We actually wrote letters and made phone calls

I was doing some posting and editing on our company's intranet today - a project that I led and used Intranet Connections software to set up - when I was suddenly struck by one of those moments that seem to be coming to me more often these days:

People my age are the last generation that will ever remember working without computers and the internet.

If you were born in, say, 1985 or later, then you have essentially had the web all of your cognizant life - school, college, and work. You quite simply cannot comprehend an environment where people accomplished work by typing on a single computer and then printing the document and mailing or faxing it, or conversing with someone else for 30 or 60 minutes on a telephone line!

If you were born in about 1975 or later, then you have essentially had computers all of your cognizant life. You may never have touched carbon paper in your entire lifetime. You haven't a clue that the "Return" or "CR" on some computer keyboards actually refers to a typewriter's carriage return. The @ key? You are blissfully unaware that this key wasn't created for e-mail addresses; it was created in the 1800s so storekeepers could calculate inventory amounts - 2 apples @ 4 cents, for example.

Of course, for those of us born earlier than 1975, our issues include learning how to use all the new technology that younger people have been soaked in for their entire lives. I experienced this last week, when I sent out a quickie e-mail to our home office staff with a link to our intranet so they could download an appraisal form. I had one of our staff call me (on the phone, for those GenYers who have forgotten that their "phone" does more than texting) and almost plaintively ask if I would send him the document by e-mail. "In the e-mail I already sent, you can click on the link and log into the intranet to get that form," I advised. His answer: "Oh, yeah. Well, I haven't been on the intranet thing in months."

"Well, now's a great time to return!" I said cheerily.

The heavy sigh across the phone line was probably audible in the hallway. "Could you just e-mail it to me?"

Yes, this person is over 50. Laziness? Exasperation? Maybe just a generational thing - and getting a little too comfortable with the ways of communication we are "used to."

Today's technology allows for tremendous productivity compared to even 10 years ago. New collaboration techniques allow for people spread around the world to "converse" and move projects forward that might have taken months or years to set up in the 20th Century.

But...today's technology also seems to be separating people more than ever before. While we can collaborate virtually, we seem to be collaborating less and less in reality. In just the last year or so, I've seen an amazing increase in texting and a corresponding drop in people speaking to other people. What are the social outlets for younger generations? Are they becoming more and more insulated and isolated at home on a computer...or with their noses in their iPhones when out in "public?"

It is interesting to see these phenomena around us. I believe they are constructing an entirely new fabric of society that most of us are not seeing yet. We may not truly notice until some major next technology comes along and the Millennials start complaining that they can't keep up.