I think it's interesting how the past gets glorified. In some ways it makes sense: we glorify our formative years because they shaped us and we turned out great. In some ways it really doesn't. Like in certain works of literature, they talk about these powerful, ancient ways that have since been lost to the passage of time. Like there's some finite wealth of knowledge that's slowly trickling away. Are you seriously telling me that these swords forged by elves of the First Age are the best there is despite several ages in which to improve the craft? ages presumably in which swords are still relevant so there really isn't any advantage to learning how to make better things instead? I'll grant there there may be ancient techniques for ancient skills that could be superior to our modern techniques for ancient skills but only because we found we no longer needed those skills before going back to them under different circumstances.
Every generation looks at the younger generation and shakes its head. Why is that? My first thought was that the world is changing enough now that every generation is different. But really this has been happening since there were generations†. Though change is not a modern phenomenon. Maybe every generation really is different. The source I cited below concerned younger folk doing such things as wearing shoes and taking baths. Or maybe we just forgot how shitty we used to be. Past Me thought (then Current Me) was pretty great. I now know that I was wrong, but perhaps I while never fully understand how wrong. I think my current iteration is pretty great, but more than likely I will change my mind about that too.
When I started writing this post, I was thinking about how quickly the world is changing. I was thinking that with the acceleration of technological advancements, the world will change ever more rapidly. But maybe I am wrong. Maybe this change is solely from this new level of connectivity we have. We're close to the point of being as connected as humanly possible, though not quite at the Mind Link I envision for the future. But barring some merging of texts, chats, and emails, we're pretty close to as connected as possible in the foreseeable future. So maybe that's it. That's the big thing. Maybe at some point we'll figure it and equilibrate. Our technology will improve, but maybe the way interact won't change much. I'm not really sure.
Once, for an APUSH (technically just USH) assignment, we had to choose what we thought were the 5 or 10 or 1 or whatever most important/ influential events in the last century or so. We got a list. The most important event I chose was the invention of the internet. My teacher was a bit outraged. I think he wanted something like Pearl Harbor or some shit. I didn't defend my choice to him. In later reflection though, I stood by my choice. I think I still do. Though, to be fair, I never really was very good at history. Anyway, screw you, Cwod.
Hm. I was planning on talking more about our view of younger generations with a little bit of anecdotal evidence. Well, here goes. From what I see of the internet, the 90s was the the ideal time to be a child and it's a travesty when ten-year-olds have cell phones and ipods. Though I suppose I could technically fall into the category of "90s kid," I was only only sentient for a small portion of the 90s. I guess "oughts kid" really just doesn't have the same ring to it.
I've been reading a few articles about how different the cultural landscape is now. And it is. But also it isn't. I read an article about how modern-day hookup culture has destroyed dating culture. I don't think that's true. I think it depends on what you're looking for. Clearly, if you want to hookup with someone, do that and if you want to date someone, do that. Just don't try to convince yourself that they're the same and don't settle for when when you want the other. The article suggested that hookup culture is, by and large, ultimately unsatisfying. It might have implied that this is particularly true for women, but I couldn't find the article, so I won't put words into its mouth. And maybe hookup culture is more of a thing than it was, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't actually know if hookup culture is more of a thing. I know that my family is fairly conservative about the premarital sex thing and my impression is that most parental types are, which I don't really understand because they were totally there in the 60s. Well, mine were. I don't know. My data points are really limited to: Teacher Aunt, who had two boyfriends in high school, and married and then divorced one of them; Father, who apparently never dated ever and I have no idea how he managed to get married; and high school Robots Mentor who got a girl pregnant when he was 18 and got hitched to someone else some several years later.
But I'm getting off track. What was the track again? Nevermind. The article mentioned that people were tending to have casual dates like getting coffee with more people than fancy-dinner types with fewer people. That doesn't sound so bad to me. My current philosophy states that you (or maybe just I) should date many people casually and let nature takes its course where you see people you do like more often and increasingly seriously and people you don't like as much drop off. Starting off with the nice dinner is so much pressure on the datiness of it all. Though I can't speak from experience, it may be nice to feel courted, but it just seems really uncomfortable.
Anyway, the point of this is that different != bad, and that I should be wary of this when attempting to raise My Future Kids. As much as I enjoyed my Midwest suburban childhood, there are many excellent child-raising environments. And maybe I should think about not teaching My Future Kids to learn from my mistakes but rather how to land on their feet when they have no idea what's going on. I think this is one of the lessons of adulthood and one of the things that School tries to teach us. The answer of course is to Google often and to be very wary of Yahoo Answers.
†I was going to cite a rather famous quote concerning the children of Ancient Greece, but apparently the quote is not by Socrates as it is often attributed, but in fact taken out of a 1907 dissertation by Kenneth John Freeman. But the point still stands.
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