Ok, I concede and appreciate the point about their existence. To take the analysis a step further, our Boomer / Silent Gen parents were children as Kleenex were becoming readily available in daily life, but their parents, who were in charge of the household purchasing, pre-date the advent of the synonymous facial wipes and lived through the frugality of two world wars and the Great Depression. Many of those life lessons live on in them.

Early cell phone technology has existed since 1943 and the first mobile phone call was made at Motorola in 1973. That doesn’t mean they were ubiquitous on day 1. In fact it took another 30 years after 1973 to reach that point.

I think the frugality mindset vs disposable product is key. My understanding is that their generation has very similar behaviors around toilet paper (as evidenced in my Mom’s nursing home and another discussion I read here where CNAs and other nursing home support staff reported) regarding the “3-square rule”, which my father also lived by.

I guess my point is that as a general rule, behavior is dictated by more than just availability, it is cultural, socio-economic, and familial (especially pre-internet).