3 ms·
My generation (early GenX) may be the last one to grow up in an environment that didn't systematically screw young people at every possible turn. We didn't hav
by WarOnPrivacy 4y ago
My generation (early GenX) may be the last one to grow up in an environment that didn't systematically screw young people at every possible turn.
We didn't have a constant presence of adults and had space to work out issues on our own.
We were able to travel for miles in most directions without being barraged by No Trespassing signs - each of them backed up by disproportionate penalties and an ever present risk of life-changing criminal records.
We didn't have to navigate today's massively complex world that is growing more complex at exponential rates.
In contrast, my sons grew up in a world that is senselessly unforgiving and penalistic, with few breaks from adults and little chance to explore life on their own terms.
We have sabotaged our rising generations and to drown out the consequences of that we noisily protect them from risks that largely exists in our own heads.
We couldn't scarcely have designed a worse outcome if we tried.
- paulcole 4y agoIt’s amazing that your generation was the last one where things were done right. I don’t think every other generation in history has said that exact same thing.
- WarOnPrivacy 4y agoI never said my generation did it right. Quite the opposite. The evidence is my generation screwed children out of everything kids have always needed to learn functionality.
- testfoobar 4y ago> In contrast, my sons grew up in a world that is senselessly unforgiving and penalistic, with few breaks from adults and little chance to explore life on their own terms. Teenage boys in particular now face an incredibly punitive culture in America. Everything is on video. The online mob will form and demand jail time for the slightest thing. How are teenage boys supposed to learn right from wrong?
- barganzo 4y ago[flagged]
- thebigman433 4y agoCan you give examples of exactly what youre talking about here?
- dopeboy 4y agoBoys fight physically. Fights would happen at my HS once-ish a month. The staff would break it up, detentions would be served, and life would go on. Now each fight is recorded and saved for life. The short term consequences of that are not trivial - word spreads, video spreads, reputations build and now a dumb mistake is a whole moment.
- horns4lyfe 4y agoEvery bit of it is because people don’t want to get get sued if something bad happens. We live an insanely litigious country with far too many lawyers and kids suffer the consequences.
- sfeaster 4y agoolder millenial here to say that you weren't the last generation. The world remained pretty offline-centric well into the early 2000's. I grew up exploring and testing boundaries out in the real world. As a parent now, I have to artificially create independent experience for my kids in a way that was just natural to me growing up.
- Alex3917 4y ago> We were able to travel for miles in most directions without being barraged by No Trespassing signs - each of them backed up by disproportionate penalties and an ever present risk of life-changing criminal records. That didn't happen until 9/11, so older millennials had largely the same experience.
- polishdude20 4y agoCould be because your generation went out, explored the world without boundaries and have found that it's scary? Then, imbued with this fear, tried to protect their children at all costs. Maybe the coddled generation will raise non-coddled children since they will be unaware of the dangers out there.
- dudul 4y agoNow I'm raging because I can't remember the name of it, but there is a theory claiming that generations are cyclical with 4 different cohorts, from the heros to the lazy, and etc. I'm sure someone here will no what I'm vaguely talking about :) Edit: Strauss–Howe generational theory