You have a good point here. I recently watched a couple of shows and listened to some podcasts with a woman sociologist now psychologist who says that exact thing - women are to blame for all this. She claims it all went downhill when we gave women the right to vote. And she explains the history of this in great detail.
I don’t know. The thread is about Millennials and Zoomers. What does it tell you?
I don’t believe in “generations” lol. 4 babies are born every second, yet we act like there are somehow a discrete number of social groups bucketed off by some arbitrary time windows.
It stems from a flaw in our cognitive systems. We crave coherence and breaking things down into discrete A → B → C causal links, but the reality is that our “generation” is a continuous function. And the year in which we were born is one of millions of variables shaping us personally and culturally. So yeah, of course we’re influenced by when we were born and the historical context, but to say “A generation caused B generation to…” is dangerously reductionist.
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There are similar environmental factors to cohorts, basically that is what it is. For example, at 60 trying to talk with 24 or 28 year olds is tough as we have very little common ground. Most of your experiences are different than mine. I served in Desert Storm, that in no way is comparable to someone in Afghanistan or Iraq. Hell, even post 911, the mind set is so different.
So, I do believe in generational differences but it is environmental not a time. I think the generations are going to have shorter and shorter time periods as things are changing very fast now.
I think it’s more like a set of features centered on each point in time.
When AOL was released and sent free CDs to everyone for a few years, there was a year that happened and everyone who was in, say, middle school or high school at that time had that as their first online experience. Then a few years later MSN Messenger came out, as the embedded default in Windows, and that became a different group with different experiences. Some people never used AOL (and AOL chat, specifically), some people came to it later, etc. But certain formative experiences occurred at certain times.
Those who experienced Facebook as their first online community to interact with their will have different experiences than when Snapchat was the thing, which is different than with TikTok being the thing.
You can say the same about other media, or other world events as markers and common formative experiences.
So there’s a spread of course, but that still still means you can say a set of people who turned 20 in this 5 year span have a set of common experiences that are different from someone who turned 10 or 30. Those experiences shape opinions, beliefs, behaviors for years to come.
But sure, the idea of generations is just a fuzzy boundary but does encompass a set of common experiences at common life stages.
In what ways?
I was old enough to hear about the invasion of Kuwait on the radio, and I was in high school when 9/11 happened. The change in opinions around privacy is the biggest difference I notice.
Invasion of Kuwait, difference was Bush Sr. He put together a coalition, set the parameters, accomplished them and brought us home. Whole thing was 6 months to 1 year. We weren’t there forever or rotating deployments. Current guys have it tougher. I like Bush Sr.
As for post 911, Nation got more serious. Even young people were serious about everything. The margin of error went away. Drinking age was 18. If you drank and drive, you may get a Sheriff follow you home. At least in FL they would not ruin your life. In 87 a 3.0 GPA was good enough to go to Grad School. Now, my kids had standards that were ridiculous. It wasn’t like that before. In a lot of ways, you guys have it much tougher. I don’t remember privacy being an issue then or now. But I am pretty boring…
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Flying an airplane used to be fun. No TSA. No restricted items. Less airline fees (we’re still paying a 911 security fee on every flight.)
My wife never flew before 911 and was astounded to hear this.
Rome and any airport in Norway have an amazing setup, it’s so quick and easy. AND last time I was flying out of Rome there was a bomb threat, they detonated it, and we got through in plenty of time.
My half-brother was deployed, so we kept a close eye on developments.
I was too. 10th grade oceanography and we all were laughing about ot because everyone assumed it was a lone Cessna or something. I was in Atlanta at the time, so a lot of kids in tbe school had pilots in the family since that’s a major delta hub. They shut off the tv access because they didn’t know if someone had a dead parent. I heard that 2 kids lost someone, but I didnt know them, so can’t say with certainy.
I think one of the biggest transitions has been around how for me it cracked the worldview of groups being relevant. I grew up in the military and the church. But the idea of asymmetrical warfare, church sex abuse, school shootings (Columbine was 8th grade. I got pulled out of class because I was going through my goth phase. I looked fabulous, in case you were wondering.) Made us realize that the world is far more chaotic than we were brought up to believe.
Boomers doubled down on a cold war mentality, and tried to fiight a heavy metal battle aginst a hip hop war after 911.
So go be an artist, go be a bodybuilder, go be trans, go be whatever dumb thing that makes you happy, because the powers that be arent really that strong.
Now if you’ll excuse me, Im going to start some shit on the hot takes thread.
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Remember when you could meet people at the Gate? My wife met me at the Gate in Green Bay, WI after Desert Storm. Now you end up standing on curb getting whistled at!
There were a lot of cover ups that caused the conspiracy theory world we live in. Enron, Church Child Abuse, Real Estate Bubble all caused this not trusting atmoshphere. If you are interested in 2008 watch “Margin Call”, great movie.
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Oh man, good point. And those guards are just the embodiment of awful.
On the bright side, grade inflation is very real so a 3.0 30 years ago would be a 4.0 today. Everyone gets an A these days. Even at Ivies.
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Especially at Ivies
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Oh, it used to be a blast. Going to the airport to pick up or drop off my brothers when they’d come home was just an extension of the partying.
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My wife also laments that flying was special, she would dress nice and look forward to it. Times have changed. Comfort now outweighs everything.
But, it is what it is.
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True. I wear pajamas and flipflops, even though I have precheck. It went from being an experience to being a survival course.
I’m pretty good at smuggling booze through. No one thinks to look in my stomach.
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Partying with flight attendants. That was a good time.
Probably still totally doable. Is booze still served on airplanes?
Yes but those itty bitty bottles are like $15
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I have been saying this for a few years now. I’m glad someone else is saying it as well.
I think space-A flights are the best. You can make your own first class with a sleeping bag on the floor, have a bottle of vodka, not be cramped in a too-small seat, and not be annoyed by being sold amenities all the time.
Yikes. Thats just insane.