You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without the World Wide Web.
In October 2015, Adrienne LaFrance wrote about the disappearance of published content—including a Pulitzer finalist's 34-part investigative series—from the internet.
Around the time you were born, President George H.W. Bush announced a ceasefire to end the Gulf War.
In January 2016, Alan Tayler published a photo essay marking the 25th anniversary of the Gulf War.
You were born in February of 1991. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 6 times as old as you.
The year you were born, Witold Rybczynski wrote about the history of work and leisure time.
Jason Redmond / AP
At 10 years old, you were part of the generation most shaped by 9/11.
The conflicts and displacements touched off around the world by the attacks have been reverberating for the majority of your life. “This ‘war’ [on terrorism] will never be over,” wrote James Fallows, a few years after the towers fell.
Paramount
This is what Hollywood thought teenagers looked like the year you became one.
Mean Girls was released in 2004.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after Facebook.
In May 2012, Stephen Marche wrote about how Facebook and other social-media platforms were making people lonely, even as they connected them to others more than ever before.
Jack Plunkett / Invision / AP
In 2007, Tyler, the Creator, who was born the same year as you, co-founded the alternative hip-hop collective Odd Future.
In April 2015, Spencer Kornhaber wrote about why physical albums will never die.
Around your 18th birthday, former Serbian President Milan Milutinović was acquitted of Kosovo war crimes.
In February 2013, Liam Hoare wrote about how the U.S. and Europe could help secure gains made in Kosovo since the state gained its independence.
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
When you turned 19, you witnessed the revolutionary fervor that transformed the Arab world in 2010, a movement led by your generation.
When 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire, he ignited a tinderbox of protests that continue to roil the Middle East, and kindled the beginnings of democracy in Tunisia.
By the time you turn 40, the collective GDP of the four leading developing countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) is likely to match that of today's leading Western nations.
In February 2012, Charles A. Kupchan wrote about the world's emerging economies, and how the world will look by 2050.
History is happening all around you, every day.
The Atlantic is here to help you process it, in stories like these:
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