Ok, Jail time again everyone, but I am working on plenty of stuff on my little staycation, It took me a while to organize but the stuff is just gonna start flowing! And in this section, we are covering a dreaded topic I see written out in profound memes for people who, created all the things they dislike. It all comes down to the same old sentiment "When I was your age". All the time, some people write out paragraphs about doing things they totally forgot how to do. We constantly use technology, to voice our opinions on how coddled this generation is with it. I am going to touch on the whole generation issue, but in this one, I am basically gonna to to the best of my ability, to explain the age old question, What happened to this generation? We have heard it like a broken record for eons, and its time to stop the bitterness. And in the end, I will have a special response.
First I wanna say, age shaming is nothing new, we have always judge kids as unlearned. We especially target teenagers who are learning the world around them and how to voice their opinion, what better way to shut it down then by saying they don't know any better. Its easy to say someone lacks knowledge, especially these days where everything is at the touch of a search engine. We research, to become smarter than the people we are supposed to teach. Mr. Gump even noted that stupid is as stupid does. You know what that means? It means the people speaking on your faults have the same. We aren't any smarter with age, we smarten up with experience. Its not like your brain learns the ropes as you go, we just get comfy in what we learn. The rest is just being taught on what we feel is important. The dude speaking on the stock market, doesn't own any, but has a news source. The person making 20 dollars an hour doesn't own the company, they just learned the position.
We don't naturally learn obviously, that's just silly. So as stupid as it sounds coming from someone with lack of age, shaming them for not understanding the things we didn't teach is silly, always has been. It needs to be nipped in the bud and sent back to the early 1900's before everyone forgot self worth and dedication. We learn what we see, and we have always spoken out as the younger generation, the issue is the lack of depth these days. It's not that opinions aren't valid anymore, they are just common and one sided, no ones allowed to read between the lines, if a young adult doesn't comply, we attack their intelligence and experience, while equally having none. Its not like we are pioneers tending to the fields from dawn to dusk and building cabins. Some of us are, but I doubt those people really have the time to fight with kids online. Basically, its like the Chef blaming the pasta for being overcooked.
I entitle this: Adult 2021
We have always heard these things, even my own childhood was overrun by the principles of generations passed. Playing outside was mandatory because it was our parents chance to collect themselves, and be away from us. There was essentially nothing wrong with it but the simple fact is the idea changed. We stopped raising kids different as we progressed from tragedy, which I am getting into bear with me, But to shame kids for doing the things we provided to them to coerce safety isn't the right way to go about things. We bought Xboxes instead of bikes but wondered where the gut punch of the downfall of childhood came from. We wanted to be "better" because we felt cheated. From what? I don't understand, we embrace nostalgia like a drug. But I also, do, understand it. Adults are currently people who never truly grew out of being a teenager. We have become very "point A to point B" in our goals. Work, sleep, eat, stream is the adult goal. The only real difference is what we embrace. We just don't like each others style, we don't encourage to do better or be better. We just complain as adults, the top of the totem pole who never grew up. Its that simple, we are just older versions of what we don't like. Tuning into different things.
Another point is for 20 years, two generations have grown under the shadow of paranoia. The world changed because America changed, whether anyone admits it or not, our actions shine a light on everyone. As we went to war, so did the rest of the world, and we began raising out of fear, and worse. Kids today walk in the shadow of our depressive state and grief as a species. They are watching the constant downfall through cell phone videos of street fights and car accidents being made viral, we collect the tragedy, the tricks, and the boredom defeating tactics as we always have, but now we have the power to spread a virus from what I assume. We went from Dr. Quinn, to Sons of Anarchy and expected no backlash for biting the forbidden apple of TV censors and entertainment. Teachers were Meth kings, and children were being raised by Baby Einstein.
From the people who brought you: "What Happened to the Kids?!"
There was no more room for positivity or imagination. We phased those words out long ago, we created a rank and file system out of trauma's of growing up and blame the kids for ruining our parenting experience. We idolized the villain and gave them compassion and a story everyone could sympathize with because we wanted to make these people seem less criminalized, or more heroic for what they chose to endure? I admit I found refuge in 1%er's, but romantic dramas about mental illness and Meth dealers? Get fucked.... We ruined an idea for a monthly dose of someone saying "Shit" on TV, we threw the imaginary line out the window to be edgy and never came back from it. Post 9/11 life is honestly pure bullshit. Is there a grieving process to this memory? When do we overcome? Everything including entertainment became so dark and real. Cartoons have become obsolete if Disney and Nickelodeon aren't involved. We handed the power of creation over to exclusive parties. Now we wonder where all the good stuff went and why everything is being recycled. Well, because this is what we created. What did we expect to happen to these generations?
I can go on about this forever obviously, and I will in another issue. My writings have become maybe a little jaded lately, but, I feel maybe they have to so I can truly reach you guys, I AM a bit jaded about the state of things, and its OK to express that fairly. I like showing the diversity of the way my brain works and keeping you guys on your toes with the unexpected. Anyways, onto another portion of this topic!
We cherish this shit but take a picture of it with our new writing utensil
I know I know, your old Dad friend here is blaming the elders for all this, or at least it seems like it but it raises the question, who else is there to blame? Who's really speaking the loudest on social media? Most adults can't even see what the teenagers these days are saying without a video or meme depicting that this is the hot trend. We aren't judging opinion, we are judging them by news articles, and TikTok, the same way our grandparents got judged on Elvis, its their thing, are they all doing stupid things? I am almost sure I can say that at least 80% of the teen population is not eating Tide Pods, or drinking alcohol from their butts, or whatever other kind of dumb shit a select few come up with.
Compare it to smoking crack in the 80's, or Heroin crazed poets in the 90's if you will, once something dumb gets popularized, it becomes viral. In those situations, we made some real dopes tragically hip, what they were doing was wrong, but if it ended them they were iconic. Things haven't changed, they just stop killing kids and became pranks and really dumb ideas. However I don't think we will have to worry about giving them Narcan while their kids are watching.
We weren't the most positive influence, so why act like it? Is everything the fault of the elders? Uh, well, yeah kinda if you want the position of being respected. The youth of today is in one giant cry for help, they are so confused with being told what's acceptable that they don't believe they are indifferent. All it is going to take is the idea of grown ups shutting the fuck up and letting them find themselves. Phases are not personal identities for life. We change like the fucking weather and the new storm kids are dealing with is the idea of not knowing who they are because adults are constantly telling them what's going on in other places and hiding from fake danger. What started out as equal rights had turned into life or death concerning people that have not fully developed into who they are. The most confused generation with nothing to turn to, everything different is acceptable, and sometimes, people just wanna be different. There's no more outcries to make, we have expressed our anger in Hip Hop, Metal, even Punk Rock has become just a genre we accept as a whole. Where do they go from here except depressed?
They are only following the routine they know. If you want your kid to ride a bike, buy a bike. If you want your child to explore your suburban neighborhood, do so. Maybe kids don't want to play outside these days because we are constantly standing guard. We don't give them the chance to fly from the nest. I have given all kinds of references here as a cycling adult with young kids, they are just versions of us, just as we were our parents. Let the sun in people, embrace a road trip, take your fucking kids to the park! Enjoy the little moments because that's how they will approach things, we forgot that because we always insist we are doing better than our parents, but the truth is, we are doing the same, just as they were, and their parents, and their parents before them. If you want your child to learn your passion, teach it. But don't ever blame or condemn them for trudging through what's expected of them at the time, because if you think back far enough, I am absolutely sure you can remember at least one time you hated the age you were as a young adult.
Remember when adults called us unruly killers?
Its natural, its just a different time, with different gifts to rot their brains, are we mad because we chose to entertain our kids with game consoles and tablets, keeping up with consumerism is what we know best. The ultimate rebellion these days is to question your Gender because we made it such a hot button issue instead of just letting these kids figure themselves out. We call ourselves "Allies" of people who are already being accepted as a whole. I don't think they have a true "Enemy" other than what we perceive of who wouldn't accept it. Mostly why without having "Influencer" behind their name on an IG account, most people that are openly Trans have grown into living the cycle of life, these kids can quietly do the same. We want pseudo honor for our kids following what we made common thought of a growing mind. The real threat these days is words, they scare us so much that they are worthy of being called a hate crime in themselves, being over compassionate is equal to not accepting. Not everyone is going to smile at you for their own reasons. The idea behind this was called having self confidence. Living differently requires a bit of inner self, because someone is going to question it, because we question everything these days.
SO IN THE END! I hope I answered the memeful question of why kids are "so different" these days, well, I kinda touched base... I hope.... I will eventually delve deeper into this subject by category but this turned out somewhat coherent I hope. There's a million aspects to this thought process, most o them unhelpful, but as I progress, I will try and reach out the best way I can to remind us all where we came from in mind frame. As ALWAYS! Thank you so much for reading and hanging around while I try to do good things.
Stay Rad!
Comments