In a recent conversation I said some interesting things about the younger generations in the 21st century. I said that I can see some traits and where they seem to come from. It also seems, to me, that many of these qualities have impaired the younger generations and caused many problems.
I should point out that what I say below is not representative of all of the younger generations. They seems to reflect what I’d call the “mainstream”, in one way or another. The fact is that the conditions of the times has impacted the character of many of the younger people creating a particular “mainstream” character that is quite common. This is what I am trying to describe below, or at least how it appears to me at this time.
PAST INFLUENCES
There are a number of influences on the “mainstream” mentality that originate from before them that have created specific traits and qualities that has effected them. These influences are:
- The yupi
- The hippie
The yupi
The “yupie” originates from a particular character of people from the 1980’s. This character can be described as “rich spoilt young person who has a good job”. It appears to come from these young rich people who made a lot of money. Accordingly, they used their money to “play”, so to speak, and to please themselves as well as to praise themselves. At first this seems to of been prevalent with richer people but the attitude spread to common people who often didn’t have any money or the great higher paying job that the yupie has. This has caused a number of traits:
- The idea that they are entitled
- A snobbery where they think they are more important
- The idea that they should be given things
- The idea that they don’t have to work for things
- They expect to be pleased
- Their emphasis is on pleasing themselves
- Their is an emphasis on success and achievement
This created something like a snobbish attitude in some people. But it particularly created a lot of ideas of entitlement and self-pleasing almost to the point of being spoilt.
The hippie
This, of course, originates from the late 1960’s and 1970’s. It is reflective of many of the conflicts and issues of that time. It has caused a number of traits:
- A rebelliousness
- An attack of social institutions and authority
- A blind fear or paranoia
- A conflict with the older generation
- A self-righteousness
- A tendency to be overly “political”
- A tendency to make a big deal about “social issues”
A lot of the younger generations of the 21st century were influenced by the effects of the hippie movement. These include contempt, degradation of morality, fall of the family, and such. In some respects, it left something like a “cultural wasteland” robbing them of things like a culture, tradition, belief, and such.
It also caused many people to think that they and the world was being threatened. What’s worse the threat is often society, the older generations, or humanity. It also instilled in them this idea that they are “saving the planet“. This often turns into a blind rebellion.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MEDIA
The media has lasted for a long time, in one form or another. The effects of media has progressively gotten worse with television and, especially, after the internet and cell phones. It has caused a number of traits:
- A slavish attitude
- A tendency to hysteria and blowing things out of proportion
- A tendency to blindly believe everything
I would say that the media has caused a particular type of mindlessness and blind following.
THE “WORSHIPS”
And then there are a number of “worships” that have caused problems. These consists of something that is socially esteemed and, as a result, is viewed highly by the greater society. As a result of this it has caused these things to be overvalued almost to the point that they were preached like religious dogma. The effect of these is that it caused a tendency for many younger people to over-esteem themselves, look at themselves too highly, and become arrogant. These include:
- The worship of youth
- The worship of technology
- The worship of education
The worship of youth
This has caused a belief in things like
- That there is a “power in the youth“. This is the idea that youth as some inherent power within it that allows them to do things that the older generation cannot do.
- That the there is a “genius of the youth“. This is the belief that youth have some great insight into life and “know everything”. Sometimes this appears as the idea that the youth will “change the world for the better”.
Of course, these are not true but they made many younger people think that they are “special” and “unique“, as if their generation has qualities no other generation has. It even gets to the point that some think that they are “superior” to the older generations. For some it has given them this idea that they are entitled and deserve special privilege.
But, for many, it has given them a false sense of importance and power. It made them think that they are better than they are.
The worship of technology
This has caused a tendency to overvalue technology almost to the point of making life revolve around it. For many of the younger generation this dominates and controls their life. I think it is fair to say that a lot of the younger generations of the 21st century have willingly enslaved themselves to technology allowing it to have absolute control over their lives. Its probably no surprise, then, that this has caused a lot of problems for them. I often said that watching the younger generations enslave themselves with technology was like watching a person become addicted to drugs: they keep taking it and taking it, thinking its making them better, but its only controlling them. I’ve often said that a lot of the younger generation were “addicts“, addicted to technology and what it has created, such as social media.
The worship of education
There was great emphasis on education and going to college. As a result, a lot of the younger generations went to college in droves. I used to always joke that when someone spoke of a young person I’d say, “. . . but they don’t have a choice . . . THEY HAVE TO GO TO COLLEGE”. Many kids did not have a choice. They were all expected to go to college whether they wanted to or not. I saw how many kids have no choice whatsoever. Many things led up to this such as the pressure of society, the pressure of parents, and peer pressure.
The result of all this is that they were misled into thinking how great education was and what it would do. It caused them to have false expectations about life, jobs, money, and the future.
Its also created a mentality where, if they go to college, they should get special privilege. A good example is how people justify loan forgiveness. They spend billions to forgive college loans but don’t even give a thought about the many more people who struggle with house payments!
Not only that, all this emphasis on education caused many people of the younger generations to became like a tape recorder, doing nothing but repeating what other people have done and thinking that this made them intelligent. In reality, it made them dumber and created a unique form of “educated dummy” . . . they know a lot but can’t figure anything out. Not only that, all this “dummy education” robbed them of practicality and common sense.
OVERALL EFFECT
All of these have all combined to create what can be described as a “general character” that is seen a lot in the “mainstream” younger generations of the 21st century. Its hard to absolutely define this character in one sentence. There are commonly seen qualities, many of which originate from the things described above, but nobody reflects all of them. Some will emphasize specific traits or mix-and-match multiple ones giving a lot of variety in its appearance. As a result, there are many versions of this character. Some common character traits that I see include:
- People who overvalue themselves
- People who think that they are entitled
- People who seek to please themselves
- People who think technology is a god
- People who think they are superior because they use technology
- A slave to society, media, technology, etc. to the point of addiction
- Self-righteous fanatics
- People who think they are saving the world
- People who are frightened and scared of things
- People with no common sense
- The lost and confused
Overall, it seems that it has caused an insecure person even to the point of mental problems of which there are many forms.
Not only that, many people live in a narrow world, based in social media, technology, and such. This causes them to be disconnected with the world and, oftentimes, with life and even themselves. In fact, one could say that many people don’t know who or what they are. Its as if they have become so lost in all this that they lost a sense of themselves.
It gives the younger generation the quality of being completely subservient to the times. In other words, the conditions of the times dictate their whole lives. To put it another way, they don’t have control over their lives though they may think they do. They have so little control over their lives that they cannot even develop their own “style” or “character” that is all their own. Because of this they tend to be characterless.
ITS POWERFUL WAYS
Looking back on it now it appears this whole phenomena has had so much power that the younger generations are at its mercy. This power seems to come from things such as:
- The movement of history
- Societal pressure
- Parental pressure
- Peer pressure
- Propaganda and what they are told to believe
- The power of the media
- The influence of technology
- How people are “sucked into things” (such as spending all day on their cell phones)
- Because everyone does it
Its power comes from many sources and places. Perhaps this may be the first time in history that conditions have been created that allow all these things to come together. Some are things never before seen in history, such as technology and cell phones. All this coming together of things seems to of given it great power. It is something that, in a sense, has “developed a life of its own”. I often speak of this as a “historical movement” meaning that it is a “a force passing through society and time that the conditions of history have created”.
HOW THIS WAS TOO BIG
Many older people could see what was going on but there was nothing that could be done about it. This thing was just too big. It was beyond anyone’s control. It was like a big ball that got rolling that no one could stop. In some respects, the younger generations got run over by this ball.
Copyright by Mike Michelsen
Mikes passing thoughts Blog 