I’m picking my way through the book Generations by Jean M. Twenge, and it’s making me feel better about things. “Generational change is not just about individual people changing; it’s about cultural norms shifting.”

Layered within our daily interactions with each other and with people of different ages, then, is the steady creak of cultural change.

And there’s a reason why generational shifts seem to be happening ever more quickly: It took decades for half the country to start using a landline phone, but within five years of its debut half the country owned a smartphone. As the pace of technological change quickens so does the pace of generational change.

No wonder my head is spinning.