When it came to the Internet, I was a bit late to the party. By 1995, I knew how to Email and use Yahoo! As a man who has had a long legacy of “starving writer”, I really didn’t bother to learn much about the web, as, in my mind, it was probably just another cool trend that would pass and we’d be comunicating via “vibes” with our brains while floating around the moon, where we’d buying craters and other mountainous property from Newt Gingrich, Realtors, complete with a deed of mistrust.
My luck he’d sell me several acres on the dark side of the moon. Sure, sounds bad but think about all the free Pink Floyd 24/7 radio stations. My wife Lee told me she’d open the only tanning salon if we moved to the dark side.
So a few years after “the next big thing” came along which was Google and later MySpace, I had a feeling I better learn this stuff.
So I signed up at one of the better colleges in the country that teaches how to do business using the Internet. I still feel blessed that I had that experience and learned things I probably could not have learned anywhere else. It is called Western Governor’s University and is known to have some of the best professors and advisory board of any college in the country. And looking at other’ scurricula I find it hard to disagree.
During that time as a student in my late forties and early fifties, Twitter was born. I was not sure what to think of it. Could it beat MySpace? Probably so. But what about that other new one facebook?
Possibly. But I decided to learn both of them and work hard to get my name out there.
Though I have no children of my own, I’ve worked with many kids teaching them the arts and martial arts. This GenX (or whomever they are) are a lot smarter and more savvy than we were at their age. As far as the birds and the bees, seems like they were born knowing that topic.
They wanted to talk geek stuff, search engines and later SEO. I knew a little of some of that stuff so they deemed me “cool” (for an old geezer). I was about 44 at the time. I’m now 59.
When my workshop/classes ended each day, generally if they didn’t walk or ride the bus home one of their parents. Most of them were age 6-15. For those of my generations if I told you the kinds of things they talk to each other about (and to their parents) you would screech on breaks. When I first heard their favorite topics of conversations, I thought I misheard several things due to the fact that my hearing is not that great.
Sadly, my hearing is fairly good and I heard what I heard. I’m no prude, and frankly these kids were not rude, not misogynist, or hateful in any way. They simply talked about topics that were very taboo, especially when I was their age, and even more especially in conversations with our parents.
So rather than get all depressed and stuff about being an ancient dinosaur, I came up with this cartoon. I think it explains how I felt, and how they think and talk.
Not long after we completed this cartoon, my first cousin’s son asked her a question very similar to what was in the cartoon. She got a very good laugh out of that, as I’d sent her a matted glossy copy. She hung it in his room, and told him he’d understand it one day….my feeling is…he probably already does….after all he’s 5 and a half.
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Rick London is an author, songwriter, designer and cartoonist. He is best known for his Londons Times Cartoons which have been Google #1 ranked offbeat cartoons and funny gifts since 2005. He is married to popular nature photographer /blogger Lee Hiller-London who owns numerous online shops of thousands of products bearing her licensed photography images. She also creates art with a likeness to Peter Maxx/mixed with nature and sea world scenes.
Rick London Syndication 
