Hello. Hi. How are you?

I won’t shake hands or hug.  But you didn’t expect that either. We don’t do that anymore. We’ve learned our lesson about casual social contact. ‘No touch’ is not just the auto sensor on the door, it’s become a way of life. And when we do touch, that’s very intimate, and reserved for special people, not just friends.

We’re survivors, you and I. No matter when we were born, or who our parents were, or how they identified, we’re part of a new generation. You could say we were reborn. Not in a spiritual sense, though there is some of that, but born again into a new world, a very different world. After the virus.

That’s why we’re Generation V. And we have a different perspective on life. We value the small things, like taking our time, clean water, fresh air. Sunshine, flowers. Grass. If it all sounds a bit trite, then maybe you were too young to truly experience life in the ultra-slow lane.

For a long while, we were social outcasts. Forced to be distant, from each other. Some of us tried to look out for Number One, but eventually, we all realized we were in it together, for the long haul. Together, but apart. Physically at least. It was the only thing that stopped the second wave and gave us time to get our defenses organized.

And while we were doing that, the world changed. Forever. The ‘gig economy’ is now just the way most of us work. Malls and halls have been repurposed. The office is ten steps from the bedroom. Often it is the bedroom. It’s just the new normal. Fly to a conference? No way!

The tech helped of course. We couldn’t have done it without the hyper-connectivity, machine learning, bio-nano tech, robotics and autonomous systems. They helped us survive.

But we’re still human. Generation V.