Younger Generations

I once met Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, who was the most delightfully articulate bitter cranky old man ever. He said something that completely threw the (mostly older) crowd off-guard: "It is the moral duty of the upcoming generation to kill off their elders." He made a really great speech about how the older generation could either fight it and ultimately fail, or get out of the way and let the kids make their own mistakes and suffer their own consequences and fucking deal with it, since it was bound to happen anyway, and that the only way for the world to progress is to allow this to happen. It was totally the last thing you'd ever expect someone like McCourt to say and I've always remembered it.
 
I am sure I am one of the older people on this group I am pushing 40. I recall know it all teenagers when I was younger we was all drinking and there was some young kid who was 18 we was all 23 and giggles our asses off at him going on about how much of an adult he was and how he had it all together. We all worked at the same pizza place.
 
bradsternum said:
I think the United States in general has hit a mid-life crises. Everything is about nostalgia and rehashing things that have already happened, from events (Occupy, a rehash of 1960s style protests), fashion, film (remakes, remakes, remakes), music, art, etc, etc.
So there's no actual culture, just the ghost of several generations' cultures. And the techno culture, of course, which, instead of the pursuit of space travel and curing humanity of its ills, seems to be devoted to making faster phones, bigger TVs, clearer pictures, and more realistic video games.

I don't think people write as well as they used to, and I don't think people are encouraged to be as creative as they once were. I think we are more cynical, more depressed in spite of our access to new and exciting technologies and pills, and, in some ways, more socially retarded. (Ever been in an elevator with strangers? Everyone awkwardly plays with their cell phone instead of talk...)

But I don't think it's hopeless. It's true, every generation thinks they are the last, every generation thinks there's is the greatest. We just have to readjust to the times.
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This summarizes my feelings about today's culture better than anything else I've read.

I was born in 1984, so I remember floppy disks and the pre-internet era (or at least before internet usage was widespread). I'm also a subscriber to Wired magazine, which is always breathless about every new technology that enables us to overshare more and become twice as addicted to our technology.

I'm glad that I live in the era of Microsoft Word instead of typewriters, and that I can communicate with long-lost classmates and friends on a variety of platforms (Facebook, e-mail, etc). My life is more simple with technology, and I appreciate that.

But I fear that we're becoming so dependent on technology that someday, our livelihoods will depend on the good working order of some machine that breathes for us, moves for us, thinks for us while we sit comfortably and our muscles atrophy.

There's technology that makes life easier, and there's technology that makes life too easy, and I fear we're reaching the point of the latter.
 
Ruckersvillian said:
There's technology that makes life easier, and there's technology that makes life too easy, and I fear we're reaching the point of the latter.
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There's an excellent Marshall McLuhan quote along the lines of "We shape our tools and then our tools shape us" which I think is the perfect summation of what is happening now. It's shocking how quickly we evolved to become attached to texting as a sole means of communication, or how difficult it is to ask for directions instead of jumping onto Google Maps.

The Samsung Watch is the latest in this disturbing trend of synchronizing ourselves with our electronic appendages.

I don't know, kinda veering OT. I'm largely against the Human Enhancement movement.
 
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Hey guys I love technology.
I love it so much I let it do evreything for me.
but now that technology does all, life is pretty dull.
I wish I could, you know, jack my brain into a virtual reality while being fed through a tube and have my anus connected to some tube to dispose fecal matter.
I LOVE TECHNOLOGY.
 
I kind of dislike technology. I dream of the back-to-basics style of life. All this luxury and the easiness of it all, it's not all that great. I need a bit more challenge, a bit more reality. The people I love to surround me, the sun and wind on my skin.

I've never been a gamer, nor in any way addicted to the interwebs and the many awesome and awful things it offers. And though I have met some amazing people online I could do without it. Just talking to people who don't have their cellphones glued to their fingers for a change would be nice. Going fishing with lil' Satan, sail, hike. Go out with the lady, make love in an abandoned cottage on the beach. Having a barbeque with friends and family, getting mad drunk and barely making it to the bedroom safely.

I just want to live! And I don't really feel all that alive when I'm on my laptop and phone always. It just doesn't measure up to real life. So I don't believe in this fairytale of a mechanized future, of robots running the show. For me it just doesn't do it.
 
Satan said:
I've never been a gamer, nor in any way addicted to the interwebs and the many awesome and awful things it offers. And though I have met some amazing people online I could do without it. Just talking to people who don't have their cellphones glued to their fingers for a change would be nice. Going fishing with lil' Satan, sail, hike. Go out with the lady, make love in an abandoned cottage on the beach. Having a barbeque with friends and family, getting mad drunk and barely making it to the bedroom safely.

I just want to live! And I don't really feel all that alive when I'm on my laptop and phone always. It just doesn't measure up to real life. So I don't believe in this fairytale of a mechanized future, of robots running the show. For me it just doesn't do it.
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I feel the same.
the happiest moments of my life was interaction with friends and hiking and adventuring through forests and mountains.
I want to see mountains again and the forests with my friends, to embrace nature and enjoy the wind breeze.
something most RPGs can't satisfy for me.
Sadly though I'm coddled too much by the modern world.
indoor plumbing and toilet paper is humanity's greatest invention and many people take it for granted.
 
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The only technology that really annoys me are cell phones. I have one but it's just a simple one I use for calls and texts (out of neccesity since my friends mostly do this to talk). The era of cell phone tech that I think was the most annoying was when blue tooth became a common thing. Everyone walked around with little earpieces with annoying little lights talking to themselves. At least once a day someone would say something and I'd think they were asking me a question when really they were talking on the phone.

Smart phones just sort of baffle me but it's more just personal taste I guess. I just don't understand why anyone wants to be that hooked up to the web all the time.
 
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Fuck iPhones. Really. They emit all sorts of different waves around you, and those waves are even stronger when the battery is low. Plus, they work to suck out the human soul, humans these days just don't do without it.

The funny thing is they've only been in the mainstream for about 6 years. Nobody was using them in 2006. That year, it was all about the Motorola Razr.

I actually kinda want an iTouch for the sake of a easy to carry camera, since I'm such a big loner explorer and once I get my skateboard, I'll be able to explore all the islands around me and can post beautiful shots.
 
Zim said:
The only technology that really annoys me are cell phones. I have one but it's just a simple one I use for calls and texts (out of neccesity since my friends mostly do this to talk). The era of cell phone tech that I think was the most annoying was when blue tooth became a common thing. Everyone walked around with little earpieces with annoying little lights talking to themselves. At least once a day someone would say something and I'd think they were asking me a question when really they were talking on the phone.

Smart phones just sort of baffle me but it's more just personal taste I guess. I just don't understand why anyone wants to be that hooked up to the web all the time.
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If you get one, you'll understand. It's probably the most vital piece of technology I own because it allows for constant access to all of the information on the internet. If I ever need instructions on something, directions, or advice on restaurants and entertainment, I can get it immediately instead of having to head home and check my computer. It allows multiple ways of being in contact with people (I have a friend who hates texting but gladly uses Facebook messages from her phone, and some don't have a public Facebook but gladly add people on LINE or Kik or similar apps), and it provides surprisingly advanced games to keep you occupied when you get bored (as well as videos and websites for entertainment). I can also open various file types on my phone, prominently PDFs, so I can use it to read documents out of the house. If you're into amateur filmmaking, there are even apps and instructions on Youtube that teach you how to make quality indie films or capture passable audio with nothing but your iPhone as the camera or microphone.

It basically provides many of the things that a laptop or tablet could do, but in a very small package that already has all the properties of a regular cell phone so I don't need to carry more than one device.
 
>not memorizing all that shit in the commodity at home to then brag about your great memory or carrying a starwars trivia handbook
Get on my level plebian
 
I'm fine with youth. They like what they like which I'm sure is just as douchey as the shit I liked. For all intents and purposes they generally seem more openminded than I was so thumbs up on them.

I also saw Mortal Kombat theaters so really, I win.
 
I think my generation shits on other peoples interests too much and concern themselves too much that everyone has the same hobbies/music tastes as them. Just enjoy you fucking music and don't shit on other people's music taste.
 
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I guess I'm on the opposite spectrum. I love technology, sometimes physically, and believe that our future as a species is intertwined with our machines. The term is transhumanist if your really interested.

The human design has gotten us this far on random genetic variations and natural selection but that improvement has stopped, we need to take control of our own evolution to continue to grow both as a species and as a culture. You can't freeze the future just because your frightened. You have to embrace the change or be lost to history. If you don't believe me just ask your nearest Neanderthal. :)
 
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