cryptic poetry and prose than on LiveJournal. It also didn’t require the attention span of AIM, though I’d long mastered the art of crafting the perfect away message.
If none of that makes sense, congratulations! You probably don’t have a lot of back pain. If it does, I strongly recommend a memory foam lumbar support pillow from Amazon, which I just adjusted while writing this.
Before I go too much further, I do want to stress that I’m not into the whole generation vs. generation thing. Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, Generation Z, whatever, we can all work together to address real problems by finding real solutions. If we want to.
Labels like these are interesting and serve a purpose, but can easily be used to avoid doing the necessary work to make this community and world a better place together. Generational warfare is just lazy and immature, at any age.
I say that as a human being, not a millennial, which according to the Pew Research Center is anyone born between 1981 and 1996. The group has monitored key issues and documented differences of opinion among various demographics for decades, so I consider them the authority in the matter and adopted the moniker a long time ago.
Last year I added elder to the mix, connecting with the idea pretty quickly. I was born in December 1984, which means I’ll be 38 this year, and that I’m just barely part of a “micro-generation born in the early 1980s that are comfortable with both analog and digital forms of communication.”
Technically, the internet initially deemed us “geriatric millennials,” the first generation to grow up with technology like PCs at home. Those of us who ruined quite a few of them with LimeWire, showed our parents how to write an email, could rock a floppy disk and probably had a pager before a cell phone.
Despite all that, my back pain doesn’t feel geriatric quite yet, so I settled on elder. It sounded more refined, like a wizard before J.K. Rowling tarnished half of their reputations.
Even if you fully embrace the title, however, being an elder millennial can be pretty confusing when it comes to the passage of time. So far, the top-grossing films of 2022 are new iterations of 1986’s “Top Gun” and 1993’s “Jurassic Park,” with comic characters from my childhood like Dr. Strange and Spider-Man leading films that round out the list.
In the streaming sector, a sequel to 1993’s “Hocus Pocus” also just became the No. 1 Disney+ debut of all time. It’s another glorious morning, but what year is it?
Everything old is new again, at least except for me, something Facebook recently confirmed. The platform isn’t quite as exclusive as it used to be, and since I’ve been on it so long, a few of my friends date back to high school.
One such person invited me to join a group planning my 20-year high school reunion next year and I nearly dropped my phone. I can accept that Facebook itself is nearly 20 years old, but my graduating class? Impossible.
I graduated high school in 2003 and can do the math, of course, but it still seems like a bunch of hocus pocus to me, reason enough not to go. Thankfully age is just a number, something I say a lot as an elder millennial.
We focus on another type of “Hocus Pocus” in this, our annual Halloween issue. We speak with Ginger Minj, the Central Florida drag sensation who appears in the new sequel, about working with original Sanderson Sisters and more.
Fellow “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum Alaska Thunderf**k also talks her horrific new hit “All That She Wants” and previews her “Red 4 Filth” tour, coming to Central Florida and Tampa Bay this month. Our haunted holiday coverage continues with event listings and much more.
In Tampa Bay news, we preview the return of major LGBTQ events, Halloween and non. Sarasota Pride will hold its 31st celebration early Oct. 22, while the 44th All Hallows’ Masquerade Ball will haunt Tampa that night and Halloween on Central returns Oct. 30. Johnsons Tampa also sets its grand opening.
In Central Florida news, we speak with Maxwell Frost, who could become the first Generation Z member of Congress. In arts and entertainment, we check in with celebrated actor Kal Penn.
Watermark strives to bring you a variety of stories, your stories. Please stay safe, stay informed, enjoy this latest issue and have a Happy Halloween!
