This weekend, I was sitting and listening to people tell stories from their high school days, laughing about trouble that they got it, and talking about the crazy things they got up to.

It was fun to listen to, but it got me thinking about my own child, and the kids I teach every day. What are their stories going to be?

Are they going to laugh about the YouTube pranks that they shared between classes? Are they going to meet a friend for lunch virtually, as they both sit in different restaurants on different sides of the state? What will reminiscing look like when our kids begin to do it?

Unless “old school cool” makes it full circle to sitting on a back porch, whittling because it’s ironic becomes a thing, I doubt it will resemble what we see today as “looking back fondly.”

Will that make it any less meaningful for our kids, who we have introduced technology too at such an early age that 2 year olds can shut down and restart an iPhone? (Admit it, you were still digging in your nose at that age!) I doubt it will be, it will simply be their nostalgia to recall when you actually had to hold a phone with your hands, or dial with your finger and not simply think the name of the person who you wish to call.

These might seem like outlandish claims for the future, but look at the tech that Back to The Future 3 got right! No, we don’t have hoverboards or flying cars, yet, but we do have touch panels in some homes to control the houses multiple gadgets. We have cell phones that you can wear now. We thankfully don’t have the goofy multicolored clothes, or the double neckties they wore. (Seriously, how the heck were you supposed to TIE those things?!?)

I digress. (It happens, if you know me, you’re not really surprised.)

I hate to say it, but soon the tales that are told to hearty laughter around a table won’t be about who did the stupid things in class to get attention, but who got the most likes on a prank online, or whose twitter feed was followed by a celebrity the most.

Or whatever social media will replace what we are using today, because that will probably happen in the next 5 minutes.

And you know it will be our kids that let us know what that will be.

Ben Cox is a man of many parts. A frequent fixture of the Lyric Theater stage, the in stadium voice of the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets, educator, mobile DJ, drummer, father, boyfriend, avid tv watcher, and has been known to be a teller of Dad-jokes.