It’s official, I have started to feel old. At only 25 years old, the “i’m too old for this shit” concept is ever present in my head nowadays. I went to a drum & bass gig a couple of weeks ago and picture me, stood in a crowd of teens who were attempting to mosh listening to music I can’t even stand to call music trying desperately to get out of the crowds and stand outside just to calm down and imagine how much happier I would have been at a nice pub, talking about Game of Thrones or discussing world politics with my equally as chilled out friends.
It got me thinking about age and the differences between generations. I think millennials are lucky in the sense that we grew up with the best of both worlds. We had technology, but we also weren’t saturated in it. We could play outside without (too much) fear of the dangerous world we live in, we could play doctor and not be tempted instead by the online multiplayer doctor campaign on Xbox. I actually grew up with a playstation but it didn’t take over my life on account of the fact many of my social circle didn’t. So what was the use in playing something I couldn’t engage with anyone else about? Now I watch my 8 year old cousin, he plays xbox ALL the time. If you take him out without his Ipad, it’s like watching a heroin addict go cold turkey. He fidgets, he can’t communicate well, he’s bored, he’s largely disconnected to the world around him because he, like most 8 year old’s now are addicted to screens. So am I, to the extent that I use technology every day, but I use it to write, I use it to watch TV shows that everyone else does so I can have a conversation with them about it the next day. My cousin doesn’t. He doesn’t play outside, he doesn’t have face-to-face conversations with his friends, instead it’s all done via the headset he’s glued to.
I question my aunt about it as I watch him. “Are you worried he’s not developing all the social skills we had growing up?” I ask her.
She shrugs “I don’t know, honestly, I don’t know. All I do know is, this is what all the kids are like now.”
I can’t argue with that. No matter how unhealthy I think it is, it’s true. Most kids are like that now. I feel sorry for them. Rather than point the accusatory finger and say popular culture is shallow now. It’s what is being fed to them. The world tells us kids can’t play outside anymore because it’s too dangerous. Besides, when we were growing up, our escape to imaginary worlds was a poorly rendered Lara Croft with square boobs, the kids now have these open-world games with amazing graphics that make you feel like you really are in another world, who wouldn’t want to escape to that?
The other point baby boomers like to make is that younger generations are entitled, we expect everything handed to us on a plate, we think we can be famous by doing nothing, we can review products and make millions and that’s too easy etc. Well, that’s something else i was thinking of the other day. The job market nowadays is awful. There’s so much competition, a degree means nothing anymore, years of internships are difficult to survive on and still don’t put you ahead of the competition. Company benefits are getting smaller and smaller on account of companies getting bigger and having to support more staff. Besides, so many young people are desperate for work companies are in positions where they can exploit them because guess what, they can.
With that in mind, no wonder the younger generations turn to celebrity culture. The corporate world has let them down. And when the companies let you down, what to do you do? You find your own way. You make your own success, you make your mark the way you need to when nobody else will help you make it. Does that lead to mind-numbing entertainment that sometimes lacks depth and intelligence? Well, yeah of course, because the companies or organisations that could offer them help has turned their back on them, so of course they might not be as well-informed about real world issues as they might have been if they had been given training or not been charged the earth to go into higher education etc. That sounds patronising, I know it does and I don’t mean to be. I think any one that makes their way in life and earns a living in this difficult world deserves recognition and respect.
I think my point is, if we don’t like where future generations are going, we are ALL to blame for it. I’m not quite sure what it is about human nature that causes us to blame others for everything rather than take responsibility for our actions but there it is.
I wonder where the next shift in society will take us? Will we get even more invested in the online world, will it just be a new world that everyone who doesn’t know any different will love and grow with? Heck, will global warming just get so bad we all just die on the burning garbage heap our planet is quickly becoming? Quite possible.
It’s a strange thing to see the world you knew and grew up with disappear. It’s a strange thing to try to understand the new ‘trends’ that younger generations know and love now when you can’t connect with it at all. Is it worse? Maybe. Is it better? Maybe. Is it the way of life, most definitely.
Ramblings of a gayby 