Why does my generation (Generation Y) not really care about real issues other than TV and sex?
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I propose an experiment for everyone:
Turn off all electronic gadgets for 1 week. No personal cellphone, no computer, no tv, no ipod. Maybe only focus on the TV.
Can you do it?
I challenged myself. I went without TV for almost 1 year, but I did have internet. I also went without a cellphone for 3 months when I traveled to another country. It was nice.
Without TV, I found numerous other things to occupy my time. I read more, learned more, and went outside more. When people would come over, I would put on some music. Some people felt uncomfortable with to TV to buffer the human interaction, and thought I went crazy. Instead, there are games to play.
When I returned to university later in life, instead of talking before class like we used to do 10 years ago, students would avoid eye contact, stare at their phone, or put their earbuds in. When I attempted to talk to them (not all), some would give my the deer-in-headlights look.
Technology is great, but when it rules one's life it turns evil. I don't like to be dependent on anything, so I always am up for testing myself.
lol, I can do it; I don't watch tv at all; my phone is ancient, but I keep it just in case. The only thing I do need is my music. No i pod, though. Just a playlist of 100's of artists. My 1 indulgence with technology, I guess.
I do believe that the way people socialize has deteriorated with the technology boom. Even while on job interviews these 20 somethings text, endlessly. It's just beyond rude to me. And it shows a level of immaturity that I can't relate to.
I am pleasantly surprised reading through some of these posts, that there are others who do not buy into the brainwashing of the crap that is on tv
Believe me, you guys are nuthin' special, and hardly unique.
I'm a baby boomer and When I was a teen and on into my 20s, sex and TV were very high on my priority list too.
Along with rock and roll and smokin' dope.
No, I'd say the one characterisic that might set your generation apart from the others is your need for attention and recognition, and your absurdly obsessive preoccupation, nee, addiction, to social networks and communications. Things like: cell phones, FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. You guys constantly need to be in touch with others that you can't see, as if that somehow makes you apart of something larger. My Lord: my wife, who is a psychologist, tells me that high school girls are suffering anxiety attacks if they get to school and realize they forgot their cell phones! I've seen young people--again, mostly females--pretend to talk on cell phones when entering a public place, like a store, because their social interaction skills have been eroded to the point where it is daunting to actually interact with real people. And the primary reason for the eradication of said social skills is because they're glued to their computer or cell all the time.
You guys are gonna have some problems in the workplace.
Last edited by Chopper_Guy; 12-28-2011 at 10:24 AM..
I had the pleasure to work with Gen-Y-ers for two years in a university environment. I think the problems for some Gen-Y-ers are a lot deeper than TV and sex. I watched young adults that couldn’t that had been so coddled they could not even operate a shovel. It use to be that parents taught their children life skills to get by in the home and now we don’t. We just park them in front of a computer, because this is the wave of the future.
I have two college degrees and I see no shame in picking up a shovel or a hammer. It's an inside joke that if you ask a Gen-Y male where is tool box is he'll lead you inside and show you his hair care products and watch collection.
There's less to fight for now. Back then, kids were fighting the draft, segregation and for equal rights for women. Those were all issues pertinent to young people. Now those fights are won, there's not as much. There's still gay marriage but that's already making strides and most people figure it's just a matter of time. The main issues now are America losing jobs and corporate influence on politics and that's a bit too abstract for a lot of average young people to understand how to fight it.
good observation. like their parents they dont stick together.
reasons? divorce, the good life and dependency on parents, & rugged individualism. 1 in 3 young people under 30 live at home has made this occur. in a word they are not yet grown, kidults.
we dont stick together bek we like each other, its for survival and y generation does not have survival skills yet nor so far the need to learn them, yet.
I'm so tired of these generalizations. I'm a member of Gen Y and I do care about things other than TV and sex. In fact I particularly don't care much for TV or sex.
There's less to fight for now. Back then, kids were fighting the draft, segregation and for equal rights for women. Those were all issues pertinent to young people. Now those fights are won, there's not as much. There's still gay marriage but that's already making strides and most people figure it's just a matter of time. The main issues now are America losing jobs and corporate influence on politics and that's a bit too abstract for a lot of average young people to understand how to fight it.
There are plenty of other fights though. Maybe it's just more apparent to me because I'm que*r and blind? LGBTQ people face a lot of discrimination still. I have had to bury myself deep in the closet just to keep a job, and have many people in my life that I have to censor parts of myself to (mostly parents of friends, luckily not my own parents or friends--though that is still the case for many LGBTQ people). My right to marry, or even have my marriage recognized, was recently banned in a state that allows cousins to marry.
And that's nothing compared to disability rights. The discrimination blind people face is ridiculous. 70% unemployment rate? No sighted person I know would put up with the kind of BS I go through day-to-day, ranging from people trying to baby me every second--even if they mean well, paternalistic behavior is condescending--to people outright telling me that people like me don't have a right to be in school--which of course would never fly if "blind" were replaced with "Black" or "female" these days. People talk to me like I'm a child and find it "inspiring" that I can read and walk all by myself. Can you imagine if people still had such low standards for women and Black people--such that even literacy and the ability to navigate independently was "cute, endearing, and inspiring"?
We have a ways to go in terms of social equality for many demographics.
I just turned 30. Not sure if I'm part of Gen "Y"... but in my profession, and in my office, we have tons of people my age and younger who consistently put in 50-60 hour workweeks (which often include weekends).
Because of technology, younger people are expected to be 2x as productive as older generations ever were at our age, and we are. Not so sure the benefits of that extra productivity "trickle down" proportionately, however. In fact... I know they do not.
TV and sex have been preoccupations of young people since society decided that young people shouldn't get married off at 15 to start raising kids.
I own a house, am happily married, and have a good career. I'd rather read on my iPad than talk about nothings to other people - technology has put stuff I actually care about and am interested in (like my favorite authors, ability to write music on the fly, etc) in front of me.
If you see me staring at my iPad - I'm not admiring it. I'm either reading the news or doing one of the above mentioned things. If someone needs an ego boost and to see me and think negatively of me because of it - go right ahead.
I'm confident enough to not continually have to compare myself to others & blindly tear them down, while I build myself up.
By the way - this thread misses huge differences in the socioeconomic climate & reading some peoples responses has been.. humerus. Talk about nostalgia, rose colored glasses, sweeping assumptions and generalizations, misunderstanding of the political differences of the times, and frankly - of human biology.
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