We often hear about the "young" generation, and how we're so terrible, etc. Now, although this has been going on for ages, there are people who think this generation is actually horrible compared to older generations. What is your opinion? Should these people shut up, or are they right? Discuss.
This generation has the ability to be in constant contact with literally millions of other people in a seconds notice. It's less a case of the generation being "worse" than the others, you're just able to see way more of it at once.
Definitely a "Worse how?" situation. You certainly are more exposed to more people doing shittier things to people more easily than in Gen X for example (trolling, cyberbullying, and all sorts of nonsense like that). On the other hand, scholarship has shown that we're also the civic-minded generation; we're more concerned and more active in being a part of civil, social and political change (I think the Tea Party, OWS, and all our internet discussions speak for themselves). That's a really good quality for a future generation of movers and shakers to have.
The old generation can just shove their rose colored nostalgia glasses on and ignore reason. Its not worth declaring one generation worse or better. That's so childish, and its probably to broad a group to be judging. And on what grounds, anyway? If you pick the right categories you could bias a post in such a way to make anybody of your choice look like the best. It is worth considering the differences in sociology between the generations, though. Technology moves at a fast enough pace to make every generation's life experiences different than the last's, and its not true that the old ways necessarily stay relevant by the time their children reach their age. Your grandparents when they were kids might not have had refrigeration. Most people's parents here weren't wired to the entire world though the internet. People who hate change are gonna gripe no matter what.
It's an interesting situation, because there are some truths to criticisms of our generation. There are stunning examples of how this generation seems to be less sophisticated (if not less educated), considering the nature in which we communicate sometimes (the fact that some people write their essays like they write their text messages is kind of incredible in the worst way). I remember a post in which Mark pointed out that he saw a group of people sitting at a table, all of them on their cellphones texting or something, not even speaking a word to each other. There are signs that this generation is going to be dealing with its own set of troubles, as every generation does. However, on the other hand, the point has been made: those who criticize this generation forget who raised it. Many people from the previous generation have admitted to me that they have not left very much for us, and they're right. After WWII, we were hell-bent on increasing development, expanding our cities, innovating technologies and beating out other countries while we were at it. Along the way, we handicapped ourselves and as such we struggle to meet the level of sophistication of previous generations. We face a variety of environmental, health and equity problems that people from previous generations never envisioned possible. The previous generation didn't leave us much to work with, and in many ways crippled us. But there is a stunning awareness on part of our generation to fix those problems. The difficulty is changing people's minds and understanding that cooperative, collective, and collaborative efforts are the only way in which we can fix our own messes as well as those of the people who came before us. Most people feel that living a life of convenience is the goal, and as such do not make the effort to really increase the collective quality of life of those around them. That is the greatest flaw, I think, of our generation, and it's going to take time and effort before we get more people on board.
I would say the current generation, more so than the other ones before it, cares too much about what others think of them. I will agree it does go back to who raised them however, but at the same time a lot of them see nothing in wrong in being loud, obnoxiousness and disrespectful not only to their peers and elders, but authority in general.
Being a parent myself I have learnt the hard way, that your kids are going to be what you raise them to be. If they are spoiled brats, it reflects on the principles that you as a parent have set down for them. I have a foul mouth I admit that, but I dont say it (or try my best) to not speak it aloud in front of the kids cos I know, one day, they are going to go up to someone and call them a C**t cos their mummy does. Your kids are who you raise them to be. If they start life knowing technology and being addicted to bad traits, it's your lack of boundaries on your behaviour and theirs will contribute to a dire upbringing. Kids are monkey see monkey do due to their lack of mental capacity to understand what is right and what is not.
I hate "my" generation. It's so complacent, uncaring, unaware, and clique driven. I could go one for days. We're growing mindless with continuing technological advances. And I guess in a lot of ways. They don't care enough to make things change. Idk, whenever I'm around kids of my generation I feel sick, ashamed. This seems to be truer as they get younger. I was always against anybody who tried to tell anything. I still am. Anybody who thinks they can tell me what I can do with my life can Fuck themselves. Their experiences mean nothing to me. Their old views hold no relevance in my life. Especially seeing as how they've left us in such a fucker up position
I'll go ahead and say it... The last great generation was our grandparents/great-grandparents. They got shit done for the greater good and didn't spend time being selfish or greedy for the most part. The Baby Boomers were the beginning of the end and each generation afterwards has gotten much worse.
Are we talking teenagers? That's a completely different mentality to that of a kid. Teenagehood consists of thinking you are king shit until you are booted out on your ass and have faced what the world is really like. I know I grew the hell up when my parents booted me out.
I'm talking about teenagers. If I talked back or was disrespectful in any manner I was in deep trouble. I understand that there's the whole "rebel" mentality at that age, but it has gotten worse over the years. I go and visit Kelsey at her college every once in a while and it seems like every year the students have gotten louder and ruder. Leaving trash everywhere, yelling at each other when their sitting right next to one another, pissing and moaning to her about the cafe's prices, not using please or thank you, moving the chairs and tables and not putting them back, etc. Not saying every teenager/early 20 something is like that, but it seems like the number of them that do have proper manners and a good attitude when dealing with other members of society is quickly dwindling.
Of course there are going to be teenagers who are exempt from the teenage angst and rebellion (I wasnt an exemption) but it reflects on factors. - The environment - The principles - The discipline If one factor is not balanced with the rest, there is going to be a certain degree of rebellion and attitude involved.
I was a good kid for the most part, although I did a lot of stupid shit as well. Growing up in an inner city environment probably didn't help the latter.