My Generation
 

Im not sure if a thread like this has been done before, but I cannot be stopped. What are people my age doing wrong, would you classify us as a lazier generation because of all the technology we have grown up with? Many of us have grown up in households where both parents work and are never home. Media is everywhere and it disgusts me how much people my age can be influenced by it, it is especially worse for the younger kids (14-17). I would say a large percentage has easy access to the internet, but how many of us are actually learning anything?


I could not conjure up a good OP, so basically what are my generations strength`s and weaknesses? Respect is appreciated, lets try to be civil if anything controversial is written.

Re: My Generation
 

Strength number one: google

A lot of people don't get it, but this has really changed the world and the way questions are answered. I honestly feel like with google (and to a lesser extent, wiki and snopes and others) plus my reasoning abilities, I am up there with the smartest people who have ever lived, like there's nothing I can't figure out.

Now, if we could only get people to use it, and use it intelligently.

Re: My Generation
 

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What are people my age doing wrong, would you classify us as a lazier generation because of all the technology we have grown up with? Many of us have grown up in households where both parents work and are never home.

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What do you mean what are people your age doing wrong? (how old are you again? as i recall you're really young.)
You mean with respect to work ethics and employment? And yes I would classify your generation as lazy. Lazy and disenchanted.

Re: My Generation
 

Strength: More overachievers, ambitious than my generation (graduated HS 1994). It seems there are more gung-ho kids out there, probably driven by their parents to a large extent... Of course, this can't apply to everyone as every generation has its proportion of slackers...

Weakness: Earlier loss of innocence. Seems like you guys are adults much earlier in your upbringing. Too serious too early.

Not sure if these assessments are even remotely accurate, but it's what I perceive...

Re: My Generation
 

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Weakness: Earlier loss of innocence. Seems like you guys are adults much earlier in your upbringing. Too serious too early.



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Lets not forget about women too. I think they too grow up much earlier now and I am 24 saying this. Girl do not look the same as they did 10 years ago when I was growing up.

Re: My Generation
 

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What are people my age doing wrong, would you classify us as a lazier generation because of all the technology we have grown up with? Many of us have grown up in households where both parents work and are never home.

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What do you mean what are people your age doing wrong? (how old are you again? as i recall you're really young.)
You mean with respect to work ethics and employment? And yes I would classify your generation as lazy. Lazy and disenchanted.

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Im 23, and I dont necessarily mean whats wrong, any opinion on what is good or bad about my generation is what im interested in. Dont just stick to the few random thoughts I had, if you see a positive or a negative please feel free to share it.

I kinda made a crappy starter subject but from some of the posts made already you guys understand what im trying say.

Re: My Generation
 

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You mean with respect to work ethics and employment? And yes I would classify your generation as lazy. Lazy and disenchanted.

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If you listen to its elders, this is true of every single generation ever, no?

Re: My Generation
 

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Weakness: Earlier loss of innocence. Seems like you guys are adults much earlier in your upbringing. Too serious too early.



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Lets not forget about women too. I think they too grow up much earlier now and I am 24 saying this. Girl do not look the same as they did 10 years ago when I was growing up.

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This is nojoke. Many of you guys look older than I do (thinly veiled brag)

The thing that strikes me about you guys(I am 29 next mth.) is that you guys aren't social. I have to interact with your generation at the casino. Some dude/chick walks into a casino with an IPod. Us older people are talking. They look at us like we are crazy.

I remember a thread on this forum where some guy was asking advice of how to proceed to talk to a girl, and one girl piped in that it was good that he didn't call!

For the good, you are all raised on the computer, but I think that the above is a sad effect of technology.

My generation was raised on the cusp of pc's rise in popularity, so we aren't influenced by it. TBH, we are a little frightened of it's effect because of seeing your generation.

Re: My Generation
 

Good post on the different social habits. This has been a trend that's ongoing for some time, and it's not on the wane yet. People, both young and old, don't belong to as many clubs, and take less interest in their communities. Parents used to kick kids out of the house to make them go socialize even if they didn't feel like it. Now it seems that the least you can do for them is give them an expensive perfect coccoon in their room -- DVD player, t.v., nintendo or whatever, often computer and internet connection, stereo. Really, with a toilet and a fridge there, they'd almost never have to come out, might never be asked to, and might not be missed. It has become easier to get by reasonably happily without being a social person at all. And it has become more acceptable parenting to not worry so much about it.

Also, social consciousness seems to have dropped off. Now you hear people talking a lot more about their "lifestyle." That does lead, to the good, toward being concentrated one one's career and directed. But it leads also, to the bad, to being politically indifferent, which is a danger to democracy far more than any number of radicals or loonies, over-excited kids, or verminous scumbags could be. I'm not optimistic about America maintaining its freedoms in the future. It could interfere with someone's lifestyle.

Also, the influence of gangster this and that, and all the posing, complete selfishness, and arrogance that goes with it, into the youth culture has demeaned and degraded general discourse. Gangsters are douchebags of the highest order, and that anyone would want to imitate them in any way or incorporate any of their real or imagined values and outlook into their own, shows how little social novelty often really offers, and even how regressive it can be.

I used to worry that Americans might destroy the world. We were certainly enormously destructive and short-sighted. Now I wonder if we might just let it be destroyed, because we have no vision at all, and are becoming so enormously indifferent that we have no real standards or goals anyway and just can't be bothered.

Re: My Generation
 

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It has become easier to get by reasonably happily without being a social person at all.

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Do you see this as a strictly bad thing, or are there some positives?

(I'm sorry for the short un-Lounge-like responses, but I'm trying to extract untainted information. I am one of these lazy anti-social kids, you see, and am trying to get across some discussion without injecting my own biases.)

Re: My Generation
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It has become easier to get by reasonably happily without being a social person at all.

[/ QUOTE ]
Do you see this as a strictly bad thing, or are there some positives?

(I'm sorry for the short un-Lounge-like responses, but I'm trying to extract untainted information. I am one of these lazy anti-social kids, you see, and am trying to get across some discussion without injecting my own biases.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I think its pretty bad, because of online poker I spend more time on the computer than I do sleeping, I spend a lot of time on 2p2 as well. I can honestly say 4 years ago, well even 2 years ago I had a lot of friends and I would go out a lot. I was a lot more confident, and I learned a lot from other people.

Now I am mostly on the computer, and almost all of the people I talk to are now through AIM. I have also just recently moved to Michigan. I have a few friends but I find myself wanting to just sit around. I only leave when I need food/drugs (im a degen)and I will still go out every now and then because im back in the town where I grew up in. In all honesty though I have becomed detached to my computers. I was a much different person in the past.

Im happy, but I have sacrificed and lost out on a lot of fun times people my age should be having by sitting at a computer.

Re: My Generation
 

Hard to answer this question. I think it varies greatly regionally. 20 yr olds in the East Coast are very different from 20 yr olds in the Midwest and so on.

One of the things i hope from our generation is better racial harmony.

Re: My Generation
 

I'm 27, so I guess I'm part of your generation.

What really irks me about young people today is their total lack of any sort of attention span and their obsessions with electronic socializing. They'd rather text with their friends than simply pick up the phone and give em a call.

Our generation also seems to be hopeless followers, blindly influenced by "hip" media like MTV, which sells itself as some sort of counter-culture when in reality it's a corporate machine that influences kids to listen to bad music. And let's not even talk about Emo.

Also, I hate, hate, hate Internet shorthand and humor: Pwned, Rick-rolling, QFT, stupid YouTube virals, like that idiot college comic team Smosh, etc... But kids today love that crap. But get 'em to try to sit down and watch a WC Fields movie and they'd probably think it's stupid and old. It's bothersome they have no interest in anything beyond their self-contained world, which usually revolves around the Internet and terrible music.

For me, the discussions about various crap in NVG highlight the current twenty-something mindset, which craves something quick, digestable, and easily forgotten.

Re: My Generation
 

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For me, the discussions about various crap in NVG highlight the current twenty-something mindset, which craves something quick, digestable, and easily forgotten.

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i feel like the point of this comment is one that older generations always have an always will make about younger ones.

Re: My Generation
 

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I could not conjure up a good OP, so basically what are my generations strength`s and weaknesses? Respect is appreciated, lets try to be civil if anything controversial is written.

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The biggest strength is flexibility. Because of the era in which you were brought up, you've learned new technologies every 18 months. This allows you to pick up other technologies even faster and it has made your generation flexible and adaptable in a number of ways, including non-technical ones.

The biggest weakness is entitlement. I blame your parents. You were brought up believing that you were all uniquely special people that deserved everything that life could possibly offer and no one can say "no" to you. That was awesome when you were 4.

Re: My Generation
 

When a 27 year old and a 29 year old write their observations about "younger adults" as if they are geezers I risk getting very depressed at age 53 participating in this thread.

The oddest thing I've often seen young people do is walk side by side as friends both chatting on a cell phone (apparently to someone else).

That minor quibble aside I'm starting to think today's kids (i.e., anyone under the age of 30) are among our greatest generations. Precocious, ambitious and bright for the most part.

~ Rick

Re: My Generation
 

[ QUOTE ]


Also, I hate, hate, hate Internet shorthand and humor: Pwned, Rick-rolling, QFT, stupid YouTube virals, like that idiot college comic team Smosh, etc... But kids today love that crap. But get 'em to try to sit down and watch a WC Fields movie and they'd probably think it's stupid and old. It's bothersome they have no interest in anything beyond their self-contained world, which usually revolves around the Internet and terrible music.



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I agree with the first part of this quote but not the second part. I hate the internet shorthand and humor too. I'm not entirely sure we can blame it all on the 20-something generation. There are as many dumb internet and shorthand comments by people in their 30s and 40s. When I see stuff like "level" "pwned" "i'unno" it makes me cringe.

I think this generation really appreciates old movies and the classics. I'm always surprised to learn that they know a lot of the old films and TV shows. My 23 yr old friend just answered a Frasier trivia question at work the other day. I was floored that he would know Frasier at all.


What I like: the 20-something generation is super smart. I love how smart and relaxed and fun they are. I work with a bunch of 20-somethings and they are bright and clever and super sweet. I think they are the most polite and friendly group of people I've ever met. Yay 20-somethings [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


What I don't like: Myspace crap and emo guys. This whole "hot or not" internet thing. Jesus. I love your generation but why on god's earth do you guys need to hear how hot you all look? If that doesn't make you look super shallow I don't know what does! ("hey, here's my picture. Do you think I'm hot? How about if I wear my hair all gelled and standing vertical? How about if I do this with my arms and shoulders? Am I hot now?" Gawd. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] ) Also, it kills me when my 20-something friends want to show me myspace pages of their h.s. friends. Your generation really loves picture scrapbook stuff.


Also, I'm amused by how this generation loves their cell phone. As soon as they leave work to go to lunch they are on that cell phone. As soon as they leave work at exactly 5:00 (because they aren't staying late let me assure you) they are on their cell phone. Well who are you guys calling every day? I'm just really curious to know. It would drive my guy crazy if I called him every day like that. "Hi. Just calling to tell you that I'm leaving now." "Hi. Just calling to say that I'm turning onto Walnut St. now." [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Re: My Generation
 

I agree with Katy and other posters about the cell phone usage. It kills me how it seems their lives revolve around their cell phones and texting each other.

I remember a while back, my wife and I were out to dinner at Bennigan's and 4 20 somethings came in, sat down, and all 4 were on their cell phones 5 seconds after sitting down for at least 10 minutes. Plus, they'd be on them on and off throughout dinner. Whatever happened to going out with friends and just talking to each other? I've seen the same thing many other times as well.

I always tease my nieces, who are in college now, about text messaging. I'd always say, "Isn't it easier to just dial their number and actully talk to them?"
They'd usually reply that they couldn't do that because they were in class, which would open a whole new avenue of grief that I could give them. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: My Generation
 

What I don't like: Myspace crap and emo guys. This whole "hot or not" internet thing. Jesus. I love your generation but why on god's earth do you guys need to hear how hot you all look? If that doesn't make you look super shallow I don't know what does! ("hey, here's my picture. Do you think I'm hot? How about if I wear my hair all gelled and standing vertical? How about if I do this with my arms and shoulders? Am I hot now?" Gawd. )

Pics [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

No, seriously [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Also, why were you floored a 23 year old would know Frasier!?!?

Im 23 with a 16 year old brother.

I guess the best way i can contribute to this thread is with a quote:

"The more things change, the more they stay the same".

My brother's generation has rap, my generation had dance music (obv we have overlap being the same generation [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ), my parents had prog rock.

The one thing they all have in common is all of this music was hated by someone older to one degree or another.

People used to bemone their kids using the landline phone all the time, now the kids use their mobiles all the time.

Nothing truly changes at the heart of the matter.

-----

Fwiw, im pretty disconnected from my generation - i didnt have MTV growing up, i dont constantly use my phone (but it is a lifeline in many ways i guess) and i cant stand all the text language stuff - and hate getting texts from my mum cos she uses it. I once got a text from a lass i met at uni that i had to get translated, no joke, straight up needed a translator.

Re: My Generation
 

Okay, fashion is always stupid, new communication technologies are always the end of civility, new music is always artless trash. We all agree on that. What about the stuff that's specific to this particular (my) generation?

Here's one thing that I've noticed in myself: I did most of my growing up in the 90's, which was basically a golden age technologically, economically, etc. It's very hard now for me to recognize that anything is wrong - and even harder to recognize that somebody should do something about it - with regards to the big picture, politics or whatever. I loved Bill Clinton back then (though now I've been infected with 2p2's ACism), and that affects me today, when I know I should hate a lot of the things the government does, but it's hard to muster up the energy to care, because it's not natural to me.

Re: My Generation
 

[ QUOTE ]
Here's one thing that I've noticed in myself: I did most of my growing up in the 90's, which was basically a golden age technologically, economically, etc. It's very hard now for me to recognize that anything is wrong - and even harder to recognize that somebody should do something about it - with regards to the big picture, politics or whatever. I loved Bill Clinton back then (though now I've been infected with 2p2's ACism), and that affects me today, when I know I should hate a lot of the things the government does, but it's hard to muster up the energy to care, because it's not natural to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is in line with my "entitlement" answer. You want it fixed, but don't want to do it and you expect someone else to do it for you.

Most likely, you'll tell your mom and she'll become apoplectic that her unique and special child isn't getting his way.

Re: My Generation
 

KotOD,

Yup, and the funny thing is that this attitude has worked for me so far.

On the other hand, I have developed a weird sense of responsibility from it. Since I 'know' that the universe is always trying to work out in my favor, I feel like every failure is my fault. It couldn't have been an outside source, because those are benevolent and exist to serve. (Yeah, I know that doesn't make sense, but it's what pops up in my brain sometimes.)

Re: My Generation
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It has become easier to get by reasonably happily without being a social person at all.

[/ QUOTE ]
Do you see this as a strictly bad thing, or are there some positives?

(I'm sorry for the short un-Lounge-like responses, but I'm trying to extract untainted information. I am one of these lazy anti-social kids, you see, and am trying to get across some discussion without injecting my own biases.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Seems like it could be both good and bad, but that in most situations it would be hard to tell if you were missing out on much until it was too late. At which point, you would have missed out on so many important aspects of growing up and gaining social skills, not to mention maybe having a lot of fun and becoming so much broader of a person. For me, in some places where I was growing up, there was so much racial tension that going outdoors and meeting people was pointless, as none of them wanted to talk to you anyway. Though they might want to kick your ass on sight. But that was a very odd situation that most people don't face. For the average person, I think getting out and meeting people makes much more sense and is a lot healthier.

That's another thing too -- there's physical as well as mental health. Being indoors all the time is the easiest road to being unhealthy. And without people around to be judgmental, or to want to get interested in you sexually, there's less drive to make yourself worthy of being judged positively.

If we were still a book culture, a kid growing up in the perfect coccoon would be far healthier. But since you can spend your whole day watching cable t.v. and playing video games now, and there's little social disapproval for doing so, I still think it's on the whole pretty bad for a kid and redounds to the discredit of the parents.

Re: My Generation
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm 27, so I guess I'm part of your generation.

What really irks me about young people today is their total lack of any sort of attention span and their obsessions with electronic socializing. They'd rather text with their friends than simply pick up the phone and give em a call.

Our generation also seems to be hopeless followers, blindly influenced by "hip" media like MTV, which sells itself as some sort of counter-culture when in reality it's a corporate machine that influences kids to listen to bad music. And let's not even talk about Emo.

Also, I hate, hate, hate Internet shorthand and humor: Pwned, Rick-rolling, QFT, stupid YouTube virals, like that idiot college comic team Smosh, etc... But kids today love that crap. But get 'em to try to sit down and watch a WC Fields movie and they'd probably think it's stupid and old. It's bothersome they have no interest in anything beyond their self-contained world, which usually revolves around the Internet and terrible music.

For me, the discussions about various crap in NVG highlight the current twenty-something mindset, which craves something quick, digestable, and easily forgotten.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a very good point. The attention span of this generation, and its easy cop-out of calling it ADD with anyone who could possibly be diagnosed with it, or would just like to claim it, is a real loss. When I went to college, a sort of meta-goal was expanding one's attention span in order to cope with the increased intellectual demands. Now it seems Americans are getting fairly good at multi-tasking, but often terrible at working in depth. And a narrow attention span is actually quite limiting when it comes to multi-tasking, too, because multi-tasking is about successful coordination of tasks and ideas, too, not just riffing through them real fast. Many young people I've worked with who pride themselves on their ability to multi-task actually do it quite poorly, because it's not enough to be able to do a whole lot of things poorly.

Re: My Generation
 

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[ QUOTE ]


For me, the discussions about various crap in NVG highlight the current twenty-something mindset, which craves something quick, digestable, and easily forgotten.

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i feel like the point of this comment is one that older generations always have an always will make about younger ones.

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I don't think that's true. Back when people were facing youth that was different in some ways before the internet became huge and t.v. took over what passed for an intellectual life, people were still reading books and there were still things like clubs and bowling leagues and sports lots of adults played, like tennis and golf. Being different didn't so much used to mean being disconnected. It just meant you were connected to something else. People who liked swing and jazz and the Hippies and the me generation and the Reaganites still read books, often a lot of the same ones. And they got out of the house, and exposed to other people, in droves. Many of them very much wanted to learn about the world -- it seemed compelling, even vital, and extremely human.

There is a sense of self-containment, self-satisfaction, and lack of curiosity even in the very young with where they are at and where they are going that seems different this time out.

Re: My Generation
 

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Also, I'm amused by how this generation loves their cell phone. As soon as they leave work to go to lunch they are on that cell phone. As soon as they leave work at exactly 5:00 (because they aren't staying late let me assure you) they are on their cell phone. Well who are you guys calling every day? I'm just really curious to know. It would drive my guy crazy if I called him every day like that. "Hi. Just calling to tell you that I'm leaving now." "Hi. Just calling to say that I'm turning onto Walnut St. now." [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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LOL, yeah.

I think the rise of reality t.v., blogging, and the flood of entertainment programming, with its constant emphasis on celebrity culture, has given people a sort of weird way of looking at their lives as if they were stories, and interesting in and of themselves automatically. It's a strange combination of a meta-angle overlooking one's life with what should properly stand out in stark contrast to that kind of distance, an unapologetic utter triviality and a kind of spooky egocentrism.

Re: My Generation
 

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Now it seems Americans are getting fairly good at multi-tasking, but often terrible at working in depth. And a narrow attention span is actually quite limiting when it comes to multi-tasking, too, because multi-tasking is about successful coordination of tasks and ideas, too, not just riffing through them real fast. Many young people I've worked with who pride themselves on their ability to multi-task actually do it quite poorly, because it's not enough to be able to do a whole lot of things poorly.

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This is a top-notch good observation. It's been extremely difficult to find early-20's employees that can effectively multi-task, OR employees that can work an idea or job from concept to completion. Combine this with the entitlement thing and I'd be happy to find an employee that could finish anything effectively and conclusively.

Re: My Generation
 

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, fashion is always stupid, new communication technologies are always the end of civility, new music is always artless trash. We all agree on that. What about the stuff that's specific to this particular (my) generation?

Here's one thing that I've noticed in myself: I did most of my growing up in the 90's, which was basically a golden age technologically, economically, etc. It's very hard now for me to recognize that anything is wrong - and even harder to recognize that somebody should do something about it - with regards to the big picture, politics or whatever. I loved Bill Clinton back then (though now I've been infected with 2p2's ACism), and that affects me today, when I know I should hate a lot of the things the government does, but it's hard to muster up the energy to care, because it's not natural to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Letting yourself be swayed by particular clever or charismatic characters is a classic youth vulnerability. It can be hard to realize and thoroughly integrate that many charming people who seem in a number of ways worthy of admiration can in fact be a-holes and blockheads on any number of levels. We want our heroes and we want them whole! And we'd like to be similarly uniformly good or smart or accomplished ourselves. Unfortunately, the less scrutiny given most of the people we admire, the better, and you have to learn to pick and choose what is really admirable from the smelly gunk that even the most persuasive wallow in just like the more recognizably ordinary do. Just as we ourselves often benefit from being seen with rose-colored glasses, and certainly will as we age and accumulate mistakes and things that can't be taken back.

I hope something like 2+2 isn't sufficient to substantially reform one's politics. Because for all it's other virtues, it's still kind of a go-to place for douchebags and snarky over-privileged guys with little life experience.

Re: My Generation
 

Instant gratification syndrome. I'm not much older (34) but man you guys want what you want right now. This impacts things like how you write, your understanding of politics, finance, etc. A 23 year old subordinate of mine just bought a $50K car. She makes just about that much in a year. At her review I asked her where she expects to be in five years. She said, "I think I'll be a Vice President by then." Possible, but highly unlikely. I've been in this field for 12 years and I'm still stuck in middle management (maybe less 2p2 time would help the ole performance).

I agree that your age group is highly susceptible to marketing. You don't "need" cell phones that take pictures or play music or games or have a PDA built in, yet you seem to think you do. Your peers jump on trendy bandwagons (not that my age group didn't, but we were more sceptical about being manipulated by corporations).

As far as positives, I think you guys are able to balance job/life far better than my peers do. You take a healthy perspective that your job is to pay the bills so you can do what you want.

You are very adapable to change. Technological savvy helps, but perhaps being among the first generations to grow up with both parents working and little supervision, you've had to figure more stuff out on your own.

You are also much more specialized. My parents had little say in what path I took in college. I started out pre med and switched majors twice after that. My nephew, a junior at Providence College, had parental supervision and input for everything from whether to take more math or humanities and even whether to play soccer or football. Even his extracurricular activities were geared to building an academic resume. I don't know if it's good or bad, but from an early age you are forced to realize that the choices you make have impact down the road.

Re: My Generation
 

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I hope something like 2+2 isn't sufficient to substantially reform one's politics. Because for all it's other virtues, it's still kind of a go-to place for douchebags and snarky over-privileged guys with little life experience.

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Oh, I'm young enough that whatever I believe now will probably bear little resemblance to the way I end up in adulthood. And since I'm too lazy and self-centered to vote, you don't have to worry about my views affecting you. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

I've got to say, parts of this thread have been somewhat painful to read, because there are a lot of negative aspects to my generation, and I know it. For one of you older folks: what did the previous generation say about you, and were they right?

Re: My Generation
 

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but perhaps being among the first generations to grow up with both parents working and little supervision, you've had to figure more stuff out on your own.

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Hm, that's an interesting take on the flexible/adaptable idea.

Re: My Generation
 

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Hard to answer this question. I think it varies greatly regionally. 20 yr olds in the East Coast are very different from 20 yr olds in the Midwest and so on.

One of the things i hope from our generation is better racial harmony.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you put too much emphasis on geographic location. I went to school where people are from the west coast, deep south, east coast, midwest, Canada, South America, Africa, Europe, India, East Asia... pretty much everywhere and I can say for certain that 18-25 yr olds are pretty much the same everywhere. Just because your from east coast doesn't mean you're better than anyone else, because someone from pretty much everywhere else is doing the exact same thing as you are.

In all honesty I don't think my generation is much different than the generation before us, except that we are MUCH more spoiled. Personally, I'm not, but I know soooo many people that were handed a silver platter of life, even when it meant the parents livelyhood would suffer. This includes getting a cell phone, ipod, laptop, car and many more extra's that this generation thinks is mandatory. I just got my first ipod and laptop after getting my first career like job, got a cell phone when I moved out, and bought my first car because my parents wouldn't. I'm a better person for it. This generation would think I'm crazy though.

Oh yeah, this spews bad work ethic for the generation. I feel sorry for like 99% of the children born from this generation.

Re: My Generation
 

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When a 27 year old and a 29 year old write their observations about "younger adults" as if they are geezers I risk getting very depressed at age 53 participating in this thread.



[/ QUOTE ]

Uh, 28, dude. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

It is odd to write perspective at my age. You also need to know that my generation was brought up in an odd age. Computer's were not popular yet. In fact, I didn't go on the internet until I was 20 years old. In HS, we were given typing classes. When I was a senior, they just started giving computer literacy classes and I continued my typing classes on a computer for the first time.

When I was 19, I was working at a restaurant with a few under-age kids. They were very promiscuous. To think someone five years younger than me already had more sex than I did, and he was ashamed that he didn't have more.

Many changes happened around the end of last century that were very extreme, and I was brought up right after "gen x" and "y," but right before the "sexually insensitive" group. I think that that tension was bad for my generation. That younger kids are more successful than us on average, etc.

Re: My Generation
 

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You are also much more specialized. My parents had little say in what path I took in college. I started out pre med and switched majors twice after that. My nephew, a junior at Providence College, had parental supervision and input for everything from whether to take more math or humanities and even whether to play soccer or football. Even his extracurricular activities were geared to building an academic resume. I don't know if it's good or bad, but from an early age you are forced to realize that the choices you make have impact down the road.

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I think it is much more common these days that parents, including males, are expected to play a more active part in their children's lives, above and beyond food and shelter. This is great for keeping parents more centered and human, and tremendously positive in helping give kids direction and perspective in life, and making clear to them that parents are involved in their lives and actually give a damn. It shows them that parents can actually have and live values, not just talk about them or only bring them out to display when they're sure someone is looking.

One hopeful thing about that is that perhaps we will see less parents winding up in old age homes in the future. Strengthening family ties through the generations could be a very positive thing that your generation does much better than the ones before it. It will have a huge economic impact on the future of the kids, that's for sure, tending to greatly improve the prospects of the entire family.

In the 60's and 70's, many parents wanted to kill or jail their kids or send them off to a war -- pretty much any war would have been good enough -- or at least do the same to someone else's. There was real intergenerational warfare and anger, and it was a terribly stupid and selfish way to live and think. If at least we are taking better care of the family unit, even simply to the extent of being more interested in it and acknowledging each other's humanity, we'll be taking a huge step up from the past.

Re: My Generation
 

Is it pretty much true that for the most part people my age, no matter what generation are just not going to care about politics? I can say I have never voted for anything before, a few years ago I thought that my vote doesnt matter, im just one person. I dont feel like that anymore but it has not motivated me to get more involved in my community and country.

People my age tend to make fun of people learning when they dont have to, its almost like its not cool to be educated. Why read a book, when you can be watching the latest celebrity drama or reality T.V. show? Like every generation it is the peer pressure that drives a lot of people away from bettering themselves. My generation just seems to always want to be accepted with the cool people. We follow way too many trends and we are influenced by all the wrong things.

Re: My Generation
 

Nothing uncommon about a generation looking down on an "edumacation."

Blarg, good point about the family unit. It wasn't until the 90's that "soccer mom" became a common word, vans rose in popularity, that a kid was able to be found wearing a bike helmet while riding one.

Re: My Generation
 

In the 60's, kids were very political and it was a big point of pride, and thought pretty important and virtuous. It was an incredibly socially and intellectually active time compared to today.

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I think this is in line with my "entitlement" answer. You want it fixed, but don't want to do it and you expect someone else to do it for you.

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This is something I run into in the younger generation. "It's not right" that some guy is on the street and the government should do something."

My response is; then volunteer, get involved, make peoples lives better. But no, they want <u>someone else</u> to do something.

Our advice to younger relatives with limited social contact has been to travel, find hobbies, etc. It broadens your horizons and makes you a more interesting person when you do have social contact with others.

Re: My Generation
 

I guess most of us have heard that John Mayer song, with the refrain that he's "keeping on waiting/Waiting for the world to change."

WT holy F is that??? Talk about weak. I remember hearing him talking about how he was so proud of the song and its message, and it was like I had gone through the looking glass or something. The guy is proud that he is resolved to see that there are problems in the world and do nothing? This is an attitude to be embraced? It used to be met with a guilty snicker and rolled eyes.

It definitely seems communicative of the attitude of a generation in an unflattering way.

Re: My Generation
 

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I guess most of us have heard that John Mayer song, with the refrain that he's "keeping on waiting/Waiting for the world to change."

WT holy F is that??? Talk about weak. I remember hearing him talking about how he was so proud of the song and its message, and it was like I had gone through the looking glass or something. The guy is proud that he is resolved to see that there are problems in the world and do nothing? This is an attitude to be embraced? It used to be met with a guilty snicker and rolled eyes.

It definitely seems communicative of the attitude of a generation in an unflattering way.

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Holy crap. I'd not heard of this song before and your post made me look it up. I read the lyrics and they make me want to change the world by strangling this person.

That does seem reflective of his generation and it's pathetic.

Compare:

Douche

Non-douche