Virginia Black

Editor of Journal & Courier, Star Press and Pal-Item. Former adviser @PurdueExponent. Former writer-columnist-editor, @SBTribune

[Journal & Courier @jconline]

McCutcheon student-athlete wins fight to walk at graduation after error https://t.co/L2KOnO6G3F

[Journal & Courier @jconline]

Lafayette residents voice concerns over Flock Safety cameras https://t.co/yJn0Y5hXTP

[Virginia Black @vablack84]

A last gasp for Mountain Jacks tonight, may it RIP.

[Virginia Black @vablack84]

@wil_court You’ve possibly done worse for a lesser reason. 🙂

[Journal & Courier @jconline]

Mountain Jacks Steakhouse customers, employees mourn restaurant's closure https://t.co/iW1UTUZcDe

[Virginia Black @vablack84]

@hotdogsports @FHSHotDogs @csfhotdogs @IHSAA1_Official Please credit this photo to the Lafayette Journal & Courier. Thank you.

[Virginia Black @vablack84]

11 p.m.?? 😳

[Purdue Football @BoilerFootball]

💯 days out from the season.

The season opener is moved up to Friday night, and kickoff times are now set for our first 3 games 🚂⬆️

[Virginia Black @vablack84]

This young man came into our office this afternoon. I asked how this year’s football team will be, and he says the prognosis is good. I believe him.

[Journal & Courier @jconline]

Mitch Daniels to return as interim president of Purdue as Chiang departs https://t.co/3knak1KOcR

[Virginia Black @vablack84]

@jordantsmith09 Um, wow. 😳

[Virginia Black @vablack84]

@TomDienhart1 I was feeling a little sorry for myself - until I read this, and I was reminded what true struggle is. Nicely done.

[Tom Dienhart @TomDienhart1]

Brian Burhenn was diagnosed with ALS in 2022.

"I thought maybe I had a year left."

Since then, he has seen son George run out of the tunnel at Purdue and score a TD.

Next, Brian wants to see George get drafted.

The story of a father and son.
https://t.co/130EO2wYVi

[Journal & Courier @jconline]

Lafayette's Mountain Jacks Steakhouse forced to close https://t.co/tr3snaMbzg

[Journal & Courier @jconline]

James Allison lived an ordinary life on Stillwell Street, where he'd lived since 1998. He never had any contact with police until April 12. https://t.co/rTMu7JUzGc

[Big Ten Men's Basketball @B1GMBBall]

Happy 9️⃣0️⃣th, Gene Keady! 🥳

We’re celebrating by throwing it back to the B1G legend’s @BoilerBall introduction.

[Virginia Black @vablack84]

This is truth.

[Supersonic Redhead🛫 @Supersonic_Red]

There’s a generation a lot of people forget exists. We were born at the tail end of the Boomers, but we are not culturally the same as people born in the 40s and early 50s. We are Generation Jones.

And honestly, it explains a lot.

We grew up in a world that still felt fundamentally analog, but we were young enough to be dragged headfirst into the digital revolution. We are the bridge generation between rotary phones and smartphones, between slide rules and AI, between Walter Cronkite and algorithm driven media.

We remember when there were only a few television channels and the entire country watched the same thing at the same time. We also adapted to the internet, email, forums, social media, streaming and now artificial intelligence. We lived before and after the technological singularity hit everyday life.

That is not a small thing.

People born in the 40s came of age in a post World War II America that was still industrial, deeply hierarchical and institutionally stable. Their formative years were shaped by the Cold War, Vietnam, the civil rights era and a society where information moved slowly.

Generation Jones came later. We inherited the aftermath of all of that.

We were the kids who watched Watergate destroy blind trust in government. We watched manufacturing begin to collapse. We saw divorce rates explode. We were the first truly latchkey generation in massive numbers. We learned independence early because many of us had to.

We grew up with one foot in old America and one foot in whatever this new thing was becoming.

We played outside until the streetlights came on but we also learned DOS commands. We learned cursive and keyboarding. We had card catalogs and Google searches. We went from vinyl records to cassette tapes to CDs to MP3s to streaming in one lifetime.

We remember maps. We remember memorizing phone numbers. We remember life before GPS and before every human interaction became filtered through a screen.

And because of that, I think Generation Jones developed a very unique perspective. We are adaptable because we had no choice but to adapt. We learned technology as adults instead of being born into it. We remember a slower world but were forced to survive in a rapidly accelerating one.

That creates a very different mindset than either older Boomers or younger Gen X and Millennials.

A lot of us also reject the caricature people now associate with “Boomers.” We were not buying houses for the cost of a sandwich in 1965. The interest rate on my first house was over 14% and that was after buying down a point. Many of us got hit by recessions, outsourcing, pension collapses and economic instability just like younger generations did. We watched promises evaporate in real time.

We understand older generations because we were raised by them. We understand younger generations because we had to evolve alongside them.

That’s why the Jones generation often feels culturally homeless. We are rarely discussed, rarely defined and usually lumped into categories that don’t actually fit us.

But we exist.

We are the human transition point between the industrial age and the digital age.

And frankly, there will probably never be another generation quite like us again.

[Journal & Courier @jconline]

Lafayette school's actions questioned after missing 9-year-old found https://t.co/NalzYm79xu

[Tom Dienhart @TomDienhart1]

The true cost of building the Purdue football roster remains a mystery.

Said a Big Ten head coach: “Right now, however you want to say it, there really are no rules."
https://t.co/uFkcwHdCys

[BoilerMuse @BoilerMuse]

Braden Smith’s official measurements at the NBA draft combine 👀🔥🚂