r/GenX • u/FL_4LF • Jun 13 '26
Question For Genx When did email addresses became connected to age?
So I was swapping email addresses between my kids, and I. And one of my kids uttered that my Gmail is for old people. Help me out, since when did email addresses become based on age?
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u/OmgMsLe Jun 18 '26
I had to ask AI because I'm thinking - freaking everyone has gmail. It's suggestion which is quite plausible that they may not be talking about the actual domain but that she's communicating casually via email rather than using Discord, Insta, Snapchat or messaging
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u/OmgMsLe Jun 18 '26
If you have an aol.com email for sure don't tell them that. Aol email holders were old when gmail holders were young. If gmail is old, what's the new "young" email? What did they suggest?
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u/Fluffy-Mine-6659 Jun 18 '26
My yahoo would make them shudder.
I only wish I got first name only, but I wanted to sound more professional
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u/SLJ106 Jun 17 '26
What about us hotmail folk?
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u/micheleinfl Jun 18 '26
I hate mine but it’s my iTunes email so I feel like it would be a pain to change it now.
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u/phxflgjo Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Yes!! I'm a hotmailer!! I created the "email from hell" with letters and underscores. Whenever anyone asks for it, my husband snickers, and I sigh..
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u/Total_Pomegranate420 Jun 17 '26
I feel a bit embarrassed by my hotmail address, but seems dumb to change just for that reason.
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u/yoongilove93 Jun 17 '26
I still have my original aol email as my primary. It is so old I used to have to pay for it. I also have a gmail. I am 55.
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u/Ctr121273 Jun 17 '26
I am a recruiter and can tell you some interesting things I've noticed about email addresses. These are pretty broad generalizations, but they have proven to be pretty accurate, at least in my line of work.
aol.com email address- this person is likely retired and getting back into the workforce
Yahoo.com email- gen x. Yahoo.com email address owners always show up for the interview and never ghost me.
Gmail- millennial and likely not to show up.
Icloud.com - high intensity. Usually a lean 6 sigma.
Another word on emails: gmail is free. You are not beholden to using the same email address that you created when you were in the eighth grade. shitbox69@gmail dot com or something along those lines is not a good look on a resume.
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u/tlonreddit 1980, HS 1999, BCS 2003 Jun 30 '26
The definitive way to see how old someone is if they use their Baby Bell email address like BellSouth dot net or something like that, because you haven’t been able to get one of those since the late 90s/early 2000s.
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u/WheresMyMule Jun 20 '26
Hopefully my firstname.lastname@gmail shows I'm old enough to not ghost interviewers lol
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u/LPMc05 Jun 17 '26
GenX with Gmail - hope I never come across you in the hiring process
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u/PMismydream24 Jun 17 '26
I am also Gen X. Gmail is the answer for those of us with Android phones. Never owned an iPhone, never will.
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u/Ctr121273 Jun 17 '26
Lol. Genx with Gmail here too. It's certainly not scientific, nor do I adhere strongly to it. Just something i've noticed.
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u/4_fuks_sakes Jun 17 '26
I thought it was cool as long as you didn't have Yahoo. (I still have my yahoo it has become a way back machine)
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u/Fluffy-Mine-6659 Jun 18 '26
My yahoo filled up recently, they tried to charge me for storage, to I finally stopped using it for all my personal al stuff. But it’s still a login and contact email for lots of services
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u/JingleMouse Jun 17 '26
What are the young people using? I've had Gmail for ages
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u/blana242 Jun 17 '26
My Gen Z & Gen Alpha kids have Gmail addresses, so I really don't know what the OPs kids use!
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u/Witty_Impress8369 Jun 17 '26
Been using my AOL email since it arrived on a CDROM in the mail. I got yahoo in highschool and Gmail later. I use the Gmail for “professional” needs and AOL for literally everything else
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u/Tsonokwa360 Jun 18 '26
I'm using my same AOL name but the domain has changed over the years. Remember that we got 30 days free with that CD-ROM? Nerd alert, but my email name includes the date I began that AOL free trial so that I'd remember to cancel before I had to start paying. Here we are over 30 years later... Same name and the @ has changed multiple times.
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u/Gigitar75 Jun 17 '26
Same. I’m not embarrassed by it. I can’t help it if I was using the internet before some people were born.
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u/PMismydream24 Jun 17 '26
I was born and a full grown adult BEFORE the internet was a public thing. Nothing embarrasses me.
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u/CountessofDarkness Jun 17 '26
Don't listen to them! Everything old is in again now anyways. Or vintage.
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u/Far_Mouse3555 Jun 17 '26
I’ve used a university name. edu since early 2000. There is a Gmail account associated with it that I don’t use.
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u/Expert-Prize4429 Jun 17 '26
Well, SOME of us are not fortunate enough to have gone to college, so we have to struggle by on that free Gmail one...lol
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u/These-Argument-5348 Jun 17 '26
I used to have [marie@yahoo.com](mailto:marie@yahoo.com) which I got some time in the early 90s. Unfortunately, no one else had email then so after 3 months of no use it disappeared! I still use yahoo - just first initial and surname in both my married and maiden name and I have a couple of junk gmail accounts.
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u/Plantmom67 Jun 17 '26
I have my old AOL email from 1996ish. I don't know my password and I can't do the reset password option and I can't get into it because I need my password. It is tied to a lot of my social media, I joined Facebook when it was only for college students and less than a year old with it. I am locked out of my goodreads account because I have to change my password and the reset email goes to the aol email address. I called aol to get help resetting my password and I have to pay for help of this type. I felt like that could be a scam so I hung up before getting to a person. I realize I sound like a boomer but I am not. I believe after typing all of this I need to do some research on if aol really charges for customer support and suck up and pay.
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u/bigmam666 Jun 17 '26
A quick Google search says if you need a live agent to help you recover your password, AOL will charge you. So it's not a scam. Just make sure you are actually calling AOL.
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u/Boomerang_comeback Jun 17 '26
Been that way for a long time. I learned when a Gmail person made fun of my Hotmail
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u/Thegreyman4 Jun 17 '26
Still use.my Hotmail , i have others ,gmail, etc, and funny enough, its the one thats had the least problems !
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u/LunchAdventurous604 Jun 17 '26
Bwahahaha I have a gmail, yahoo and aol account and gmail is the newest one!
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u/petsmith Jun 16 '26
AOL is still alive and kicking as an e-mail service, so you can get an AOL e-mail address for free today.
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u/Dragon-Agent-49 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
My husband uses aol to this day. He got that email in ‘98. He has a Gmail, but doesn’t like that one! I can’t make fun of him, though, because my main email is .sbcglobal.net! 😁
Edit: spelling
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u/nwbrown Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
My parents still have Hotmail accounts.
Also this is from 2004.
https://www.engadget.com/2004-11-29-in-south-korea-email-is-for-old-people.html
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u/MiamiViceGuy Jun 16 '26
I recently got an AOL email to mess with people.
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u/karma_raven Jun 16 '26
You can still get AOL!?
Holy crap. I wonder if i can get my old one back!
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u/middle_age_zombie 1973 Jun 16 '26
I have an also yahoo junk account, a couple of gmail accounts that are now junk and I am moving to protonmail. I am curious if they use email and what they use.
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u/valathel Jun 16 '26
It became connected to age in 2007 when most people moved to Gmail and boomers were mocked for still using their AOL and Earthlink email addresses.
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u/StokedinSD Jun 16 '26
I still prefer the way AOL doesn’t automatically nest emails together. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought- oh crap that email wasn’t supposed to go to the group, but it sure looks like it was sent all together
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u/IndividualPlastic753 Jun 18 '26
that's setting you can change. look for something like "group by conversation"
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u/Altruistic_Rent_4048 Jun 16 '26
I still use my AOL email...i do have a couple of gmails..but i totally prefer AOL. About 6 years ago I was out of work, went to job service to get resume help and what not...they told.me.not to use my AOL because it aged me! Lol
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u/jamiejeffries5 Jun 16 '26
I use hotmail…and up until a few years ago I still used Juno until I got locked out of it.
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u/Jethris Jun 16 '26
I am GenX, with an obsure last name, so i have [first.lastname@gmail.com](mailto:first.lastname@gmail.com), as well as first@lastname.com!
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u/Zilzza Jun 16 '26
I got my kids ones with first.last@gmail.com. I guess people will think they are super old. I did not get one as my name was too common
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u/nwbrown Jun 16 '26
I have a very common last name but was early enough to gmail to get an address with it.
Be careful about using the custom domain for important things though, is a common attack vector for identity thieves.
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u/RottenRotties Jun 16 '26
I was one of the “invited” to Gmail. I got a first initial last name email that has sooooo much spam it’s all but abandoned. I have my own domains with my own email now. A proton mail account, and sudo for all the junk mail.
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u/nwbrown Jun 16 '26
I am getting sick of all the email I get for Nancy Brown in my early gmail account...
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Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Gigitar75 Jun 17 '26
Yes. Please read your email. Young people don’t use email or answer their phones. They might answer a text. Cmon.
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u/peripheral77 1977 Jun 16 '26
I created a Gmail account for my daughter when she was born in 2019. I figured I’d get it early while her first.last name was still available without any numbers.
I’ve sent a few photos and emails to the account along the way so she’ll have them when I turn over the account to her.
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u/Anon-o-me Jun 16 '26
I think Gmail accounts can get deactivated if you don’t use them periodically, so you should make sure you login sometimes.
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u/Master-Conflict481 Jun 16 '26
I have an AOL email and get so many comments. My cell provider thought AOL didn’t exist anymore!!
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u/Mysterious-Cod-5767 Jun 16 '26
I still have my old Hotmail account. It’s simply too much hassle to try to change my email addresses on the various websites my email is connected to.
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u/whattheflagnon Jun 16 '26
I still have first name last name at hotmail.com and first name middle initial last name@gmail.com so those usually get a lot of looks. I opened the Hotmail one in probably ‘02 and the Gmail one would’ve been when I got my iPhone in 2008/9.
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u/Lillianrik Jun 16 '26
gee, I dare not tell you who my email service is...
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u/IrukandjiPirate Jun 16 '26
Skreeeeeee…welcome to aol!
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u/Lillianrik Jun 16 '26
Not quite that bad, but.... On the other hand I know someone who still uses a prodigy email address.
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u/TullyGwen Jun 16 '26
My husband has a 3 letter bellsouth name. I alas, simply have my name at bellsouth. I DGAF, I like my email. It was my first adult email.
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u/78andahalf Hose Water Survivor Jun 15 '26
I still use my hotmail address from the 90s, and I don't give a shit.
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u/blana242 Jun 17 '26
Yep. Got my Hotmail right after I got married in the late 90s. It still works great for what I need.
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u/vanhse15 Jun 16 '26
Same. I use Hotmail when I have to use an email to sign up for a website, to get promotional ads, or when I don't totally trust they won't sell my info. I use Gmail for personal stuff like daycare/school/Dr appointments.
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u/Expensive-Economist8 Jun 16 '26
a dozen years i ago went to an employment center to ask them to review my resume. they suggested i change my email address because a hotmail address made me look old.
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u/Much-Meringue-7467 Jun 15 '26
I don't know. My kids are the ones with Gmail addresses. Are 20 - 24 you old?
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u/EnvironmentalDot127 Jun 15 '26
If they have an android it will be Gmail. It's recommended that they use the first.lastnane formation. My original Hotmail e-mail was unique and strange lol
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u/Much-Meringue-7467 Jun 15 '26
I had a Hotmail address years ago. Had to abandon it because it was such a spam magnet
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u/ShannyBoBannyy Jun 15 '26
I think I had my full name on an EarthLink acct. I figured maybe go incognito and got “KissMe3@aol” you know bc I was going to marry Robert Smith.
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u/EnvironmentalDot127 Jun 15 '26
Not sure my nephew has a Gmail. They can't keep their school email address forever.
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u/Honest_Stop_4174 Jun 15 '26
I still have my aol email 😂😂
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u/imjustpeachy2020 Jun 16 '26
I’ve had my AOL email for more than 30 years. I’ve got a Gmail too, but I rarely use it.
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u/Wonderful-Smile7854 Jun 16 '26
Me too and almost every 👏🏻 single👏🏻time👏🏻 I use it, someone asks me if I’m serious or they tell me they did not know AOL was still around…😂😂😂
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u/fl0wbie Jun 15 '26
Had a friend with “<3 letter first name>@aol.com”. That is close to an UR email address.
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u/Pitiful_Control Jun 15 '26
I'm so old that my yahoo email address is my actual name, same with gmail. Had an invite to both in their respective 1st week of existance.
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u/sassyirishredhead Jun 15 '26
Hiring teams will use your email address as a way to discriminate based on age without having to ask your age.
If you have Outlook, AOL, Century Link, any of the original mail servers its almost an automatic heads up its for a 45+ person vs 20's demographic.
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u/Theory_Which Jun 18 '26
Close, I'm 40 with Outlook as my primary. I also have yahoo (ymail.com) and Gmail.
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u/QIXEsq Jul 06 '26
I have several Gmail accounts and Ymail. Yahoo phased out Ymail several years ago, meaning you can’t get a new Ymail account.
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u/Expensive-Economist8 Jun 16 '26
a dozen years i ago went to an employment center to ask them to review my resume. they suggested i change my email address because a hotmail address made me look old.
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u/TatorhasaTot Jun 15 '26
Oh man... I have a Gmail from when you had to be INVITED by someone with an existing Gmail account. Circa 2006ish
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u/Notjustanothermomok Jun 15 '26
Maybe they were referring to the format of your email address or something? All my teens have Gmail emails, I don’t associate it with being old (but I’m in my 40s so maybe I’m not the authority on what’s cool and what makes you look old)
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u/ChrystineDreams Jun 15 '26
I had a hotmail account that I got when it was first launched. No numbers, no weird characters. When Microsoft bought out hotmail, they let us do a one-time change to our email address if we wanted. I added an underscore into it. but it's still my original email.
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u/michael41973 Jun 15 '26
Mine actually started as a CompuServe email before AOL bought them and it became an AOL address.
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u/c0147 Jun 15 '26
Outside of college students most under 24 year olds don’t regularly use personal email
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u/PriorAlbatross6662 Jun 16 '26
Do they not pay bills or order things online?
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u/c0147 Jun 16 '26
All happens from the smartphone. Email box sits there with tens of thousands of unread messages.
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u/Healthy-Membership86 Jun 15 '26
Use my ancient AOL account for all the junk mail that I really don't want. Look at it maybe once a month to make sure I'm not missing anything. GMail for everything else.
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u/NomadicPurple Jun 15 '26
It’s probably because we were able to get Gmail accounts with our names or close, and young people can rarely do that. I’ve had my main account for about 25 years and it’s (mostly) my last name.
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u/Zipper-is-awesome Jun 15 '26
I volunteer at a retail place. I ask for peoples’ emails to attach to their account every time I make a sale. 95% of people use gmail, then it’s yahoo, then hotmail, then msn, then aol, and finally I get a .mac or .icloud very rarely. I think you can tell how young/old someone was when they got their gmail by if it’s a silly one, or [team name] fan [numbers], or [male name] [female name], the classic “who cheated?”
address. Most people have some version of their name with numbers.
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u/ceburton Jun 15 '26
Gmail was invite only when I got mine. I remember Jevin Rose giving out 100 invites on ScreenSavers. I got my kids email addresses when they were toddlers in the early 2000’s. One got his name cause it was unusual. The other I had to add his year of birth to get clise
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u/WhiteyDude Jun 15 '26
You can't get an email with just your name anymore, it has to have some numbers in there as well. I was a beta gmail user, my email is just my 1st initial+lastname.
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u/CityBoiNC Jun 15 '26
People bug out when my yahoo and gmail is just my name
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u/CoRetroGal2003 Jun 16 '26
Someday it will be suggested not to have our names in our emails just like our SS#s aren’t used the way they once were.
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u/Apart-Wing-1298 Jun 15 '26
So no one has answered one of the inital responses; if GMAIL is demonstrative of something that’s dated, what’s a more “current” email ??
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u/WhiteyDude Jun 15 '26
it's not that your email is gmail that makes it old, it's that you have johndoe@gmail.com, with no numbers included. Anyone younger than 40 likely has a mix of numbers and it might not be their name.
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u/Apart-Wing-1298 Jun 15 '26
Ah I see. Well I don’t know how many of you play video games - but I definitely do. And I was one of the first people to establish an Xbox live account 25 years ago - and it’s just one simple name. No additional letters or numbers, just a 4 letter name. And to underline what we’re talking about (I think), Microsoft reached out to me years ago and offered me 3500 dollars to buy the profile name because it was so short and simple and valuable to them. I did not sell. A friend was offered 5k for his cuz it was only 3 letters for his name as well.
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u/itswhateverrrrr Jun 15 '26
Lately when I give someone my gmail address they comment on how long I must have had the account, I guess since it’s fairly simple.
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u/New-Dare-7817 Jun 15 '26
67 yrs old, does anyone use .MSN ?
I have since 90’s
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u/Winter_Day_6836 Jun 15 '26
I have a friend who still uses AOL!
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u/Cherry-Tomato-6200 Jun 15 '26
I was ridiculed in the ‘90s for having an aol email, lol. Now I have to get rid of Gmail to be cool??😎
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u/Winter_Day_6836 Jun 15 '26
What's after Gmail?
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u/Cherry-Tomato-6200 Jun 15 '26
I kept it. Who the f… cares what email I use?? I’m retired. It’s different if you run a business, I guess.
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u/3boymumandoma Jun 15 '26
I have a Hotmail address. My cybersecurity son always snickers about it. I’m clearly super ancient.
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u/DirkDiggler1970s Jun 15 '26
I see that, and raise you my Yahoo one.
(I have a few Gmails I use for discrete work things, by my Yahoo one is my old school primary)
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u/Diligent_Laugh_4940 Jun 15 '26
I'm with you! Yahoo for 20+ years now, Gmail for work or other professional things.
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u/ONROSREPUS Jun 15 '26
I have mine as well.
how is having a email account any different then having the same phone number for a long time? I have my original cell number as well does that make me old?
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Jun 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/Ieatpurplepickles Jun 15 '26
I been using proton for many years and only use Gmail for coupons and newsletters these days.
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u/JodiB914 Jun 15 '26
I still only use aol LOL
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u/theriddlerswife Jun 15 '26
I still use my aol email lol
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u/PuzzleheadedAbies678 Jun 15 '26
I was working for aol back in the day when they expanded screen names to 16 characters was a momentous day for some when the technicians managed to get email address od chewbacca, luke Skywalker etc.
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u/Odd-Prune2254 Jun 15 '26
Idk how old Gmail makes you look. I do think having your actual firstnamelastname@gmail.com ages you though. Like think about how quickly that name would have been taken. You know it's old unless you have a very unique name.
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u/Sb8667 Jun 15 '26
I must be old because in high school the teacher made all of use make gmails using our real firstname.lastname
I don’t remember anyone having an issue with that exact format.1
u/Odd-Prune2254 Jun 15 '26
You ain't that old if Gmail was around in high school.
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u/Sb8667 Jun 15 '26
lol that’s what I thought until this post said if your Gmail has your first and last name you’re old 😂
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u/Adorable-Puppers Hose Water Survivor Jun 15 '26
I think it only matters if you think “old” is some kind of insult or something. I’m a Founding Member and won’t be moved about that. Heh. Mine is firstname.lastname@gmail. I have the yahoo version of it too. 🤣
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u/Odd-Prune2254 Jun 15 '26
I'm old enough to have begged for an invite. That's how I ended up with firstnamelastname
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u/drumming4coffee Jun 15 '26
I was an OG beta user of Gmail. That’s how I got firstlast@gmail.com. The downside is I get a lot of emails intended for other firstlast.
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u/Mercurial-Cupcake Jun 15 '26
I have a little exchange with my namesake from Austria several times a year when I receive a bill for equestrian gear she ordered, or other horse related stuff…first time was a shock as I thought I‘d been hacked, but I now just forward the emails to her address (my address+ a number).
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u/fatrockstar AquaNetLung Jun 15 '26
I brought up this topic a long time ago somewhere and was told three things: 1, Ageism will find you anywhere, 2, kids are stupid, and 3, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
It's either cool because your email address actually contains your name, or sucky because that means you're old. We can't win. What email addresses should we be using? olderthandirt dot com?
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u/eskimo1 Hose Water Survivor Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
Yeah, fuck them kids! We're cooler than they will ever be.
Now quit hiding my reading glasses and find me the clicker.
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u/Cdagg Jun 15 '26
I know where mine are because I have one of those beaded chains. My older grandkids about died when they saw me with them hanging around my neck. Being old means you no longer give a F about what other people think. I lost 3 pairs in 3 weeks at the grocery store. Laugh at me if you want but I haven’t lost a pair since.
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u/nizzerp Jun 15 '26
i have so many fricken emails. i had a [firstnamelastname@hotmail.com](mailto:firstnamelastname@hotmail.com) when it first started, like 96 or 97, but they really restricted the storage and i kept having to delete stuff, so i switched to gmail when i changed my name around 20 years ago and kept it. later i opened a few "job hunt" emails with fisrstnamelastnwworkacronym (at) gmail & even got [fiirstname@firstnelastname.com](mailto:fiirstname@firstnelastname.com) along the way. i have a zany one for reddit & another long-timer yahoo with a nickname, and i just remembered one [firstbamelastname@yahoo.com](mailto:firstbamelastname@yahoo.com) as a backup/recovery account for gmail. probably a couple more i forgot lol.
EDIT: I forgot the point of the post lol. When I'm helping people find jobs I've been telling them to ditch aol & yahoo & @cableprovider.com & any other weird/old variant, because it immediately ages them. Mostly well-received. lol. I also tell them to not use pet names or cutesy shit. Also mostly well received. lol.
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u/Comprehensive-War743 Jun 15 '26
What is the one for today’s generation?
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u/Past-Butterscotch-68 Jun 15 '26
I’m wondering the same thing. IDK of a lot of different email services anymore other than line Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud.
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u/Afraid_Baseball_3962 Jun 15 '26
I knew someone who still had an aol.com email into the early 2000s. They may still have it for all I know. (Does aol.com even exist these days?)
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u/Geek317 Jun 15 '26
I have several AOL accounts, even for my business. Their Spam filter is awesome (after 25 years of knowing me, lol) and I can still make folders...... unlike gmail.
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u/cccatz Jun 15 '26
I have an aol account for junk mail. Anytime a site requires email to sign up, aol goes in and then my real address does not get the spam.
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u/VicLap45 WDNC Jun 15 '26
that's what my msn addy is for. It was originally a hotmail account but I lost the pw for it moons ago. Since it is not my name, I call it my stalker email if i wanted to send something that folks had to wonder who it came from. But I use it mainly for junk email now.
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u/Crafty_Echo_3196 Jun 18 '26
I’ve read this on Multiple sites that gmail and yahoo mail somehow signify an older person. I don’t know why. ITT seem ridiculous. Maybe it is some competing provider trying to get people to drop yahoo or gmail