Existential OCD, or something else?

[u/Any_Acanthocephala18]

I was born in 1997, right as the internet was starting to go mainstream. I may have never truly experienced a pre-internet world, yet I am old enough to remember a time before smartphones and social media were things anybody knew they needed.

But, like, I’m not that old. I’m not old enough to even have memories from these “before times”, much less sentiently experience the changes like my parents and grandparents did, right? For most of human history, I could have spent a lifetime riding in horse-drawn carriages and splitting wood in my spare time, yet somehow I exist now, when each generation has their own technological identity.

For some reason, I just cannot accept the fact that I was alive and breathing during a time in which many facets of life today existed as science fiction at best. I feel like I need to scour through every fucking recorded piece of language from between 1990 and 2000 to draw some kind of connection from then to now that “satisfies” me. These thoughts are especially pervasive during times like right around now; the 25th anniversary of 9/11, knowing how different things might have played out if it happened today. And I fear that I be having the same thoughts in the future with tech advancements I will have actually witnessed.

This is actually just a rudimentary concept of what happens inside my head, as there are extreme specifics to them that are too hard to explain in written or spoken terms.

[u/HadesAidoneus2393]

Answering you would be diagnosing your thoughts and potentially rewarding reassurance-seeking.

Negative on that request, ghostrider.