With millennials now hovering between 30 and 40, they are beginning to feel their age online. As the first generation to have also spent their youth on the internet, how does this feel? From first-hand experience, Helena Fitzgerald insightfully explores the emotions behind going old online.

When I first got online, the internet felt so much like the future as to be science fiction. Early social media was grimy and chaotic and had nothing to do with family, careers, or any part of polite visible life. It was always 2 am on the internet; it was always a sleepover after somebody’s parents had gone to bed. The internet was the opposite of our parents’ world. It was, by definition, not for old people. Old people, from a preteen’s perspective, probably meant anyone over 25.