Talk:1548: 90s Kid

Usual gripes that the median does not have to mean typical 13:49, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

(Above comment not properly signed..? It's not me, anyway.) I authored the first go at an explanation. Looks too wordy. But probably could do with other links to the various other "time flies, doesn't it?" cartoons, if anything ought to be added.

Not sure about my comments about LOL. I didn't really encounter it in force until >2000, before which I never really experienced Web 2.0. "ROFL" or various smilies having been the more standard on areas of Usenet that I frequented in the decade before that where web pages were rarely quite so chatty and 'social' IME.

(My own childhood was in the '70s in the UK. For some reason I'm actually fairly aware of Rugrats, but Doug is just something 'I know about'. There must be a child of the '90s, or late '80s, who can better describe the shows.) 141.101.98.252 14:07, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Median may not be typical, but it *does* mean right at the 50% mark, which means that a significant portion of the top half of the bell curve is going to be 90s kids, with the proportion continuing to increase throughout the decade as more years from the 90s come of age. 173.245.56.169 14:09, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

"Typical" doesn't have quite as strict a meaning as "median" ... but yeah, assuming the median date of birth of a new mother is 1 January 1990, then half of all new mothers are pre-90's kids. Taking into account mothers born in the 2000s, this would mean that the majority of new mothers are NOT 90's kids. Cosmogoblin (talk) 14:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

I teach British teenagers, and they scoff at people who "still use facebook". These "time passes" comics are getting a little tedious for my tastes. Cosmogoblin (talk) 14:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

What the hell are you supposed to use? 108.162.215.32 14:52, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Twitter and/or IRC. Although if I ever choose to post something lengthy, I go with either pastebin or (and yes people will laugh at this) my ancient LiveJournal. PsyMar (talk) 15:09, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Snapchat, usually. "Charlotte, stop using Snapchat." "How did you know I was using Snapchat?" "You're ALWAYS using Snapchat." Cosmogoblin (talk) 16:10, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

BTW, Cosmogoblin, you're probably right to change my original "'90s" to "90's" based on the comic style, but I thoroughly disagree with the format Randall chooses. Stylebooks be damned (or at least those that say it can/should be done this way), but as a contraction of the plural of "1990" it really ought to have an apostrophe (if anywhere) for the characters lost in the contraction and no apostrophe for the pluralisation. (In fact, in the comic, it should actually be "90s' kid", best to omit the first apostrophe and put the second where it actually belongs in this possessive context.) Rant over. 141.101.98.252 15:02, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

I absolutely agree! If the comic didn't have the 90's format I'd have preferred 90s (or even 1990s). Thank you your polite comment. I noticed that the actual comic title is "90s Kid", no apostrophe! Cosmogoblin (talk) 16:10, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Oy, I had to get a word or two in here on this. While I agree with the logic behind the recommended placement (or absense) of the apostrophe, I think there's a place for them anywhere. Like the comma, I think the apostrophe can be placed where it can reduce confusion or the like. In this case, to split a number from a letter. If that's not done then I want to pronounce it as ninety-ess, as if it were a code (such as s70b45t).

I disagree on the possessiveness. Would "New York kid" be similar? It would not be "New York's kid".... Location or location in time don't get possessive. Think of it as if it was 1994 kid, a single year. Yep, now you understand. (That's all the example and thought I have on it, so, if you have a winning example, let's hear it.) Azule (talk) 17:58, 8 July 2015 (UTC)