Shifts cont. end|

The last section of the Shifts. Hmph. Oh I am brining it on the scales. I get to write about the current Generation. And guess what? That would include me. So guess what else? I get to put some of my point of view onto the shit. Where as before I was being purely objective, now I am what I am writing about here. So its' still objective, just more vivid because I'm a part of what I am writing.

 So what do they call the current Generation. Aw man, I've heard too many bullshit names. The main ones I can think of are Gen Y, Millenials (god I hate that one), and some other bullshit names I can't think of having to do with technology or some shit. The best name I ever heard someone use was simply the 'New Generation'. No fancy spin, or copy from the previous Generation (Gen Y, gee how long did it take to think that up). The 'New Generation'...The New Gun.

So yeah its been interesting coming up in this rapid fire age. Stuff changes so quickly its' ridiculous. Well lets start with the whole coming up process. Well for one the parents.  Well most of the New Generations parents were a downgrade from the Gen X parents. We were told less things about the way the world worked, life in general. Things began to become sugar coated or dismissed altogether. Not heavily, but enough so where a lot of things have to be learned on our own when the information was there all along. This was the beginning of the parent becoming your friend instead of mentor role. I read someone writing about couples in the modern age and they wrote that the husband goes to work all week. Then the mother goes to work also. They barely see their kids. They wrote "Why do they even have kids?" I laughed but thats something serious to think about. I know a lot are sincere and are just being caught up in the demands of the workforce. 

Which brings me to another point. The New Generation is just that - new. We don't use a lot of the old way of doing things. Things go at a much faster rate. Plus we were brought up on this global shit. It was thrust into our lap. (GEEZ this might be the longest section) Were expected to adapt to all these sweeping changes going on while being true to ourselves, while having surmounting options laid out in front of us. PAUSE
I'm going to pause write there and start at the raising parts again. I'll come back to the whole scope thing.

Like a lot of my peers, I watched A LOT, and I mean A LOT of T.V. from a very early age. T.V. was like my best friend at an a early age. I was fascinated by T.V. Whether it was the realistic shows, animated, the musical stations, or anything in between T.V. had it all. Its' a good tool to keep kids quiet. It sure kept me quiet, though I wasn't loud to begin with. I also had involvement with a computer at an early age. Nothing fancy like a kid would have now but those IBMs were powerful for the time. My point is that I'm sure a lot of my peers were getting the same treatment. Being plopped in front of a T.V. or getting some toys thrown at me instead of actually being 'raised'. Some got better treatment than others, thats how it goes. What I'm bascially writing is the randomness of growing up and how the cycle continues. Your not just supposed to be going through life randomly and when you graduate high school, hope that you have enough common sense and smarts so that you can survive. Uh no thats what parents are supposed to be helping you with...life. And guess what things are simple. But do we live like things are simple? Em no. So lets act like we live in a complex society. We know that I'm SUPPOSED to be societies responsibility, but guess what? Most of Society doesn't give a fuck about you junior unless your raking in the dough.  So until we achieve Utopia the majority of the responsibility falls on *gasp* parents.  Surprise I know.





Which brings me to a point. This whole - The New Generation ain't shit. They stupid. How come they don't know nothing. Things were so much better "back in the day". All that bullshit. Okay whatever. I've heard enough of that shit. I don't hear it as much as I used too, but I used to hear it a lot. If you want to go on about how the current generation ain't shit and we don't know nothing then what are you doing to remedy said situation. My whole outlook is if you aint' helping me don't fucking criticize me because you doing more harm than help. I respect a lot of older dudes but I'm sorry too many of you is on a whole nother page that I can't even get with (or want to for that matter). Thats where a lot of my respect for Gen X comes from. A lot of the musicians of Gen X really respected the youth and gave some knowledge when they could. I haven't noticed the same with your averae Gen Xer but, if their artists were at least willing to extend that partion than I'm grateful. I grew up listening to artists tell me more shit about life than my own fucking parents did!! So yeah don't fucking chastize me if you ain't coming to come help me. I need encouragement and not some old armchair evaluation.

Something distinct that has been attributed to the current generation is the technological skill we are supposed to have. As a whole I would have to agree with that. The technology is advanced way beyond anything any of my parents could imagine and is actually fun. While I may have some common sense knowledge of electronics. There is a lot of stuff that I don't know how to operate as far as online stuff goes and computers. Though I do have a general disinterst in advanced technology to some extent. I'm just not that interested in all this super technorati that takes place online. I'm a bit more simple when it comes to that.

Now I'm going to have to mention that for a while I didn't like being part of all this New shit. I wondered why I wasn't older, part of Gen X at least or born a long time ago. Then i went to college and it changed most of that. I actually grew to respect the current generation and realized that we were getting a unfair rap. I do think we are a bit over materialistic though. And I have noticed that immaturity seems to be becoming more common. Now I myself act much older than I actually am. I always have. I can't tell other people to do the same because I don't know how that works. It does bother me when I carry myself in a more adult manner than people much older than me though.

I was reading some interviews of a Gen X band and the interviewer was asking the band questions about their peers and relevance. One of the bandmates responded that he didn't see any identity with his group of peers. I guess that shows how hard it is to identify something that your a part of. I had to sit down a while and think of some traits and such that identified the current generation. Something else I noticed is our problems. Where Gen x's problems were largely external and they dealt with a lot of societial issues. The New Generations problems seem to be more internal, because things aren't just the same. Theres so many possibilities open to us it can make you question what is your real purpose in life.UNPAUSE. Which brings me back to the kind of world we've been brought up in. Everything is advanced, global, multicultural, kind of stuff. We think globally much easier than any other generation. I don't even like thinking globablly (at least not in the way they want me to think of it) but its' easy for me to. And that has to do with what became the norm in the late 20th early 21st Century.





Which brings me to a point. The New Generation has some of the highest birth rates of the 20th century. We could easily change the world, but the thing is we haven't been told exactly what we are supposed to be changing the world into. Add the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut that is globalism thrown in our face and things seem to be a bit too much. So I notice that a lot of us just want to be well off and live a comfortable life. And for the most part thats fine considering the circumstances.  I get this feeling that we know that were supposed to be getting things going major, but nobodys told us shit.  We've had to learn just basic shit on our own, that getting the harder stuff can be a chore indeed.

I don't have any real closing comments.  I mean, I'm still young.  I can go and kick up dust and muthafuckas will take heed.  But a wise man doesn't fight a hopless battle.  I think were a great generation and the numbers are astounding.  I don't know what were supposed to represent as a whole besides sheer numbers and travel though.  The comfortable life huh...