The Children are going to be our Future whether we want to let them or not.
The past couple months I’ve seen this idea floating around that we (I am twenty-one) are the screwed generation. That there is a conflict between the old and the young, that those in power and using all of the Earth’s resources at a high rate, destroying the environment so we have to deal with it, have us fight our wars and die so they can something with oil, I’m sure. We are told to get college degrees to avoid flipping burgers and then are told to stop being entitled for not being willing to flip burgers. I suppose the older generation doesn’t respect people in the service industry quite so much as everyone else. We have huge amounts of college debt to get degrees in things that qualify us to work at Starbucks. Our leaders are self-serving and ignore our needs, though I doubt that is something different. The world is no longer as financially stable; you can no longer buy a house and expect that its value will rise each year. We also, at least in America, are inheriting insane amounts of debt, both government debt and student loans.
I’m not sure I know much about this. This isn’t exactly my forte. I googled some articles to find specific examples. Here they are.
http://grist.org/living/millennial-medium-chill/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/15/are-millennials-the-screwed-generation.html
They are interesting and probably worth reading.
I could have done more in-depth research, but my gut feeling is that it wouldn’t change my opinion; that despite the problems we have, there is a world of opportunity to live lives that are radically different than anything before, due to emerging technology. We have the ability to do business over the internet, we have ways to keep track of friends if we travel, we have insane educational resources. We can connect with people all over the world. Similarly how television during the Vietnam era taught us all that war is horrible and awful, globalism is teaching us all that things like racism and homophobia are pointless and stupid. I’m not sure it matters much if I got all the details of the first paragraph or not; I’m optimistic for our generation’s future, we’ll be able to figure it out.
I don’t think we’re Generation Screwed, as some are suggesting. But I’m not sure the old American Dream is viable. Going to school, getting good grades, going on some professional track in a company that you will work for and stay with for forty years, then getting a wife, a house, a family… this is looking more and more unlikely. Not that this isn’t possible, but getting it all together isn’t as simple. Not that this isn’t still possible with extremely high performance in a technical field that is in high demand—but this is difficult and not everyone is going to be able to do that.
The problem I think, is not the older generation’s malice (which may or may not exist depending on who you ask) but rather the changing technological, social, and economic landscape that is defining the experience of people aged 15-28 or so. The world, wars in the Middle East notwithstanding, is more peaceful, more progressive, and we are as a human race making strides in the living conditions of third world countries. It’s simply that the instruction booklet—good grades, college, job at the Firm, with it’s benefits and pensions and office politics and capitalization—doesn’t apply anymore, not the same way it used to be a guarantee of success. And the problem is, the world is different, even a benevolent boomer generation is only going to be able to guide us at best. We’re going to have to make our own way; we’re going to be defined by what technology we create and how we use it. No one knows what to do with the tools we are going to be given, but what we decide is going to be the mark our generation leaves on the world.