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One Millennial's Thoughts from the Coffee Shop


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1 hour ago, Fru said:

Would any Boomer or Xer here trade places with a Millennial? Why or why not? 

What an interesting question.

 

I'm an Xer and my first thought is that no, I wouldn't trade. The crap kids have to put up with today on social media isn't worth it.

 

Thanks for giving me something to think about tonight while I walk the dog.

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19 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

My point is, there were major issues back then too.  I acknowledge there are issues now.

 

However, statistically, the world is a much safer place now than any time in history.  The amount of world violence is at an all time low.  US violence has steadily decreased since I graduated form college. ('90).  I'm sure it's because of my life's work.

 

Millennials tend to focus on the world problems of today.  That's understandable.  This is when they are living and they have a life ahead of them that they can influence and make better.  However, sometimes it seems like they really don't have a perspective.  That happens to be an area I agree with the op-ed with.  Millennials really don't have "bad times" they've lived through to have perspective.

 

As for the college question.  Economic times are better now so I can help my kids more than my parents were able to.  They also work a lot during school and will get out with no where close to the average that people claim they have in debt.

 

Very true. There's never been a more peaceful time to be alive. 

 

While I think Millennials have plenty of "bad times" stuff we've lived thru, I think our lack of perspective is overstated. We're the first generation to grow up with such widespread access to technology, which I think gave us an exposure other generations obviously hadn't experienced. 

 

I think the "bad times" thing applies to the US as a whole as well. We've never really had to band together and rebuild. Maybe the closest thing to that was after the Depression or during WWII? But even then, the US wasn't ravaged the way other countries were. It makes me think of this clip from "Sicko." Since we've never really had to "band together" we've developed a more individualistic and "Well why shouldhave to pay for xyz?" mindset. 

 

 

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25 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Millennials tend to focus on the world problems of today.  That's understandable.  This is when they are living and they have a life ahead of them that they can influence and make better.  However, sometimes it seems like they really don't have a perspective.  That happens to be an area I agree with the op-ed with.  Millennials really don't have "bad times" they've lived through to have perspective.

 

I did that as a teenager in the 80s. I thought the threats from the end of the Cold War were awful, the inner-city violence was horrible, and stuff like the bombing of the hotel in Beirut were the worst things to happen.

 

Turns out, they were just the worst things that I was aware of.

 

Vietnam was worse than anything that happened in the 80s. Watergate was worse. The Kennedy assassination was worse than Reagan getting shot. Korea was worse than any of the conflicts I lived through as a kid. The World Wars were many orders of magnitude worse.

 

Just like older generations continue to devalue and decry younger generations (and have since the dawn of time), younger generations devalue the experiences of older generations.

 

Millennials and whatever the generation coming after them are called have it worse than recent previous generations in some ways because greed is taking away things older generations took for granted - cheap school, cheap healthcare, cheap gas, cheap food. College-educated Millennials start their adult lives in debt I couldn't imagine. I can't fathom how they're going to get ahead, buy a house, pay for their own kids. They're starting off in such stupid financial holes it's ridiculous.

 

I don't buy the concept that social media makes life harder for kids today. You can block or ignore people who harass you online. We had awful bullying and teasing when I was a kid, same as Millennials deal with, same as kids 100 and 1,000 years ago dealt with. Social media doesn't amplify that, and in fact I'd say it was far harder to deal with when it was all in your face. My junior high and high schools had about two fights a week, every week. Kids just kicked the crap out of each other, and often it was some weak kid getting bullied, often by a group. It's not worse or better than what Millennials go through, it's just different.

 

The biggest problem between generations is lack of perspective. 

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4 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

I did that as a teenager in the 80s. I thought the threats from the end of the Cold War were awful, the inner-city violence was horrible, and stuff like the bombing of the hotel in Beirut were the worst things to happen.

 

Turns out, they were just the worst things that I was aware of.

 

Vietnam was worse than anything that happened in the 80s. Watergate was worse. The Kennedy assassination was worse than Reagan getting shot. Korea was worse than any of the conflicts I lived through as a kid. The World Wars were many orders of magnitude worse.

 

Just like older generations continue to devalue and decry younger generations (and have since the dawn of time), younger generations devalue the experiences of older generations.

 

Millennials and whatever the generation coming after them are called have it worse than recent previous generations in some ways because greed is taking away things older generations took for granted - cheap school, cheap healthcare, cheap gas, cheap food. College-educated Millennials start their adult lives in debt I couldn't imagine. I can't fathom how they're going to get ahead, buy a house, pay for their own kids. They're starting off in such stupid financial holes it's ridiculous.

 

I don't buy the concept that social media makes life harder for kids today. You can block or ignore people who harass you online. We had awful bullying and teasing when I was a kid, same as Millennials deal with, same as kids 100 and 1,000 years ago dealt with. Social media doesn't amplify that, and in fact I'd say it was far harder to deal with when it was all in your face. My junior high and high schools had about two fights a week, every week. Kids just kicked the crap out of each other, and often it was some weak kid getting bullied, often by a group. It's not worse or better than what Millennials go through, it's just different.

 

The biggest problem between generations is lack of perspective. 

 

One thing I always chuckle at now that I'm 50+ is kids acting like, "you're old, you don't understand".  Well, I'm sure I had some of that attitude growing up.  But, now I just think....dude.....you don't know what you're talking about when you say that.

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1 minute ago, BigRedBuster said:

 

One thing I always chuckle at now that I'm 50+ is kids acting like, "you're old, you don't understand".  Well, I'm sure I had some of that attitude growing up.  But, now I just think....dude.....you don't know what you're talking about when you say that.

 

I'm reasonably certain that I expressed thoughts like that, to my peers for certain, and maybe to older folks when I was a teen or tween.

 

Makes me cringe. It's myopic. Certainly the older generation didn't know my specific experience, but certainly they were more experienced at life in general than me.

 

The problem is that this experience doesn't always equate to wisdom. I'm pretty sure the beef Millennials have isn't with Gen-Xers like me, but with the unwise and therefore reckless and disrespectful folks who immediately dismiss them because of their age/inexperience.

 

The older I get, the more I learn how little I know, and the more I value more people's opinions. Maybe when I'm 80 I'll be really good at that.

 

Maybe that's what they mean when they say you've become "enlightened."

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1 minute ago, knapplc said:

The problem is that this experience doesn't always equate to wisdom. I'm pretty sure the beef Millennials have isn't with Gen-Xers like me, but with the unwise and therefore reckless and disrespectful folks who immediately dismiss them because of their age/inexperience.

 

The older I get, the more I learn how little I know, and the more I value more people's opinions. Maybe when I'm 80 I'll be really good at that.

 

I find these two paragraphs interesting.

 

To me, I think many times about how little young people know.....because I lived through it and am like you, the older I get, the more I realize I don't know. 

 

Younger people (me back then) seem to think their problems are worse than previous generations and they know more than them.

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17 minutes ago, knapplc said:

I don't buy the concept that social media makes life harder for kids today. You can block or ignore people who harass you online. We had awful bullying and teasing when I was a kid, same as Millennials deal with, same as kids 100 and 1,000 years ago dealt with. Social media doesn't amplify that, and in fact I'd say it was far harder to deal with when it was all in your face. My junior high and high schools had about two fights a week, every week. Kids just kicked the crap out of each other, and often it was some weak kid getting bullied, often by a group. It's not worse or better than what Millennials go through, it's just different.

 

 

Teen depression rates and teen suicide rates might suggest this isn't true. Not explicitly, there hasn't been a peer reviewed study that shows causation, but there is huge correlation. And the sloping trend into millenials and further into Gen Z corresponds very accurately with the rise and proliferation of social media. 

 

 

 

 

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Suicide rate was the wrong reference for me to make, but that chart actually coorelates wth the claims/observations that Johnathan Haidt makes in that Rogan clip which is worth a watch. This chart would be totally in line with his thoughts - social media doesn't effect men as much but suicide is primarily a male phenomenon, and the rise over the last 7-10 years may or may not be related to social media.

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2 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

That happens to be an area I agree with the op-ed with.  Millennials really don't have "bad times" they've lived through to have perspective.

I'd say living through 9/11, the Great Recession, and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were "bad times" for Millennials.

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1 hour ago, Landlord said:

Suicide rate was the wrong reference for me to make, but that chart actually coorelates wth the claims/observations that Johnathan Haidt makes in that Rogan clip which is worth a watch. This chart would be totally in line with his thoughts - social media doesn't effect men as much but suicide is primarily a male phenomenon, and the rise over the last 7-10 years may or may not be related to social media.

 

I definitely agree that it can be damaging, and it is worth studying more. I'm currently of the opinion social media is no worse than any other method of interaction, and any effect it's having will be mitigated over time as we learn how to live with it as a species. Because it's not going away.

 

So that's my opinion, but I'm willing to change that opinion as new facts come in.

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4 hours ago, RedDenver said:

I'd say living through 9/11, the Great Recession, and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were "bad times" for Millennials.

And, I’ve read where the kids that were teenagers during the recession are more fiscally conservative.  But, that’s a fairly small group comparatively. 

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3 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

And, I’ve read where the kids that were teenagers during the recession are more fiscally conservative.  But, that’s a fairly small group comparatively. 

 

 

Well. Part of that has to be because none of us have any f#&%ing money :lol:

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8 hours ago, Landlord said:

 

 

Well. Part of that has to be because none of us have any f#&%ing money :lol:

When I was 25, I got married, had an OK job but not great.  I went to a inflation calculator and found that my salary equates to around 41,000 today.  That's with a college degree and a little debt.  I then went from that to getting audited two years alter because I made nothing for two years.  That was when my wife and I also bought our first home and had our first kid.  I then spent the next 10 years trying to grow a business which paid me OK but nothing that provided a ton of extra money.  15 years after being married, my wife and i didn't have anything for retirement because we didn't make enough to save a lot.  

 

I'm saying this to point out that back in the 80s and 90s, there were lots of 20 somethings that didn't have a lot of money either.  

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15 hours ago, knapplc said:

 

I definitely agree that it can be damaging, and it is worth studying more. I'm currently of the opinion social media is no worse than any other method of interaction, and any effect it's having will be mitigated over time as we learn how to live with it as a species. Because it's not going away.

 

So that's my opinion, but I'm willing to change that opinion as new facts come in.

I think that social media isolates us more - the more tools, methods of communication we have the less we are really communicating.  SM replaces real connecting emotions with

emojis :facepalm::D:wub::steam - we replace real spoken words wt digital text.  We replace a hug or encouraging pat on the back wt a :thumbs.   Nothing communicates better than real body language, hearing spoken words or feeling that encouraging hug, or pat on the back.   Thus I believe (my opinion - perhaps there is a real study out there) we are more detached while we are more

'connected' and we communicate less while we communicate more.  I've sen families eating at a restaurant and all are looking at their cell phone and not communicating and connecting wt those they are with- being in the moment.  Emotional isolation can be  a strong trigger for suicide. 

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