Being in your mid-40s sucks for many reasons. Suddenly, I have to watch my calorie count. I'm googling remedies for spider veins. I have regrets. I have to come to terms with the fact that I'll never make the New Yorker's list for "Best 20 Writers Under 40." That one really hurts.

One advantage to being in one's 40s is that you have a unique perspective on life before the Internet and after the Internet. I know how to research a paper with the Internet, but I also remember looking up issues of the New York Times in those foot long tomes in the library and the joys of accelerating the microfiche machine.

I remember getting a brand new Mac when I started grad school with AOL loaded onto the machine. My friends used to come over, have a few beers and then mess with people's heads in the AOL chat rooms. I remember learning about blogs from my husband who was one of the first readers of Lileks and Instapundit. I've always been an early adopter of technology, but, unlike my kids, I knew a life before Twitter. Unlike my parents, I can use Twitter.

I think that my generation, Gen Xers, has a unique grasp of the life-changing impact of the Internet, because we have one foot in the future and one foot in the past.

The Chronicle of Higher Education profiles Clay Shirky, an Internet guru operating out of NYU and one of the Gen X generation.

Internet gurus come in two flavors — optimist and pessimist. Shirky is king of the optimists.

Shirky "argues that as Web sites become
more social, they will threaten the existence of all kinds of
businesses and organizations, which might find themselves unnecessary
once people can organize on their own with free online tools."

He also says that "if a critical mass started shifting time from TV to Wikipedia-like
creativity and sharing, society itself would change, and he thinks for
the better. Those new activities—and he gives plenty of examples in the
book of projects already under way—could center on charity, civic
engagement, coping with diseases, and more."

When Shirky looks at the Internet, he sees Wikipedia and blogs and social networks. Others see cat pictures and online shoe stores.

I like Shirky, even if he's too much of an optimist for me. I wrote a paper last year that concluded with the idea that the Internet does provide great riches. However, it is only the elite that are able to access Wikipedia and blogs; they gain knowledge, networks, and power. Everyone else ends up reading about Lindsay Lohan's alcohol monitor on Perez Hilton.