G
Gamma.alpha.lambda
Member
www.phillymag.com/articles/feature-is-it-just-us-or-are-kids-getting-really-stupid/
I'm currently 22. I feel like I am not in touch with my generation. I don't fundamentally understand them.
I was having a conversation with a friend in Engineering today about people our age. We ended up depressing ourselves when thinking about our peers. Here are some points that were raised:
What does my generation value today? People in the 1950s and 1960s used to anticipate rocket and space shuttle launches. They used to WAIT - yearning for the time to come - for when they would see a space shuttle exit the atmosphere. Today, my peers only seem to WAIT for the next Justin Bieber, Jay-Z, Beyonce albums or the new episode of Game of Thrones, Spartacus etc. Few even know of the proposals to colonise the moon (www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/23/russia_nasa_moon_station/) nor would they even view it as important. In their vernacular "Lolz, space people. thats gay"
You can see the effort people put in is minimal. I wanted to teach high-school mathematics recently but couldn't bring myself to it. South Africa has a very low standard of education for high school. Final year is called Matric. The hardest thing the learners have to do is differentiate a polynomial. A group of students approached me and asked if it was possible to learn maths but not read the textbook (300 A5 pages) or work out the solutions to the given exercises. They asked this because they feel that reading is a waste of time. I even made ActEd style solutions to the exercises of a few chapters in their textbook which explained each step of the problems and gave formal proofs but they were too lazy to attempt learning by themselves. I told them that only they can teach themselves concepts.
Even in Universities, people will do the bare minimum to pass because apparently learning is a waste of time - time that could be spent on Facebook engaging in meaningless chatter about the goings-on of their daily lives, drinking or looking for hook-ups. That is all talk seems to be centred on also.
Facebook, to me, is a blight. I do not have one and will never use the programme. It's not bad for older people but my peers lose so much time to this concept. Why does everyone need to keep up with 400 friends? I count that I have around 20 close friends whose lives I actually take interest in, the rest of the people are acquantences. I also don't feel the need to read up about the minute details of other people's lives. I like privacy and the mystery of people I meet not knowing what I am doing (studying for exams). When I do socialise, it is face to face in the form of conversation and discussion or varied topics. Night clubs are pointless for socialising - it's not really a good place for the exchange of ideas.
I challenge the older generation who read this post to watch some of what their kids are (hopefully not) watching. Look for shows such as "Jersey Shore" or "Keeping up with the Kardashians". Watch it carefully, internalise the information and try to write a 500 word essay on what important topics were presented on this show. After all, my generation places great importance on these series and attempts to emulate these behaviours, so there must be some overarching, deep and meaningful point to them? These shows are what is "cool". If your intelligence feels insulted afterwards, I apologise in advance.
I feel my generation is lucky to have our parents. The previous generation are possibly the last moral generation. Think of what new parents will be like?
What message is being sent to my generation by its leaders? By leaders, I mean the people who this generation respond to. These are rappers, pop-stars, reality TV stars and for the children, Disney.
The message that Rihanna and Beyonce put out? Teenage girls should be comfortable being scantily clad and should wear as little as possible because this gives them power over men. Aim to have as much sex with as many people as possible.
Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne? You don't have to work hard to become wealthy. You can talk to people any way you want. You should prioritise drinking, smoking, pursuit of materialistic goals and partying over increasing your human capital - life is just for fun after all, who needs to make a meaningful contribution to society? Again, aim to have sex with as many people as possible.
Teenagers and twentysomethings are way too controlled by their sex drive these days. It's all that is on their minds and quite frankly, it gets old.
Disney is possibly the worst of them all. Shows consistently portray back-chatting to parents, engaging in fruitless lazing around and that education is not that important. Mathematics especially takes a beating from these shows. I find that my niece and nephew aged x and x-2 (can't remember the value for x right now) completely shut off when I try to do some basic stuff with them. They say that maths is only for "nerds" and it's not cool. They hear this on Disney. They aren't even ten yet.
So, what will future parents be like? With both males and females having had sex internalised into their mindsets, what will be taught to the children? I mean, if a child asks the average person from my generation what was the point of their late teens and young twenties, what will be the answer? "Well son, I aimed to get wasted every day and to have as much sex as possible. I never took school seriously". Is that what we want to be acceptable in society?
A lot of it has to do with music these days. There is too much music being produced that is not conscious. 2 chainz gets paid 100000 dollars per verse. Google the lyrics of his songs, count the number of versus and tell me if what he said is really worth the money? But, this is supply and demand at its prime. It shows what my generation values the most. Why is what he says valuable? I give kudos to Nas, Mos Def, Common etc. Conscious rap is there, but it is ailing and probably in its death throes.
They are saying that Justin Bieber may even rival Michael Jackson in popularity. He is already bigger than Justin Timberlake. A whole generation of teenage girls are going to idolise him. In their minds, he is the only one for them. This will severely mess up how they form relationships. Ask yourselves: Does his music inspire thought? What is his message? Is this a good message?
In general, people are being trained to think less and follow more. I understand teenagers under 18 following fads but there are people who are 28 years old who dress and talk "gangster". That is to say, they wear saggy pants and their English is incomprehendable. This is frightening as these people should have matured by now.
All in all, my generation are the future leaders of the world and will be raising the next batch of world leaders. Maybe the children will have more sense and rebel against the stupidity of their parents? I hope so.
We should aim to stimulate critical thinking in todays youth and (for us as the youth) in our peers. We need to start challenging the concept of life. Ask people consistently "What are you doing with your life? What do you hope to achieve? What motivates you?". We need to make this generation feel uncomfortable - signal that there is a problem with the way society is today and that they should try to solve it. In essence, we are completely defined by our minds. Our "thought" is who we are. The quality of "thought" proposed to my generation needs to be reevaluated lest we aim for creating a world of people who live for decadence - an ancient Rome.
I'm currently 22. I feel like I am not in touch with my generation. I don't fundamentally understand them.
I was having a conversation with a friend in Engineering today about people our age. We ended up depressing ourselves when thinking about our peers. Here are some points that were raised:
What does my generation value today? People in the 1950s and 1960s used to anticipate rocket and space shuttle launches. They used to WAIT - yearning for the time to come - for when they would see a space shuttle exit the atmosphere. Today, my peers only seem to WAIT for the next Justin Bieber, Jay-Z, Beyonce albums or the new episode of Game of Thrones, Spartacus etc. Few even know of the proposals to colonise the moon (www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/23/russia_nasa_moon_station/) nor would they even view it as important. In their vernacular "Lolz, space people. thats gay"
You can see the effort people put in is minimal. I wanted to teach high-school mathematics recently but couldn't bring myself to it. South Africa has a very low standard of education for high school. Final year is called Matric. The hardest thing the learners have to do is differentiate a polynomial. A group of students approached me and asked if it was possible to learn maths but not read the textbook (300 A5 pages) or work out the solutions to the given exercises. They asked this because they feel that reading is a waste of time. I even made ActEd style solutions to the exercises of a few chapters in their textbook which explained each step of the problems and gave formal proofs but they were too lazy to attempt learning by themselves. I told them that only they can teach themselves concepts.
Even in Universities, people will do the bare minimum to pass because apparently learning is a waste of time - time that could be spent on Facebook engaging in meaningless chatter about the goings-on of their daily lives, drinking or looking for hook-ups. That is all talk seems to be centred on also.
Facebook, to me, is a blight. I do not have one and will never use the programme. It's not bad for older people but my peers lose so much time to this concept. Why does everyone need to keep up with 400 friends? I count that I have around 20 close friends whose lives I actually take interest in, the rest of the people are acquantences. I also don't feel the need to read up about the minute details of other people's lives. I like privacy and the mystery of people I meet not knowing what I am doing (studying for exams). When I do socialise, it is face to face in the form of conversation and discussion or varied topics. Night clubs are pointless for socialising - it's not really a good place for the exchange of ideas.
I challenge the older generation who read this post to watch some of what their kids are (hopefully not) watching. Look for shows such as "Jersey Shore" or "Keeping up with the Kardashians". Watch it carefully, internalise the information and try to write a 500 word essay on what important topics were presented on this show. After all, my generation places great importance on these series and attempts to emulate these behaviours, so there must be some overarching, deep and meaningful point to them? These shows are what is "cool". If your intelligence feels insulted afterwards, I apologise in advance.
I feel my generation is lucky to have our parents. The previous generation are possibly the last moral generation. Think of what new parents will be like?
What message is being sent to my generation by its leaders? By leaders, I mean the people who this generation respond to. These are rappers, pop-stars, reality TV stars and for the children, Disney.
The message that Rihanna and Beyonce put out? Teenage girls should be comfortable being scantily clad and should wear as little as possible because this gives them power over men. Aim to have as much sex with as many people as possible.
Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne? You don't have to work hard to become wealthy. You can talk to people any way you want. You should prioritise drinking, smoking, pursuit of materialistic goals and partying over increasing your human capital - life is just for fun after all, who needs to make a meaningful contribution to society? Again, aim to have sex with as many people as possible.
Teenagers and twentysomethings are way too controlled by their sex drive these days. It's all that is on their minds and quite frankly, it gets old.
Disney is possibly the worst of them all. Shows consistently portray back-chatting to parents, engaging in fruitless lazing around and that education is not that important. Mathematics especially takes a beating from these shows. I find that my niece and nephew aged x and x-2 (can't remember the value for x right now) completely shut off when I try to do some basic stuff with them. They say that maths is only for "nerds" and it's not cool. They hear this on Disney. They aren't even ten yet.
So, what will future parents be like? With both males and females having had sex internalised into their mindsets, what will be taught to the children? I mean, if a child asks the average person from my generation what was the point of their late teens and young twenties, what will be the answer? "Well son, I aimed to get wasted every day and to have as much sex as possible. I never took school seriously". Is that what we want to be acceptable in society?
A lot of it has to do with music these days. There is too much music being produced that is not conscious. 2 chainz gets paid 100000 dollars per verse. Google the lyrics of his songs, count the number of versus and tell me if what he said is really worth the money? But, this is supply and demand at its prime. It shows what my generation values the most. Why is what he says valuable? I give kudos to Nas, Mos Def, Common etc. Conscious rap is there, but it is ailing and probably in its death throes.
They are saying that Justin Bieber may even rival Michael Jackson in popularity. He is already bigger than Justin Timberlake. A whole generation of teenage girls are going to idolise him. In their minds, he is the only one for them. This will severely mess up how they form relationships. Ask yourselves: Does his music inspire thought? What is his message? Is this a good message?
In general, people are being trained to think less and follow more. I understand teenagers under 18 following fads but there are people who are 28 years old who dress and talk "gangster". That is to say, they wear saggy pants and their English is incomprehendable. This is frightening as these people should have matured by now.
All in all, my generation are the future leaders of the world and will be raising the next batch of world leaders. Maybe the children will have more sense and rebel against the stupidity of their parents? I hope so.
We should aim to stimulate critical thinking in todays youth and (for us as the youth) in our peers. We need to start challenging the concept of life. Ask people consistently "What are you doing with your life? What do you hope to achieve? What motivates you?". We need to make this generation feel uncomfortable - signal that there is a problem with the way society is today and that they should try to solve it. In essence, we are completely defined by our minds. Our "thought" is who we are. The quality of "thought" proposed to my generation needs to be reevaluated lest we aim for creating a world of people who live for decadence - an ancient Rome.
