This Generation Is Fucked

[Bob_McMillan]

I happen to be a part of this generation, and honestly whenever someone says some thing along these lines, I hate it. As if you guys were any better. I think that people are feeling old and are refusing to accept change. This coming from a guy whose parents are extremely traditional, I used to be only allowed to play my GameBoy for 30 minutes a day. Maybe I'm just bitter, but imagine how you feel when Fox News talks shit about gaming. I don't necessarily agree with everything my generation has come up with, but jeez give us a chance. You guys weren't the best role models either.

Anyway, just wanted to ask what you guys really do think about our generation.

 

[Queen Michael]

We don't put people in prison for homosexuality. We care more about the environment than any generation before us. Our contact with foreign cultures is bigger than ever.

The kids are alright.

 

[Hoplon]

Well, when i say it (i was born in 1980 so i might really be from a different generation) i mean that you have been fucked rather than have fucked up. mostly by my parents generation.

Does that mean you can't fix things? hell no.

 

[Rabbitboy]

I am regularly told that my generation will have it worse than our parents. So if there is anyone who has a right to complain it would be us. Depletion of natural resources, an economy that is going down the drain. Don't you dare criticize the ones who will have to fix your mess.

 

[tippy2k2]

Every generation that has ever existed says that the next generation is fucked.

Whether it is WWII, The Great Depression, Vietnam, comic books, The drug revolution, rock music introducing kids to Satan!, TV rotting everyone's brains, going to war for oil, video games rotting everyone's brains, racial tension, fatty but cheap foods making everyone obese, etc. Every generation looks at the next generation and talks about how much better their generation is and how stupid the next generation is.

The Simpson's nailed it:

Spoiler

 

[Zontar]

I am regularly told that my generation will have it worse than our parents. So if there is anyone who has a right to complain it would be us. Depletion of natural resources, an economy that is going down the drain. Don't you dare criticize the ones who will have to fix your mess.

The problem is those descriptions are lies, sensationalism in the name of selling papers in the morning. Sure the economy isn't great, and it takes a bit more effort to get oil then it used to, but lets not pretend things are somehow worst off then they where before (hell, lets not pretend things are as bad as they where in the 90s).

 

[Johnny Impact]

It is in the nature of every generation to complain about the preceding one when young and the proceeding ones when old. Put even more briefly, it is in the nature of all humans to complain.

People talk about entitlement being a problem -- and it is -- but there have been and will continue to be bums and losers in every generation.

Parents have said kids don't pay attention since forever. And they don't. No doubt cavemen said it about their kids. But parents are also notorious for not listening.

People talk about the scarcity of oil -- and it is getting scarcer -- but it was thought the gas crisis of the 70s was going to collapse the entire US economy and forever destroy automobiles as viable means of transport.

Our parents' generation complains about our music, but their own parents were sure John Lennon and Bob Dylan were going to damn their kids' souls to eternal hellfire. Before that it was Elvis, before that it was Sinatra, and so on. New music = bad.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Sexual minorities' status in society has improved vastly. The Internet has made worldwide instant telecommunication possible all around the world. Technology is improving by leaps and bounds every day. Most of us carry a device in our pockets that can give us all information in history within seconds.

On the other hand extremism is spreading all around the world. Environmental damage runs rampant. Relations between the former Cold War participants are in the worst state they've been in since the 80's. Overpopulation is choking us. Non-renewable natural resources are consumed more and more every year. The economy's in the toilet. Wealth disparity between the rich and the poor grows larger.

etc.

Pros and cons for every age in history.

 

[Barbas]

Most people I've met who complain about "this generation" just don't like the human being around them, and that's usually because of a small number of unfortunate experiences with a small number of their peers. Most of them just like to complain and feel that there's someone else to blame for ruining some aspect of their lives.

The old guard likes to complain about the new guard because nobody likes to feel like the world is moving on without them, but it is, because it always has been and people who stand still are the quickest to disappear from memory. Not much makes me angry any more, but I do get tired of people casually saying things like "people are stupid" or "a waste of time", because it often seems that the people who say such things are either lying or, for all their arrogance, have learned precious little from life.

A generation's meant to be about thirty years, isn't it? I like talking to my parents and grandparents about what they want through, because it teaches me to appreciate what I have -- the running water, the warmth, the security, the regular meals -- and would otherwise take for granted. I think that's part of what life is about - learning lessons from the stories of those who lived before you, so you can help those who will live after you. Looking at them is supposed to make you hopeful, not disappointed.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Some things are better, some things are worse. We have all this new tech stuff that didn't even exist ten years ago so that's cool, but people are also forgetting how to talk to each other in real life so that's not cool.

Don't worry. When you get older you will start saying that the generation after you is completely doomed. It's part of growing up.

 

[sky14kemea]

I was about to come in here all "No YOU'RE fucked". You sure had me fooled.

Old people think our generation sucks because they had it a lot easier in some aspects, and they don't realise that because they're not currently going through that stuff anymore.

Things like looking for work, paying for school, buying a house etc. It was all way cheaper and way faster when they were young, and they assume it's the same now and that we're all just lazy.

Now the generation after us. They're really fucked.

 

[FalloutJack]

Anyway, just wanted to ask what you guys really do think about our generation.

I think you should put quotation marks around your thread title so that people don't get the wrong idea.

OT: I don't think this generation is fucked. Now, a Fallout-based world is fucked.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Until they go back to teaching children to hide under their desks in case of atomic bombardment, I think we're okay.

Besides, as an official card-carrying member of Generation X, I don't think I get to say too much to criticize "kids these days". We were pretty much the collective poster child for "aimless, whiny slackers" and yet somehow we didn't send the world to ruin like all the angry old men on TV said we were going to.

 

[Angelblaze]

Its an unavoidable by-product of people having longer lifespans then ever before.

We are in the first real 'era' of history in which more then three to four generations of people from the same family can be alive at once. Older people live longer, child birth is less dangerous, etc so we get old people who think they know everything, running things.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Anyway, just wanted to ask what you guys really do think about our generation.

Why do you assume everyone here is from the same generation?

 

[Silence]

I thought you meant our generation was fucked by the previous. And I would agree mostly.

 

[Rowan93]

Usually when something is described as "fucked", it means "doomed" or "destroyed", e.g. "we'll have to walk, the car's fucked" or "oh no now a blizzard's coming in, well I guess we're fucked". So it's a poor phrasing for complaining about a generation's virtues or lack thereof, really it's a term for describing the generation's fate.

Which, yeah, is probably not entirely rosy. Especially in America, with all those awful student loans. I mean I'm racking up some sizeable student debt, but here in the UK student loans are an especially nice kind of debt that if you don't earn above a certain threshold you never have to pay any of it back. You guys in the crazy system with the still-chases-you-after-bankrupcy loans are fucked.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, if people keep saying the next generation will destroy the world, odds are they will be correct (in some sense) every so often.

More seriously, society keeps changing, so people's views on what society should be keep changing, which means that any given generation could be argued to be awful on the grounds of what some other generation thought was important.