We live in a dynamic time. It is not my original thought but I think that rates of change between generations are different for different people in different circumstances.

I share your questions as a person but am reluctant to make a history from them.

Does every generation finally get to the point where they don't recognize the world anymore? — frank

I would think so. I remember my grandmother saying that culture no longer made sense to her—she was a fundamentalist Christian born in the 1890s. The moon landing and the hippie movement shook her reality. In the 1980s, my father made a similar observation during the time of glasnost. Now, I find myself telling young colleagues that I no longer have a clear understanding of where I stand on culture or politics, and I hope they can make sense of it all. I suspect this feeling of disconnection is one of the defining phenomena of modernity.

Does every generation finally get to the point where they don't recognize the world anymore? — frank

Frank, the answer to your question can be found in a lecture by Michael Crichton called "Aliens Cause Global Warming".

Here is the relevant quote:

Remember, people in 1900 didn’t know what an atom was. They didn’t know its structure. They also didn’t know what a radio was, or an airport, or a movie, or a television, or a computer, or a cell phone, or a jet, an antibiotic, a rocket, a satellite, an MRI, ICU, IUD, IBM, IRA, ERA, EEG, EPA, IRS, DOD, PCP, HTML, internet, interferon, instant replay, remote sensing, remote control, speed dialing, gene therapy, gene splicing, genes, spot welding, heat-seeking, bipolar, prozac, leotards, lap dancing, email, tape recorder, CDs, airbags, plastic explosive, plastic, robots, cars, liposuction, transduction, superconduction, dish antennas, step aerobics, smoothies, twelve-step, ultrasound, nylon, rayon, teflon, fiber optics, carpal tunnel, laser surgery, laparoscopy, corneal transplant, kidney transplant, AIDS. None of this would have meant anything to a person in the year 1900. They wouldn’t know what you are talking about.

So true!

would think so. I remember my grandmother saying that culture no longer made sense to her—she was a fundamentalist Christian born in the 1890s. The moon landing and the hippie movement shook her reality. In the 1980s, my father made a similar observation during the time of glasnost — Tom Storm

Exactly. She must have lived every day feeling like she didn't recognize the world.

Now, I find myself telling young colleagues that I no longer have a clear understanding of where I stand on culture or politics, and I hope they can make sense of it all. I suspect this feeling of disconnection is one of the defining phenomena of modernity. — Tom Storm

I feel the same way. I'm just not engaged with it. I just can't make sense of it.

We live in a dynamic time. It is not my original thought but I think that rates of change between generations are different for different people in different circumstances. — Paine

Yep

I think we live in legitimately strange times. I doubt anyone in history has seen more change than someone who was born in the West in the 1930's and dies when they are 95.

Does every generation finally get to the point where they don't recognize the world anymore? — frank

I don't think so. There have been periods, in various places, when not much changed for several generations - or even a couple of centuries.
And then there are periods of upheaval. Natural disaster, scientific advancement, invasion by an exotic foreign power... The 20th century was very busy, indeed, becoming global through war and commerce. Even before 1900, the European colonization of practically everywhere had already set the stage for globalization, but working people in most places still lived much the same life as their parents and grandparents had.
Then the technological surge in industry, transportation and communications connected every place to every other place, and affected every life.

Maybe it's just us then.

No, I believe this is one of those volatile periods. In prehistory, extreme events - a major flood or drought, a devastating inter-tribal war - would be local; even if an entire people was wiped out or dispersed, the rest of the world continued on its appointed rounds. Nature healed over the wounds, so to speak.

Later on, with city-states and large-scale exploration, trade and war, goods and information reached more diverse people and the effects of a local upheaval were far more widely felt. Even so, those relatively small empires came and went, changing the world for their own citizens and near neighbours - while those on another continent would carry on bau.
Still, the wreckage took decades or centuries for the earth to subsume and the technological advancements - particularly those in mobility - were continued by other peoples, changing their lives also.

Now that everyone is connected and interdependent, every invention shakes up lives around the world, every conflict sucks in nations adjacent and distant, every economic trend results in altered international relations, every new industrial venture lays waste to lands far from its source and every political upheaval in a powerful nation is a global crisis.
Nature can't heal these wound in mere centuries; it would take a thousand years, at least - from the day we stopped creating crises.
Until then the changes were seeing will only accelerate.

As an OG (old guy) I look at it this way: some things are beyond my understanding because I choose to let those things drift off. I don't have the energy or desire to stay on top of all the changes going on. Thirty years from now (whether I'm alive or not), I would choose a child born today (1/1/25) to organize policy on artificial intelligence over a person who is seventy years old. When I was a young guy, I had the energy and time to scope out the latest and greatest, and I was doing my daily living within the new technologies and was able to handle them well enough to get what I needed/wanted. For new generations, they are embedded in whatever technology and social mores they grow up in, becoming fluent in them.

Part of the process of aging is letting go of some things and holding on tighter to others, depending on your priorities. OGs should just sit back and admire, or be aghast, at the new stuff coming out, realizing that each successive generation has to try to create the world they choose to live in. Some things OGs like or dislike will disappear, and some new things they like or dislike will appear.

Since life being static is sometimes associated with death, getting to the point where the world is unrecognizable could be considered a sign of new life coming forth.