How Did “The War Among the Generations” Come To Be So Peaceful?
January 2, 2022 5:18 PM Subscribe
Millennials and zoomers aren’t forefathers and offspring respectively but rather siblings, one older and one younger, both forged by the internet; both rightly regarded as a single generation with some minor differences of opinion regarding slang, emoji, and hashtags. They’re a young, web-savvy generation forged by the development of a bustling digital monoculture since the turn of the century. --from It’s Time to Accept That Millennials and Gen Z Are the Same Generation
I can't tell the difference, but my Gen-Z son (age 19) has no trouble at all dividing his generation into Team Minecraft (his age) and Team Fortnite (still his generation but younger). He doesn't feel anything in common with Millennials.
posted by Daily Alice at 5:54 PM on January 2, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 5:54 PM on January 2, 2022 [12 favorites]
My guess is that the pandemic is going to introduce some generational variation between people who were in K-12 education when everything got disrupted and people who were in the workforce. (I don't know where college students fit. Maybe they're a mini-generation that is somewhere between the two.) Of course, that played out really different for different people, but that's true of every generation's experiences.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:02 PM on January 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:02 PM on January 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
It’s kind of funny that I’ve never once happened upon a “these two generations are actually the same” think-piece that was written by a member of the younger generation.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 6:07 PM on January 2, 2022 [55 favorites]
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 6:07 PM on January 2, 2022 [55 favorites]
It's...too soon? Where are the articles calling out the staggering lack of tension between me, a 36 year old, and Gen X? My parents are Boomers, I'm a Millennial. You beef with the generation there's a gap with.
This is why I routinely tell all the under-10s I meet to get haircuts and jobs. Gotta start nurturing that resentment asap to keep the old ones appeased.
posted by phunniemee at 6:10 PM on January 2, 2022 [16 favorites]
This is why I routinely tell all the under-10s I meet to get haircuts and jobs. Gotta start nurturing that resentment asap to keep the old ones appeased.
posted by phunniemee at 6:10 PM on January 2, 2022 [16 favorites]
I’m almost 40, with a career, a mortgage, and a divorce that was finalized in 2009. I have nothing in common with a teenager, or honestly, most people in their 20s. My parents were Boomers and we didn’t have a CD player until I was 10 or a computer until I was 12. I remember getting cable tv and it was a big deal. One of my closest friends is 10 years younger than me; he’s a millennial too, and while we have some shared experiences, more often than not he tells me “damn you’re old.” I read the piece and I disagree with the idea, as I don’t even have that much cultural common ground with someone on the younger end of my generation.
Damn kids on my lawn.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 6:11 PM on January 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
Damn kids on my lawn.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 6:11 PM on January 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
A bit I like from the article:
Writing against the generational labels for The Atlantic, Joe Pinsker underscores the concept creep from the Silent Generation to Generation Z. “Baby boomers are the only currently living cohort defined by an actual demographic event,” he writes. The trivialization of these terms begins with Generation X, a generation entirely defined by its favorite musicians, movies, authors, and drugs. That’s where generational sorting becomes less of a political concern and more a recurring pseudo-crisis for arts critics. Like many critics of generational sorting, Pinsker sees pundits and pitchmen pushing these terms and pitting the so-called generations against one another in order to captivate a target audience with age-related insecurities. It’s often clickbait.
Having failed many an “are you a millennial or gen z?” buzzfeed quiz, I concur with the sentiment that it’s all bullshit. (And I’ve seen at least one take that claimed that millennials and gen x are basically indistinguishable, too.)
Thanks for posting this.
posted by chaiyai at 6:12 PM on January 2, 2022 [20 favorites]
Writing against the generational labels for The Atlantic, Joe Pinsker underscores the concept creep from the Silent Generation to Generation Z. “Baby boomers are the only currently living cohort defined by an actual demographic event,” he writes. The trivialization of these terms begins with Generation X, a generation entirely defined by its favorite musicians, movies, authors, and drugs. That’s where generational sorting becomes less of a political concern and more a recurring pseudo-crisis for arts critics. Like many critics of generational sorting, Pinsker sees pundits and pitchmen pushing these terms and pitting the so-called generations against one another in order to captivate a target audience with age-related insecurities. It’s often clickbait.
Having failed many an “are you a millennial or gen z?” buzzfeed quiz, I concur with the sentiment that it’s all bullshit. (And I’ve seen at least one take that claimed that millennials and gen x are basically indistinguishable, too.)
Thanks for posting this.
posted by chaiyai at 6:12 PM on January 2, 2022 [20 favorites]
Honestly the biggest difference I see between Millennials and Hen Z has more to do with language especially around relationships, especially queer relationships. They have done a ton of work in defining relationships on a very granular level that is very neat, but once you leave that generation it is hard to have older people follow concepts and language about it.
But views on privacy especially online, safety in school and communication styles are different.
Acting like the internet is just the same internet when bandwidth changes (video vs static such as tictok vs facebook) the invention of microtransactions and the gaming is a social tool, imare a huge differences and calling it all the same is a real broad view of the internet.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:17 PM on January 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
But views on privacy especially online, safety in school and communication styles are different.
Acting like the internet is just the same internet when bandwidth changes (video vs static such as tictok vs facebook) the invention of microtransactions and the gaming is a social tool, imare a huge differences and calling it all the same is a real broad view of the internet.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:17 PM on January 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
Pinsker sees pundits and pitchmen pushing these terms and pitting the so-called generations against one another in order to captivate a target audience with age-related insecurities. It’s often clickbait.
Indeed. Strauss–Howe generational theory is more or less entirely scientifically ungrounded.
posted by BungaDunga at 6:27 PM on January 2, 2022 [17 favorites]
Indeed. Strauss–Howe generational theory is more or less entirely scientifically ungrounded.
posted by BungaDunga at 6:27 PM on January 2, 2022 [17 favorites]
New trend piece: Millennials are killing the concept of generations.
posted by condour75 at 6:31 PM on January 2, 2022 [52 favorites]
posted by condour75 at 6:31 PM on January 2, 2022 [52 favorites]
Writing against the generational labels for The Atlantic, Joe Pinsker underscores the concept creep from the Silent Generation to Generation Z. “Baby boomers are the only currently living cohort defined by an actual demographic event,” he writes. The trivialization of these terms begins with Generation X, a generation entirely defined by its favorite musicians, movies, authors, and drugs.That's interesting, because I've always perceived Gen X to be defined by an actual demographic event, which was the inverse of the Baby Boom. We're products of the Baby Bust. Our whole thing is that we're demographically overshadowed by the generations before and after us, which gives us our special sense of middle-child grievance. It's a pretty trivial thing to hang an identity on, but I don't think it's entirely made up, and I think the movies, music, and authors of our youth reflect that sense that the world was never going to revolve around us. (I don't know about the drugs. What were our defining drugs?)
It’s kind of funny that I’ve never once happened upon a “these two generations are actually the same” think-piece that was written by a member of the younger generation.Yeah, it's been interesting to watch a certain segment of Millennial cultural commentators freak the fuck out about the fact that they're not the youngist, hippest kids on the block anymore. Middle age comes for us all eventually.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:46 PM on January 2, 2022 [22 favorites]
Honestly the biggest difference I see between Millennials and Hen Z has more to do with language especially around relationships, especially queer relationships.
Yes, and also many in Gen Z clearly have a pretty different relationship to gender. A few Millennials are non-binary, but it is far, far more common for Gen Z.
But also, there never were clean breaks between the generations. Gen X culture (punk, grunge, the internet, hip hop) wasn't suddenly replaced when Millennials grew up. I think we're still labouring under the misapprehension that all generational changes are like the Boomers coming of age, which they just aren't, absent the conditions that made the Boomers a big deal.
posted by ssg at 7:01 PM on January 2, 2022 [11 favorites]
Yes, and also many in Gen Z clearly have a pretty different relationship to gender. A few Millennials are non-binary, but it is far, far more common for Gen Z.
But also, there never were clean breaks between the generations. Gen X culture (punk, grunge, the internet, hip hop) wasn't suddenly replaced when Millennials grew up. I think we're still labouring under the misapprehension that all generational changes are like the Boomers coming of age, which they just aren't, absent the conditions that made the Boomers a big deal.
posted by ssg at 7:01 PM on January 2, 2022 [11 favorites]
A gentle reminder that the original punk is a boomer thing - in some countries the baby boom actually has two demographic peaks which can vaguely be labelled "hippies" and "punks". Essentially at the moment the hippies have retired while the original punks are about to (the Sex Pistols showed up the summer I left high school, before college - I'm 63)
posted by mbo at 7:07 PM on January 2, 2022 [14 favorites]
posted by mbo at 7:07 PM on January 2, 2022 [14 favorites]
I'm a Scorpio, so I find all this generational theory somewhat annoying.
Previously, and there are other more previous ones.
posted by gimonca at 7:08 PM on January 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
Previously, and there are other more previous ones.
posted by gimonca at 7:08 PM on January 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
Where are the articles calling out the staggering lack of tension between me, a 36 year old, and Gen X?
Gen X apathy might be taken as an open admissions policy for anyone except Boomers. Well, maybe a few Boomers, ideally if they have no nostalgia for the 60s and didn't vote for Reagan. Or whatever, I guess. Probably no one cares, but a brief critique of generational clique maintenance is even in the book, Generation X.
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:10 PM on January 2, 2022 [6 favorites]
Gen X apathy might be taken as an open admissions policy for anyone except Boomers. Well, maybe a few Boomers, ideally if they have no nostalgia for the 60s and didn't vote for Reagan. Or whatever, I guess. Probably no one cares, but a brief critique of generational clique maintenance is even in the book, Generation X.
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:10 PM on January 2, 2022 [6 favorites]
Yeah, aren't Gen X the kids of the early boomer peak while the millennials are the kids of the late boomer peak and Gen Z the kids of Gen X, more or less? Also, your favorite generation sucks.
posted by rikschell at 7:16 PM on January 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 7:16 PM on January 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
Are there other countries where people name their generations and write think pieces about them? If so, I'd love to know how they define those generations, and what their stereotypes are.
Also, one of my favorite corners of tiktok is millennial-gen alpha drama.
posted by catcafe at 7:16 PM on January 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
Also, one of my favorite corners of tiktok is millennial-gen alpha drama.
posted by catcafe at 7:16 PM on January 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
Just a reminder that Stephen Miller (born 1985) is one year younger than Katy Perry (born 1984) so I don't think it's generation that divides them.
posted by dannyboybell at 7:17 PM on January 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by dannyboybell at 7:17 PM on January 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
Well Katy Perry isn't a soulless ghoul, though it could be argued I'm being unfair to soulless ghouls with the comparison.
posted by Carillon at 7:30 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Carillon at 7:30 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
(I don't know about the drugs. What were our defining drugs?)
OK Soda.
posted by escabeche at 7:32 PM on January 2, 2022 [13 favorites]
OK Soda.
posted by escabeche at 7:32 PM on January 2, 2022 [13 favorites]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers
I was actually reading the Wikipedia article about Baby Boomers a week ago, and it was interesting how it talks about China.
posted by polecat at 7:37 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
I was actually reading the Wikipedia article about Baby Boomers a week ago, and it was interesting how it talks about China.
posted by polecat at 7:37 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
China has a particular problem in that traditional Confucianist filial piety means when you got old you passed the family biz on to your oldest son and lived with his family looking after the kids in your old age. Or more generally as a kid you're expected to support your parents in their retirement.
The one child per family policy has right messed with that, now a young couple has two sets of parents to support, both of who expect to move in and look after their one kid.
posted by mbo at 7:53 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
The one child per family policy has right messed with that, now a young couple has two sets of parents to support, both of who expect to move in and look after their one kid.
posted by mbo at 7:53 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
Yeah, it's been interesting to watch a certain segment of Millennial cultural commentators freak the fuck out about the fact that they're not the youngest, hippest kids on the block anymore. Middle age comes for us all eventually.
And, if you're lucky, old age, with more than twice as many years lived after 30 than before.
My first (possibly unkind) thought was that if the writer were really Gen Z, the article would be shorter, funnier, and a TikTok.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:00 PM on January 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
And, if you're lucky, old age, with more than twice as many years lived after 30 than before.
My first (possibly unkind) thought was that if the writer were really Gen Z, the article would be shorter, funnier, and a TikTok.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:00 PM on January 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
I think the divider line between us true Millennials is the difference between Very Online, with the internet taking off during our youth, and Gen Z, who is Extremely Online, with fast enough internet in their pockets, zoom being so widely used, and even more of their socializing online.
That and growing existential dread that not only are there no adults, but the insane are running the asylum and actively recruiting the firemen to help them burn down everything.
posted by Jacen at 8:04 PM on January 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
That and growing existential dread that not only are there no adults, but the insane are running the asylum and actively recruiting the firemen to help them burn down everything.
posted by Jacen at 8:04 PM on January 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
Are there other countries where people name their generations and write think pieces about them?
In true anglophone thirdworlder southeast asian fashion, of course not. We read the american ones and mask our confusion about the whole matter, not admitting that just about the late 90s when cable/satellite (and later broadband) became commonplace our cultural consumption is about a decade behind, not to mention the other competing cultural influences so the ones with newspaper columns pretend they know what the hell they're talking about when they talk about 'millenials'. But thanks to clickbait BuzzFeed-type sites there are more 'you know you're a {insert decade here} kid' listicles that actually feels accurate.
posted by cendawanita at 8:13 PM on January 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
In true anglophone thirdworlder southeast asian fashion, of course not. We read the american ones and mask our confusion about the whole matter, not admitting that just about the late 90s when cable/satellite (and later broadband) became commonplace our cultural consumption is about a decade behind, not to mention the other competing cultural influences so the ones with newspaper columns pretend they know what the hell they're talking about when they talk about 'millenials'. But thanks to clickbait BuzzFeed-type sites there are more 'you know you're a {insert decade here} kid' listicles that actually feels accurate.
posted by cendawanita at 8:13 PM on January 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
generalizing the behaviors of tens of millions people and attributing these generalizations to further generalized and arbitrary markers of technology and culture will, at best, produce funny observations about stuff a lot of but not all people do and, at worst, contribute to the meaningless and irrational heuristics we use to make strangers and society seem less terrifyingly alien and emotionally complex
it's kinda just bigotry but more cool
China has a particular problem in that traditional Confucianist filial piety
you are talking about a cultural difference that's pretty much always always always better attributed to things like housing affordability, socioeconomics, etc. in the same way it would be demeaning/simplistic/ignorant to call an American nuclear family a Jeffersonian ideal of filial alienation, and to say that all Americans are totally philosophically under the heel of the doctrines of the Founding Fathers, you wouldn't attribute the way family structures are commonly organized in China to Confucius
there is no surer sign of American bloviation than when people start pinning every single fucking Chinese social construct to Confucius
posted by paimapi at 8:49 PM on January 2, 2022 [25 favorites]
it's kinda just bigotry but more cool
China has a particular problem in that traditional Confucianist filial piety
you are talking about a cultural difference that's pretty much always always always better attributed to things like housing affordability, socioeconomics, etc. in the same way it would be demeaning/simplistic/ignorant to call an American nuclear family a Jeffersonian ideal of filial alienation, and to say that all Americans are totally philosophically under the heel of the doctrines of the Founding Fathers, you wouldn't attribute the way family structures are commonly organized in China to Confucius
there is no surer sign of American bloviation than when people start pinning every single fucking Chinese social construct to Confucius
posted by paimapi at 8:49 PM on January 2, 2022 [25 favorites]
the baby boom actually has two demographic peaks which can vaguely be labelled "hippies" and "punks"
Yeah the latter, distinctive cohort, well-named as Generation OG X is described in detail by Joshua Glenn in the Original Generation X, 1954-63. Please, don't confuse us with those boomers you despise -- we don't like them either.
posted by Rash at 8:57 PM on January 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
Yeah the latter, distinctive cohort, well-named as Generation OG X is described in detail by Joshua Glenn in the Original Generation X, 1954-63. Please, don't confuse us with those boomers you despise -- we don't like them either.
posted by Rash at 8:57 PM on January 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
This headline of this article seems like a pretty reasonable take to me, but so many of the actual claims in the article just seem bizarre?
Also, if you want to look for actual generational breaks in music you can absolutely find that? Hyperpop seems like the easiest example, but there are others as well.
I agree with the fundamental thesis that generational labels are fake, and that zoomers and millennials have a lot in common, but all of the supporting evidence in this article just seems really strange and poorly thought through to me. But that's probably the point — easier to get clicks and Discourse that way (and hey, here I am writing this comment — it worked on me!)
posted by wesleyac at 8:58 PM on January 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
She doesn’t sound particularly interested in creative emancipation from her forebears. She doesn’t seek out or represent any sort of generational break in popular music. In fact, she sounds rather determined to sound how pop radio has played since I—a critic twice her age—was in high school.Like, really? Have you just not gone back and listened to mid-2000s pop music recently? It has a sound that's extremely distinct from modern pop imo, which has taken a lot more from electronic music in recent years.
Also, if you want to look for actual generational breaks in music you can absolutely find that? Hyperpop seems like the easiest example, but there are others as well.
You might say it’s simply too early to assess the cultural integrity of a cohort that’s just now entering the workforce. The childhoods were a bit different, but barely soYeah buddy covid seems like it's gonna throw a pretty big wrench in this. I think one of the bigger differences between millennials and zoomers is the amount of obvious societal collapse going on during their childhoods: zoomers had the 2008 housing crisis, trump, covid, etc, whereas I think millennials had mostly pretty reasonable childhood years, then got fucked just as they were graduating college.
I agree with the fundamental thesis that generational labels are fake, and that zoomers and millennials have a lot in common, but all of the supporting evidence in this article just seems really strange and poorly thought through to me. But that's probably the point — easier to get clicks and Discourse that way (and hey, here I am writing this comment — it worked on me!)
posted by wesleyac at 8:58 PM on January 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
i would just think that american culture is defined by pre and post 1980, the Reagan era.
the long Reagan Era began in 1973, and the splintering of social movements, but by the 1980 election the political changes in the US Congress had taken, the Reagan administration began the cynical use of television media that continues today; and the immense wealth transfers began--white supremacy reconstituted itself as a tax policy, as the old quotes go.
wealth transfers that have only accelerated, first in the nineties, and then the 2000's and now the pandemic era. and those wealth transfers and the cynical use of the television media are what made the United States the right-wing mess that it remains today.
everything else just seems like marketing nonsense
posted by eustatic at 9:01 PM on January 2, 2022 [18 favorites]
the long Reagan Era began in 1973, and the splintering of social movements, but by the 1980 election the political changes in the US Congress had taken, the Reagan administration began the cynical use of television media that continues today; and the immense wealth transfers began--white supremacy reconstituted itself as a tax policy, as the old quotes go.
wealth transfers that have only accelerated, first in the nineties, and then the 2000's and now the pandemic era. and those wealth transfers and the cynical use of the television media are what made the United States the right-wing mess that it remains today.
everything else just seems like marketing nonsense
posted by eustatic at 9:01 PM on January 2, 2022 [18 favorites]
As someone straddling the line right between millennial and Gen X, this is a laugh. People up to ten years younger than me are absolutely terrible about even attempting to understand concepts like gender identity, or that bisexual and trans people even exist.
Also, no offense millennials, but a lot of this generation still really loves the cops.
The kids seem like they get things like gender identity and are embracing it. The kids seem like they get that All Cops Are Bastards. I look at the kids and feel like I was born too soon, because I grew up around a bunch of deluded tools.
Yeah, it's been interesting to watch a certain segment of Millennial cultural commentators freak the fuck out about the fact that they're not the youngist, hippest kids on the block anymore. Middle age comes for us all eventually.
My best friend and I were discussing the other night how we don't even understand how young kids consume media. We still watch TV shows. Kids watch TikTok and YouTube they don't watch scripted television. They live in an entirely different media landscape that I couldn't hope to understand.
We are not the same. As someone else astutely put it. The difference between Very Online and Extremely Online.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:22 PM on January 2, 2022 [14 favorites]
Also, no offense millennials, but a lot of this generation still really loves the cops.
The kids seem like they get things like gender identity and are embracing it. The kids seem like they get that All Cops Are Bastards. I look at the kids and feel like I was born too soon, because I grew up around a bunch of deluded tools.
Yeah, it's been interesting to watch a certain segment of Millennial cultural commentators freak the fuck out about the fact that they're not the youngist, hippest kids on the block anymore. Middle age comes for us all eventually.
My best friend and I were discussing the other night how we don't even understand how young kids consume media. We still watch TV shows. Kids watch TikTok and YouTube they don't watch scripted television. They live in an entirely different media landscape that I couldn't hope to understand.
We are not the same. As someone else astutely put it. The difference between Very Online and Extremely Online.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:22 PM on January 2, 2022 [14 favorites]
this generational gap stuff troubled me for some time when i first got tiktok (as a younger millennial). it wasn’t the side part and skinny jean stuff, it was the insinuation that we ultimately failed w/r/t politics and activism. and it’s definitely true that when i was in my late teens and early twenties, apoliticism and a certain apathy was the norm amongst people my age, but there was a huge shift between roughly 2012 and 2016. but when i started dating a “zoomer” last year and meeting their friends i realized just how minor these differences were and that they were not things these “zoomers” themselves cared about or took seriously. the discourse is a lot of “narcissism of minor differences” and older people trying to cash in on the whole generational gap stuff they did with millennials. and i struggle not to see an ideological aspect to it, considering that one of the things that unites us is our leftist orientation. CIA conspiracy imo lol
posted by LeviQayin at 9:33 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by LeviQayin at 9:33 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
paimapi: I'm not American, I was just explaining what was explained to me by a Chinese friend in China, he was faced with this two-sets-of-inlaws dilemma. I'm sure nothing is as simple and straightforward as that, but as I understand it it's a real issue for real people
posted by mbo at 9:40 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by mbo at 9:40 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
deadaluspark, cosigned as another xennial. Both the "I feel like I was on the leading edge of a lot of the stuff that hit the mainstream in gen z and love so much of what I see from these kids" and also the "I don't even get how kids today are consuming media, like, at ALL." I think the cultural gap is large, and getting larger.
posted by potrzebie at 10:50 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 10:50 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
Are there other countries where people name their generations and write think pieces about them?
In Germany not so much. You’ll hear the word millennials used once in a while in the media. But I don’t recall hearing about other younger generations by label. Rarely if ever have I heard “Gen A is like this, but Gen B is like this“.
Here it’s more like “What do the youth think of this? Let’s interview!”
And now I’m terrified of the thought of looking into it and discovering that I’m part of the doesn’t-know-shit generation… doesn’t even know the generation labels.
Edit: it may be just me and my boring consumption of mostly state run media.
posted by romanb at 11:01 PM on January 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
In Germany not so much. You’ll hear the word millennials used once in a while in the media. But I don’t recall hearing about other younger generations by label. Rarely if ever have I heard “Gen A is like this, but Gen B is like this“.
Here it’s more like “What do the youth think of this? Let’s interview!”
And now I’m terrified of the thought of looking into it and discovering that I’m part of the doesn’t-know-shit generation… doesn’t even know the generation labels.
Edit: it may be just me and my boring consumption of mostly state run media.
posted by romanb at 11:01 PM on January 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
As long as this isn't some elaborate precursor to lumping us Gen X kids in with the Boomers, I'm cool with it, but whatever.
*Sits in front of cartoons and eats cereal*
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:07 PM on January 2, 2022 [12 favorites]
*Sits in front of cartoons and eats cereal*
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:07 PM on January 2, 2022 [12 favorites]
Ignorance was bliss.
posted by romanb at 11:07 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by romanb at 11:07 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
I am also not an American, and these terms mean nothing to me. It's like sorting people by horoscope or blood type. Five years ago I would have joked that a Millennial is someone younger than you with whom you disagree politically, and a Boomer is someone older than you with whom you disagree politically, but now they've made up all these new Pokemon and I'm completely lost.
Just as I consider dumb-masquerading-as-insightful jokes about men and women to be a symptom of a society unhealthily segregated by gender, I see this manufactured culture war as a symptom of a society unhealthily stratified by age.
posted by confluency at 11:39 PM on January 2, 2022 [24 favorites]
Just as I consider dumb-masquerading-as-insightful jokes about men and women to be a symptom of a society unhealthily segregated by gender, I see this manufactured culture war as a symptom of a society unhealthily stratified by age.
posted by confluency at 11:39 PM on January 2, 2022 [24 favorites]
A friend of mine, until recently, thought this is all just fake or some kind of ARG, until i had to explain to them the history of American marketing coopting/metatasizing this entire concept of cultural generations. I do think it's become less tenable to define it by what the mass culture is, since it's so fragmented, but by how it's produced and consumed, and this is where the fluency gap is the largest. And it doesn't map very well to simple age cohort at all, it's all legacies of access and privileges all the way down.
posted by cendawanita at 11:59 PM on January 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 11:59 PM on January 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
As a 40 year old liberal USA citizen wondering what the hell went wrong, yes, I think we very very deeply failed the next generation on climate, probably the economy and jobs, and absolutely on politics. So many people in my age range are still seethingly blitheringly ignorant of the way I perceive reality that I can't comprehend it. Is it willful blindness? Have they just not been exposed to enough? Deliberately squash any indication that their comfortable existence isn't the norm? Do they unthinkingly support certain political parties, not realizing that support means tacitly supporting the very long list of increasingly horrible ideas and laws and insurrections that result? Are they slowly corrupted into evil, or do they embrace it? Do they just not care? Is media that effective at brainwashing?
I mean, I realize that the right has spent at minimum twenty years honing their entire shtick into a psyops campaign against... Decency and equality if it means giving a shred of Power to The Other. I deeply hope Trumpism is the extinction burst of this particular brand of malicious evil but I think it's the beginning of a Crusade of the type that just never ends well. They've combined the big tent attitude with evangelical tactics (both senses of the word) and I deeply fear the mob is mutating into something horrible. I fear the people who are most going to pay the price is the generation we couldn't protect from any of this.
This has been Jaina's occasional but increasingly frequent political analysis. Existence is resistance, organize your community, but be prepared for the worst. Never be surprised by the depths of cruelty from people who think some sort of nebulous threat to their existence justifies violence against everyone else.
posted by Jacen at 12:22 AM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
I mean, I realize that the right has spent at minimum twenty years honing their entire shtick into a psyops campaign against... Decency and equality if it means giving a shred of Power to The Other. I deeply hope Trumpism is the extinction burst of this particular brand of malicious evil but I think it's the beginning of a Crusade of the type that just never ends well. They've combined the big tent attitude with evangelical tactics (both senses of the word) and I deeply fear the mob is mutating into something horrible. I fear the people who are most going to pay the price is the generation we couldn't protect from any of this.
This has been Jaina's occasional but increasingly frequent political analysis. Existence is resistance, organize your community, but be prepared for the worst. Never be surprised by the depths of cruelty from people who think some sort of nebulous threat to their existence justifies violence against everyone else.
posted by Jacen at 12:22 AM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
Yeah, generational definitions are mostly a marketing tool, but are interesting anyway to denote demographical reactions to the passage of time. I'm one of those "Catalanos" but definitely identify more withmy elder peers firmly considered "X" than folks even a couple of years younger than me. Materially, my childhood did not differ signifcantly from that of my parents: a family TV, a landline with expensive long distance, rampant mainstream racism and homophobia. Yeah, we had a computer at home but it was a glorified typewriter. My teenage daughter is growing up in a fundamentally different and unrecognizable society.
I think a useful distinction, and major breaking point would be the card catalog. My college years saw the decomnmissioning of the library's card catalogs, and in my formative years this was a critical tool in finding information as it was for several generations before me. I tried explaining one to my daughter and it sounded like a relic from some medieval monestary.
posted by St. Oops at 12:30 AM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think a useful distinction, and major breaking point would be the card catalog. My college years saw the decomnmissioning of the library's card catalogs, and in my formative years this was a critical tool in finding information as it was for several generations before me. I tried explaining one to my daughter and it sounded like a relic from some medieval monestary.
posted by St. Oops at 12:30 AM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don't know about the drugs. What were our defining drugs?)
Cigarettes. Underacheivement. Irony. And really a lot of sub-par, overpriced weed, iirc.
posted by thivaia at 3:04 AM on January 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
Cigarettes. Underacheivement. Irony. And really a lot of sub-par, overpriced weed, iirc.
posted by thivaia at 3:04 AM on January 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
(I don't know about the drugs. What were our defining drugs?)
This.
posted by jeremias at 3:34 AM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
This.
posted by jeremias at 3:34 AM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
Are there other countries where people name their generations and write think pieces about them? If so, I'd love to know how they define those generations, and what their stereotypes are.
Among many (and def all the largest) Anglophone countries, the concept of the post-WWII baby boom is a thing.
posted by pompomtom at 5:23 AM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Among many (and def all the largest) Anglophone countries, the concept of the post-WWII baby boom is a thing.
posted by pompomtom at 5:23 AM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am 42 and I am The Oregon Trail generation. Thank you very much. We keep getting forgotten but I feel there is a distinction. As we all do, I suppose.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:43 AM on January 3, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:43 AM on January 3, 2022 [12 favorites]
Yeah, being in that weird transitional period where we remember the days before cell phones and internet access were common, but young enough that much of our teenage years were extremely online feels kinda weird. Guess it's time to check in again with all my old IRC peeps so that at least somebody I talk to other than my SO has a similar frame of reference.
Funny thing is that as a kid I had like zero shared cultural space with my 8 year older solidly Gen X sister, but in the years since I've found I've got way less in common with the "true" millennials a few years younger than me.
Obviously individual people aren't nearly as defined by their age as generational sorting would suggest, but some of it does hold true in aggregate, so it's still a somewhat useful rubric when considering very large groups.
posted by wierdo at 5:55 AM on January 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
Funny thing is that as a kid I had like zero shared cultural space with my 8 year older solidly Gen X sister, but in the years since I've found I've got way less in common with the "true" millennials a few years younger than me.
Obviously individual people aren't nearly as defined by their age as generational sorting would suggest, but some of it does hold true in aggregate, so it's still a somewhat useful rubric when considering very large groups.
posted by wierdo at 5:55 AM on January 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
Are there other countries where people name their generations and write think pieces about them
Here in Sweden they tend to go by birth decade. Birth year in general is a huge element of identity, to the point that folks as often say their birth year as much as current age. I have to admit that later in life that means less mental math when asked how old one is.
I mentioned the card catalog before as a generational marker, but the more I think about it the more that comes to mind. When we'd go back to my inlaws right at the beginning of the millennium my slightly younger sister in law would be chatting with classmates on that service with a little running figure in the bottom right of the screen. I mean, just a few years before I was flirting via postcards. When I read about the Columbine tragedy, reports talked of the ring tones of abandoned phones filling the cafeteria like birds chirping. At my high school just a few years before there was a gang member with a pager and I knew of one kid with a cellphone that was strictly for farm business and that was it. (note: this was a US high school, I think cell phones in Sweden were more widespread in the 90s)
posted by St. Oops at 5:59 AM on January 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
Here in Sweden they tend to go by birth decade. Birth year in general is a huge element of identity, to the point that folks as often say their birth year as much as current age. I have to admit that later in life that means less mental math when asked how old one is.
I mentioned the card catalog before as a generational marker, but the more I think about it the more that comes to mind. When we'd go back to my inlaws right at the beginning of the millennium my slightly younger sister in law would be chatting with classmates on that service with a little running figure in the bottom right of the screen. I mean, just a few years before I was flirting via postcards. When I read about the Columbine tragedy, reports talked of the ring tones of abandoned phones filling the cafeteria like birds chirping. At my high school just a few years before there was a gang member with a pager and I knew of one kid with a cellphone that was strictly for farm business and that was it. (note: this was a US high school, I think cell phones in Sweden were more widespread in the 90s)
posted by St. Oops at 5:59 AM on January 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
The next big generational divide will be when the children of the pandemic come of age. What name will stick to them? Coronials? Generation Mask?
posted by otherchaz at 6:08 AM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by otherchaz at 6:08 AM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
In the UK it makes more sense to think of post-war popular culture (as it affects the formative identities of young people) in terms of a series of seven-year cohorts, starting (say) 1933 (Rock & Roll) and then going 1940 (Mod/Hippie); 1947 (Progressive rock/Glam); 1954 (Punk); 1961 (Post-punk/Indie/shiny pop); 1968 (Rave); 1975 (BritPop/Drum&Bass) and from there to other things, I know not what, I'm old. It's very rough, and the inflection point comes around twenty-one years after the birth of the oldest cohort members. The musical genres are to be taken as symbolic of a shift in identification and aspiration within the young adult community, and not prescriptive, so apparently conflicting or diverse co-existing genres can be seen as expressions of a coherent zeitgeist (there's a lot less identitarian conflict between Jesus and Mary Chain, The Smiths, Scritti Politti and Wham! than you might think).
That said, British journalism has taken the US system of Boomers/Gen-X/whatever wholesale, despite the fact that it doesn't really reflect British cultural history. I suppose it's easier for them, because paperback books and press releases.
posted by Grangousier at 6:52 AM on January 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
That said, British journalism has taken the US system of Boomers/Gen-X/whatever wholesale, despite the fact that it doesn't really reflect British cultural history. I suppose it's easier for them, because paperback books and press releases.
posted by Grangousier at 6:52 AM on January 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
What name will stick to them? Coronials? Generation Mask?
Plague Dogs.
posted by flabdablet at 6:57 AM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
Plague Dogs.
posted by flabdablet at 6:57 AM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
The whole idea of segmenting groups of people by birth-date and assigning special characteristics to large swaths of people is what is otherwise called astrology.
All the more so when the age range spans decades.
posted by Ayn Marx at 9:09 AM on January 3, 2022 [9 favorites]
All the more so when the age range spans decades.
posted by Ayn Marx at 9:09 AM on January 3, 2022 [9 favorites]
The whole idea of segmenting groups of people by birth-date and assigning special characteristics to large swaths of people is what is otherwise called astrology.Honestly, I think this is taking it too far. The idea of a generational experience isn't always valid, and it obviously obscures really big differences in experience. But there are sometimes generations that aren't totally arbitrary. My parents were born during and right after WWII, and I really think that people who were born in the West in that 1945-1955 period had a particular experience, which had to do with being the children of traumatized parents and of growing up with societal prosperity that really differentiated them from the people who came before them. Similarly, there is a difference between Irish people who were born in the '60s, who came of age in a society that was poor and deeply religious, and Irish people who were born in the '90s, who grew up in a prosperous and rapidly-secularizing society. South Africans aren't making stuff up when the talk about the Born Free generation, the kids who were born right after the end of apartheid and who were told (kind of misleadingly) that they were on the vanguard of a whole new, egalitarian society.
Obviously, it can be overstated, and you could argue that there's no defining generational experience for American Gen Xers, Millennials, or Zoomers. But I don't think it's as arbitrary as astrology.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:35 AM on January 3, 2022 [9 favorites]
and you could argue that there's no defining generational experience for American Gen Xers, Millennials, or Zoomers.
Our baristas are far more educated than our political class.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 9:51 AM on January 3, 2022 [8 favorites]
Our baristas are far more educated than our political class.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 9:51 AM on January 3, 2022 [8 favorites]
Generation X was kinda a big deal because Douglas Coupland pointed out a big shift in zeitgeist from the Boomers: a different attitude towards careers and employment. Before times personal identity was more closely yoked to one's career, but by the 1980s that part of social contract started unravelling, among other things. Subsequent generations are going through their own reactions to Gen X.
But the biggest generation gap evah was between Boomers and their 20th century parents. That was even more a big deal.
posted by ovvl at 9:52 AM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
But the biggest generation gap evah was between Boomers and their 20th century parents. That was even more a big deal.
posted by ovvl at 9:52 AM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
I think Millennials were optimistic about the future at one point. I'm not sure Generation Z ever was. I suspect this may largely be due to the differences in experiencing The Great Recession as a child or young adult.
posted by oceano at 9:56 AM on January 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by oceano at 9:56 AM on January 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
Honestly the biggest difference I see between Millennials and Hen Z has more to do with language especially around relationships, especially queer relationships. They have done a ton of work in defining relationships on a very granular level that is very neat, but once you leave that generation it is hard to have older people follow concepts and language about it.
....I gotta say, this makes me laugh a little to myself because what I see is less "the kids are inventing new relationship and gender language" and more "the kids have popularized all the gender and relationship concepts I was playing in during my teens and early 20s to a frankly astonishing (to me) extent.
Like, take asexuality culture. Y'all, I was involved in the conversation about whether we should collectively have an asexual flag or not, and if so what should it look like, and what should the things on it represent. They sell those damn flags in the fucking Target now. Or take non-binary and genderqueer culture; when I was dicking around trying to make better habits and casually learn how to use singular they and Spivak, I could never have anticipated the world of today where it's a matter of casual conduct in my fucking workplace to specify pronouns somewhere. It blows my fucking mind if I think about it too long.
These things aren't just passively generational, though. Like... I've had a worm's eye view of these things, and when I was playing around with them they didn't come from nowhere; AVEN always had a strong contingent of non-binary folks and their FAQ was in fact written by a person who IDed genderqueer then and uses nonbinary now. Their founder is a gentleman named David Jay who is about ten years older than I am (~40 now) who has been intensely influenced by other queer movements, especially bisexuality- and polyamory-focused thinkers.
These ideas don't just passively spread as a function of age: they spread as a consequence of millions of acts of choosing to out oneself and tell a story about how one fits into orientation and gender space and talking about how one's experience seems to be mirrored or divergent from other people's. Insofar as there's a generational change in attitude, I think it comes from coming of age where your expectations about the world are set by the things you learn about the world during your formative years.
But, like.... this stuff isn't as universal as people like to make out, and your cultural location matters a LOT. Insofar as I think generational discourse matters something real (and I do think there is something there, albeit less essentialist than these frameworks often imply), I think what they measure is the spread of new ideas through the culture and whether people view them as a change from a previous older state or just how the world has always been.
posted by sciatrix at 10:12 AM on January 3, 2022 [13 favorites]
....I gotta say, this makes me laugh a little to myself because what I see is less "the kids are inventing new relationship and gender language" and more "the kids have popularized all the gender and relationship concepts I was playing in during my teens and early 20s to a frankly astonishing (to me) extent.
Like, take asexuality culture. Y'all, I was involved in the conversation about whether we should collectively have an asexual flag or not, and if so what should it look like, and what should the things on it represent. They sell those damn flags in the fucking Target now. Or take non-binary and genderqueer culture; when I was dicking around trying to make better habits and casually learn how to use singular they and Spivak, I could never have anticipated the world of today where it's a matter of casual conduct in my fucking workplace to specify pronouns somewhere. It blows my fucking mind if I think about it too long.
These things aren't just passively generational, though. Like... I've had a worm's eye view of these things, and when I was playing around with them they didn't come from nowhere; AVEN always had a strong contingent of non-binary folks and their FAQ was in fact written by a person who IDed genderqueer then and uses nonbinary now. Their founder is a gentleman named David Jay who is about ten years older than I am (~40 now) who has been intensely influenced by other queer movements, especially bisexuality- and polyamory-focused thinkers.
These ideas don't just passively spread as a function of age: they spread as a consequence of millions of acts of choosing to out oneself and tell a story about how one fits into orientation and gender space and talking about how one's experience seems to be mirrored or divergent from other people's. Insofar as there's a generational change in attitude, I think it comes from coming of age where your expectations about the world are set by the things you learn about the world during your formative years.
But, like.... this stuff isn't as universal as people like to make out, and your cultural location matters a LOT. Insofar as I think generational discourse matters something real (and I do think there is something there, albeit less essentialist than these frameworks often imply), I think what they measure is the spread of new ideas through the culture and whether people view them as a change from a previous older state or just how the world has always been.
posted by sciatrix at 10:12 AM on January 3, 2022 [13 favorites]
Are there other countries where people name their generations and write think pieces about them? If so, I'd love to know how they define those generations, and what their stereotypes are.
Totally anecdotal, but I recall an article from maybe 10 years ago, or whenever smartphones with touch-screens were becoming widespread, about the younger generation in Japan being nicknamed "The Thumb Generation" by their elders because they used their thumbs so much on their phones and were even starting to point using their thumbs. Probably BS, but amusing.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:06 AM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Totally anecdotal, but I recall an article from maybe 10 years ago, or whenever smartphones with touch-screens were becoming widespread, about the younger generation in Japan being nicknamed "The Thumb Generation" by their elders because they used their thumbs so much on their phones and were even starting to point using their thumbs. Probably BS, but amusing.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:06 AM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
(I don't know about the drugs. What were our defining drugs?)
Ecstasy. Ecstasy. Ecstasy.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 11:08 AM on January 3, 2022 [8 favorites]
Ecstasy. Ecstasy. Ecstasy.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 11:08 AM on January 3, 2022 [8 favorites]
otherchaz: "The next big generational divide will be when the children of the pandemic come of age. What name will stick to them? Coronials? Generation Mask?"
Pandemials, obviously.
posted by signal at 3:53 PM on January 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
Pandemials, obviously.
posted by signal at 3:53 PM on January 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
“(I don't know about the drugs. What were our defining drugs?)
Ecstasy. Ecstasy. Ecstasy”
Crack is also a Gen X drug.
posted by oddman at 4:33 PM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
Ecstasy. Ecstasy. Ecstasy”
Crack is also a Gen X drug.
posted by oddman at 4:33 PM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
Aren't the divisions between these arbitrary generation groups necessarily vague and fuzzy? If you're a border kid between Generation X and Millennials, like right on the cut off date (late 70s?), which cohort do you belong to? It's rather dumb. Any real difference would be apparent at the far end of each group: say, the oldest Millenials and the youngest Gen Z.
posted by zardoz at 4:39 PM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by zardoz at 4:39 PM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
It kind of amazes me that no one has mentioned 9-11/GWOT as a generational event. As an Oregon Trail/Millennial, the watershed event that really started me towards 'holy shit the old people don't know what they're doing!' was watching the completely screwed up, racist, and xenophobic reactions to 9-11.
The Great Recession probably affected me more on a financial/practical level, but watching America lose its mind and publicly abandon it's core values in pursuit of The Enemy made me appreciate how it must have been for my folks to deal with Vietnam.
posted by cult_url_bias at 10:08 PM on January 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
The Great Recession probably affected me more on a financial/practical level, but watching America lose its mind and publicly abandon it's core values in pursuit of The Enemy made me appreciate how it must have been for my folks to deal with Vietnam.
posted by cult_url_bias at 10:08 PM on January 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
Yeah buddy covid seems like it's gonna throw a pretty big wrench in this. I think one of the bigger differences between millennials and zoomers is the amount of obvious societal collapse going on during their childhoods: zoomers had the 2008 housing crisis, trump, covid, etc, whereas I think millennials had mostly pretty reasonable childhood years, then got fucked just as they were graduating college.
I was 13 when 9/11 happened. I feel like that felt like a pretty big societal collapse. Watching all these insane anthrax scares, all the lashing out at anyone who might look remotely middle eastern, watching the country go to war on the most obviously fabricated lie, and seeing grown ups around me nod along and act like all of this was okay... and then watching Bush Jr get elected for a second term after pulling this crap. I know compared to Trump and Covid this may not seem quite the same, but I still feel like in my mind, 9/11 was the moment when things began to really descend into chaos. Or at least the moment when I first became acutely, painfully aware of it.
But I think there is still a point here about millenial vs gen z. Millenials remember a time before the world went so obviously haywire, just like we remember a time before cell phones (or at least some of us do), before we carried around internet devices in our pockets. Facebook wasn't even open to high school students until I was leaving for college. I did spend formative years on the internet, but social media wasn't a big part of it.
So I think that is probably a bit of a dividing line: millenials have this sense of before and after, where as for gen z, this is all they've really known.
posted by litera scripta manet at 10:55 PM on January 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
I was 13 when 9/11 happened. I feel like that felt like a pretty big societal collapse. Watching all these insane anthrax scares, all the lashing out at anyone who might look remotely middle eastern, watching the country go to war on the most obviously fabricated lie, and seeing grown ups around me nod along and act like all of this was okay... and then watching Bush Jr get elected for a second term after pulling this crap. I know compared to Trump and Covid this may not seem quite the same, but I still feel like in my mind, 9/11 was the moment when things began to really descend into chaos. Or at least the moment when I first became acutely, painfully aware of it.
But I think there is still a point here about millenial vs gen z. Millenials remember a time before the world went so obviously haywire, just like we remember a time before cell phones (or at least some of us do), before we carried around internet devices in our pockets. Facebook wasn't even open to high school students until I was leaving for college. I did spend formative years on the internet, but social media wasn't a big part of it.
So I think that is probably a bit of a dividing line: millenials have this sense of before and after, where as for gen z, this is all they've really known.
posted by litera scripta manet at 10:55 PM on January 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
Pretty sure that every generation will eventually live through something that its members would be inclined to see as a clear dividing line between the Now and the Before Times.
The thing about being in one of the more senior generations is having the perspective that comes of living through many such dividing lines. It's kind of unfortunate that most of the dividers serve to prop up the notion that's always been so stereotypical for people of my present age, that the world really is going step by step to shit and that the young have no idea what they've lost. For example, I've seen the Great Barrier Reef. The real one, not the bleached and blasted shadow we have now. And I've spent a year travelling around my country camping pretty much wherever the hell I want for free. Much harder to do that now.
I'll turn 60 this year, and the best dividing line I've seen so far - the one giving me hope that the future is not necessarily an interminably worsening hellscape - is the one with the big #MeToo and #BLM stripe in the middle.
posted by flabdablet at 2:52 AM on January 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
The thing about being in one of the more senior generations is having the perspective that comes of living through many such dividing lines. It's kind of unfortunate that most of the dividers serve to prop up the notion that's always been so stereotypical for people of my present age, that the world really is going step by step to shit and that the young have no idea what they've lost. For example, I've seen the Great Barrier Reef. The real one, not the bleached and blasted shadow we have now. And I've spent a year travelling around my country camping pretty much wherever the hell I want for free. Much harder to do that now.
I'll turn 60 this year, and the best dividing line I've seen so far - the one giving me hope that the future is not necessarily an interminably worsening hellscape - is the one with the big #MeToo and #BLM stripe in the middle.
posted by flabdablet at 2:52 AM on January 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
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I don't know, I talk to teenagers or, more frequently, college students today and I mostly find myself wanting to give them an attaboy and, sometimes, advice and tools about how to best achieve their goals. (Admittedly, sometimes I I am the distracted millennial wandering past with a bowl of cereal and a thumbs up.) They maybe have a little less life experience than me, but they got a lot of energy I have less of these days, and nothing's gonna get better if we can't listen. and mostly when I run into Kids These Days they're hungry for advice and support.
besides, am I supposed to be mad that teens don't think I'm some kind of cool peer these days? I wasn't cool when I was a teenager; I don't see any point to being mad I'm not cool now.
posted by sciatrix at 5:48 PM on January 2, 2022 [33 favorites]