Personally I think the phones, social media, dopamine addiction, etc. are all symptoms, not the systemic rot at the root of things here. Young people today sim

Personally I think the phones, social media, dopamine addiction, etc. are all symptoms, not the systemic rot at the root of things here. Young people today simply realize, either consciously, or subconsciously, that they live in a broken world and are being forced against their will to play a rigged game they cannot win. Distraction and apathy are the only logical reactions to world that exclusively measures a person's value in monetary terms and does not give a single fuck about them beyond whatever "Value" they can create for soulless corporations their self-serving, narcissistic billionaire owners. Sure they could buckle down, study hard, get into a good college and work 60-80 hours a week for the rest of their lives, but even if they did all that they're still not guaranteed a decent life. They're not guaranteed to own a home, drive a nice car, take an annual vacation, or put away money for retirement. They're not even guaranteed a roof over their heads and meal on the table. The social contract that underwrites the entire western world has been fundamentally altered, as where once studying hard and doing all the things you're "Supposed to do" as a young person could at least guarantee you a pretty decent life, young people today have no guarantee of a better future whatsoever regardless of how hard they work or how talented they might be. This is an odd metaphor, but it just popped it my head so I'm going to try it out. It's like for generations there's been a boat and a dock. The young people while away their days on the dock, swimming and fishing for minnows and the adults take the boat out each day (generation) and return with a fish. Each day (generation) the fish the adults have come back with has gotten bigger and bigger, and so the youngsters would get excited that when it was their turn to go out fishing they might catch an even bigger fish. The last couple days (generations) the adults have come how with fish that were the same size as the day (generation) before or maybe even a little smaller, but the kids didn't think to much of it and were still excited to get out fishing and catch their own fish. This most recent generation the adults came back with the smallest fish yet, and oh, by, the way, the boat has a leak and is sinking and its also on fire. We're basically wondering why the kids aren't excited to go fishing when we're giving them a sinking boat that's also on fire. Of course they'd rather splash around in the shallows and fish for minnows when the best alternative we're giving them is a sinking ship.