generation "?"

as i was driving on I-66 yesterday into northern virginia, a thought hit me out of the blue. it was so random, but so startling, that i almost picked up my phone to call anyone to talk to them about it.

here’s the thought: in 5, 10, 15 years, the twenty-somethings currently populating the majority of web 2.0 sites (like tumblr, for instance) will be—in significant numbers—settling down with children.

so, imagine, 15 or 20 years from now, i have a child. maybe two of them.

my children—or your children or the children of someone you know—will be the first generation to possibly have access to enormous quantities of archived information about their parents. a child could see what mom wore to a college party, what dad’s thoughts were on global warming circa 2008 courtesy his blog, etc. etc.

can you even imagine having the ability to see/read/explore the former life of your parents or those in the generation previous to you? it’s the most telling time capsule—showing everything, both the good and bad, and providing a hands-on experience with the past. no more flipping through censored photo albums—your child could stumble on your old flickr albums filled with photos of drinking martinis with friends, carousing at concerts and the like.

really, they could stumble on anything you put on the internet.

maybe in 20 years, there won’t be tumblr. or blogger. or facebook. or flickr. or twitter. or myspace (we can only hope). maybe web 5.0 will have replaced the “olden days” of 2.0.  

still, the possibility that the children of our generation could view us in a way not accessible to any other generation before us is kind of scary and exciting all at once.