Not too late either. Just starting from experience.
We were here before Google. Before TikTok, Instagram, all the ‘GPTs,’ and every one of those terrifying “Just wait for it…” jump-scare Reels. We made the wickedest, flyest mixtapes. Ensuring the room was more silent than a baby gnat’s fart while holding down the clunky play + record buttons simultaneously, then easing off the pause with ninja-like precision. Today’s young’uns can’t imagine that kind of timing or level of dedication.
From Mixtapes to Memes: Digital Life and AI Lingo After 40.
Amazingly, we survived the plethora of disks. Floppy, hard, and CD. And no one could tell us that a strategic blow into a game’s cartridge didn’t make it load or play better. And yet, I, for sure, can feel out of my depth with the 2025 flip-flopping digital lingo. Like I’m back in that one new Latin class, in my regular-degular school, that my French teacher recommended me for, and that I exited even faster than that poof from said gnat’s backside. But this time, and with all I want to do, I’m sticking with it. Diving all the way in, taking notes, of course, and learning it as best I can. Potus pota potarum.
And don’t even think it’s because we’re tech-illiterate, far from it. Us over-40s? We know the ins and outs of too many systems, if truth be told. We actually wish we knew less. Name all the big corporate ones, and all their suites and versions. Add the company ‘in-house’ software tools that would flare up every six to ten months. Ones we reluctantly mastered but could mentor on. I personally taught my oldest enough in MS Excel that adults much older than her are often surprised, not just that she knows how to use it, but that she can show them a thing or five with formulas.
Put Some Respect On Our Name.
I know we’re all glad to have moved past the screeching tones of dial-up while waiting to get online, but for crying out loud, the performance-heavy, algorithm-tweaked, viral-or-bust pressure that defines today’s digital landscape is something we never grew up on. These weren’t everyday concepts for us. And just typing out that sentence was bloody exhausting.
But again, we’re not new. We’re just new here.
And by new, I mean in the AI world, so to speak. New to this particular flavor of a social and digital world where personal brands, video content, hashtags, SEO, and AI co-pilots are part of the air we breathe. In our day, yep, back in the late 1900s, GPTs knocked on the door as salespeople with a big-arse set of expensive encyclopedia books. A leather-bound set that, once purchased, if you dared to ask your parents how to spell or check something, they were quick to chuck volume 17 of the 99-piece set at your head. Then Google came to the rescue and the book-chucking ceased. What? Just my house… umm, okay.
It’s weird to feel so seasoned, OG tech-savvy even, yet stuck figuring out how to “just post a damn story with music that fits.” Yet when you hand it over to your 18-year-old or 21-year-old, they can do it with one hand. My 21-year-old? She’s doing it while rocking a length-defying, fresh nail set, and mid-reply to an ‘Insta’ from her bestie.
So what do we do? We do what we’ve always done. We figure it out.
Wherever we are. This blog, and the ones to come after, is for us. Not just about the social-tech speak, current tools, and AI language models, but to show up with more confidence. More readiness to jump into this space that not only has room for us, but actually wants to hear from us.
Gen X, Over 40 Crew–Check in.
Looking to chase, and actually catch, your second-chapter ‘thing’? Check.
Hesitant but say still want to start a YouTube channel, grow a blog, launch a digital product, or promote your physical or service business? Or just finally understand what the hell B-roll means? Then, same.
Here’s what you don’t need to jump into (or succeed) in the online space:
- You don’t need to go viral to matter.
- You don’t need 20K followers to have influence.
- You don’t need to want (or pretend) to be 27 to show up online.
You just need a place to begin. This is mine, and maybe it’s yours, too. And of course, to start now.
Show Me, Don’t Tell Me.
4 Reels Videos That Helped Me Get It Together
The Quick + Dirty Duo (Short + To the Point)
Need a little more hand-holding? I’ve Got You! Grab a Drink. It’s Worth It.
Confessions.
Let’s be ‘standing atop a mountain, gazing across at another glacier, on the clearest of days’, level clear–that I’m no expert. Just a Gen X’er out here Googling, YouTubing, AI-ing, and winging it with purpose and a shit ton of notes. But what you’ll find here are plain-language breakdowns that helped me. Not to mention some random posts where it may appear that I’ve actually broken down. Just go along with it.
To digital, social, and AI tools that don’t assume you’re brand-new to tech, because we’re not. But they do understand that you’re new-ish to this world of constant content delivery. Tips, checklists, real examples, and “Umm, let me Google that”–style answers to what we’re all thinking but too embarrassed to ask. I’m all about revealing that behind-the-scenes honesty on how we’re getting this all done while “getting through this thing called life.” (RIP Prince. Huge, huge fan. I’m a lifer.)
We know who we are.
Us over 40’s, we’ve got the goods. And while our seasoning means we take our time to get it right, we also need to own it, that sometimes we take too much time. If you’ve ever longed for a succinct, three-line response to, “How to be a person online in 2025 who’s not Gen Z or Gen Alpha” … you, my friend, are not alone. Sadly, that answer’s probably never coming. No thanks to AI’s 10,000-essay response pool, but, hey. We’ll still dig in and grab what we actually need before the algorithm changes, again.
So let’s beef up our armor with all those social-isms and layer them onto our already badass toolkit of wisdom and know-how.
2 Comments
BRIDGET BOAKYE
Ace post! And there’s so much out there that you need to slow your roll. Do you! Press pause!
This line made me LOL! if you dared to ask your parents how to spell or check something, they were quick to chuck volume 17 of the 99-piece set at your head“ I still feel the dent to this day. 😂👌🏽
Irene B
Ha! Yes! Nothing like a surprise volume to the head to teach spelling and reflexes. Glad that part hit your funny bone—thanks for being here!😂