Reminiscing in the Modern Era

[RadioWave]

Over the past few years, I've noticed a sharp increase in the amount of "childhood reminiscing" done by individuals in the 20-25 yr. age bracket; specifically via internet tributes that discredit today's youths with a borderline hero-worship of 1990's television characters, toys, movies, etc. In my experiences, this caliber of generation-bashing had previously been reserved for barbershop codgers (and FL members lol) who could tirelessly recite stories about radio shows, Sunday drives, and 5-cent sodas for hours at a time.

One glorification of a '90s childhood reads as follows:

"My curfew was lightning bugs. My parents didn't call my cell, they yelled my name. I played outside with friends, not online. If I didn't eat what my mom cooked, I didn't eat. Sanitizer didn't exist, but you COULD get your mouth washed out with soap. I rode a bike without a helmet. Getting dirty was ok, and neighbors gave a darn as much as your parents did. Re-post if you drank from a garden hose and survived."

Granted, the recent surge in technology and political-correctness has dramatically changed "the childhood experience", but it's the mindset of today's young adults that's equally alarming. Has the what's-the-matter-with-kids-today attitude ever been adopted by a group of people so young? We're currently witnessing an age where college students are shaking their heads in disbelief at children born post-2000.

I believe this is due to:
- Legitimate shifts in acceptable social (and antisocial) behaviors
- The innate human fear of change
- The continued rise of internet and media, which allows us a broader scope of current trends and greater ease in rallying behind ideas and causes.

I'm curious as to who else has has noticed this. There are no right or wrong answers - I'd just like to hear what others have to say on the subject.

 

[Mae Croft]

I've noticed this and been party to it, being 31 myself I noticed my own friends and I start this sort of thing in our mid twenties. Things changed so quickly, but I wonder if it feels that quick for every generation? I remember people Good Old Days-ing about the 70s in the 80s. I think some day the whine will be about how much better 2011 was back when you could still freely use the internet and everyone had a cell phone. The good old days become the good old days as soon as things change, and it's different for everyone.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Funny thing, I've seen exactly the phrasing in the original post passed around in email by people of my generation or even older -- which leads me to think that it might have just been appropriated for whatever reason by the 90's kids. (I never knew a 90s kid to actually have their mouths washed out with soap -- although I knew a lot of them who should have!)

 

[RadioWave]

I'm not at all surprised.

 

[sheeplady]

I think it may be a generational thing. Kids born post-2000 are going to be a different generation than the Millenials; which also means that their parents and grandparents (and other family members) are a different generation. They don't call a birth cohort a generation for nothing- there are distinctive cultural differences between generations on a whole. Your parents' generation cascades down into your upbringing, as does the culture your own generation is surrounded by.

I saw similar things with younger Gen-Xers about Millenials. I think some of it is that if you are the younger years of a generation (like me- being a later born Gen-X) you have a decent amount of contact with the next generation- they are only a few years younger than you. However, if you identify with your own generation, it can make the differences quite apparent. They are almost the same age as you, but their parents are totally different, and they are just... culturally different. Their perspectives on the world are different.

 

[Mae Croft]

I think it may be a generational thing. Kids born post-2000 are going to be a different generation than the Millenials; which also means that their parents and grandparents (and other family members) are a different generation. They don't call a birth cohort a generation for nothing- there are distinctive cultural differences between generations on a whole. Your parents' generation cascades down into your upbringing, as does the culture your own generation is surrounded by.

I saw similar things with younger Gen-Xers about Millenials. I think some of it is that if you are the younger years of a generation (like me- being a later born Gen-X) you have a decent amount of contact with the next generation- they are only a few years younger than you. However, if you identify with your own generation, it can make the differences quite apparent. They are almost the same age as you, but their parents are totally different, and they are just... culturally different. Their perspectives on the world are different.

I really agree!

LizzieMaine - Maybe it's the places we live? There's a girl a few years younger than me who's got 5 and one of them is a bit of a foul mouth, and he has to hold soap in his mouth if he starts being a butt.

 

[The Good]

I'm a '90s kid myself (born in 1989), and I can see some of the reasoning behind this. I don't really have faith in much of the new generation (born 2000 or after), but I think even the generation x or millennial generation was bad enough for the world to endure. Lots of people in my own age group (those that are in their early 20s) are rude, crude, unkempt, loud, and promiscuous. Now, there's individuals like this within every generation, but just about anyone older than 30 seems more mature to me than my own peers.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

IMHO, part of it may be the amazing ability of modern communications to broadcast the absolute worst human behavior in every age range. Your average young 20ish person of today can see a nation/world wide smorgasbord of bad behavior among kids slightly younger and their parents. Nanny 911, bad sports behavior, language, manners etc. Everyone knows at least one kid personally whose parents need to be gobsmacked, but YouTube can make it look like a pandemic. And it's always fun to go after the younger generation and picture what you'd like to do to them.

Circa 1984 I used to setup concerts at my college along with others from my department. We would on occasion sit among ourselves and vent about HOW IN THE WORLD! did those kids parents let them out of the house dressed like that? We were about 19/20. Those kids were about 14/16. Much discussion among the guys especially about burning any too short/too tight clothes their young daughters might sneak into the house. And their language? Ughh. We would employ soap. Of course, in college, we knew the appropriate places and times for ahem inappropriate behavior If we could've, we'd have blogged it, along with incriminating photos.

 

[Pompidou]

Maybe the proliferation of internet and cell phones is accelerating the pace at which people realize their differences? 24 hours a day, you can go on Facebook or Youtube, or a myriad of social websites, and see how you're different than "kids these days". Not only that, but you and the whole world can put two cents in with commentary. It's also easy to do. No longer do you have to wait for special occasions to trumpet the superiority of your own generation. You just turn on your computer, and join where others have gone before you. Not only is it easy to do, but it seems common to do. You can see their musicians, their TV shows - and you can complain about them to rain on their parade. It's a time honored tradition - disdaining the present. I think the internet united the disparate peoples of each generation, that they might hold each other in disdain.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I was born in 1990 and did have my mouth washed out with soap, and had it coming!

It's amazing how big the generation gap is between myself and kids born 10 years later (granted many of my own generation make me sick). My pal Jon and I were driving through town one day and started complaining how the kids out and about all looked like punks. We joke about it to this day about how that was the day we became old lol

 

[skyvue]

I'm 53, and most of my best friends are ten years younger. My wife's only 29, and I like her friends just fine (and they seem to like me -- at least they do a good job of pretending). At my freelance gig, I work alongside folks in their early 20s, and get along with them just fine.

Do generational differences occasionally arise? Sure, but these can be interesting topics of discussion. Mostly, people are people. I try to learn from them, and they seem open to learning from me. I have to say, I'm of the opinion that most folks have more in common than they have differences.

I'm also not sure I understand how "political correctness" has influenced the childhood experience, though I agree that technological advances do have an impact.

 

[RadioWave]

I find truth in all of the responses, especially Pompidou's.

The mention of PC is a throwback to the lament that we tiptoe around "sensitive subjects" so that no one's offended.

I understand the generational differences - I've just been a bit surprised by the number of 20-somethings who are seemingly acting beyond their years. Perhaps it's also the realization of "Oh God, I'm a real adult now."

 

[sheeplady]

I understand the generational differences - I've just been a bit surprised by the number of 20-somethings who are seemingly acting beyond their years. Perhaps it's also the realization of "Oh God, I'm a real adult now."

I don't know if it is contributing, but I think there has also been a rise in the age of adulthood. I was watching Charlie Rose the other night, and there was a gentleman on who was proposing adding a stage to the development of people between adolescence and adulthood, something like a "searching" or "exploring" phase. Basically, with more young people continuing to live at home through their mid twenties, delaying marriage, and delaying childbirthing, adulthood has become delayed as well.

I really don't agree with marriage and child bearing being markers of adulthood, but I have sensed that between age 18 and age 22 is no longer seen as adulthood for many people. A person's not seen as a child, but they are not considered an adult either. For instance, the new credit cards in the US don't allow a person to obtain a credit card under the age of 21 unless they have a co-signer or can prove a susbtantial income. (After age 21, it is a free-for-all, because, well those people are adults.) Things like that suggest to me that the age of adulthood is changing, it's no longer 18, but more like 21.

I wonder if some people who are on the cusp of that change (now about age 21) react in this way because they are becoming adults, and feel this transition acutely.

 

[RadioWave]

Sheeplady: Very true; I blame college attendance and the shrinking job market.

 

[LizzieMaine]

For a long time 21 was considered the true marker of adulthood -- it was the age when a citizen could vote, which in American culture was the traditional dividing line between adult and not-adult. That changed when the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1973 -- but I don't think 18 was genuinely considered adult even then. That change was made solely for political reasons, not out of any sense of when "adulthood" truly began. You might get a job, you might get drafted, you might get married, you might have kids -- but you still weren't genuinely considered an Adult until you hit 21. And I think there's good reason for this -- I don't think 18 year olds *are* adults, mentally or emotionally. I know I wasn't at 18, and I don't know anyone who ever was. To pretend otherwise is to put a burden on 18-20 year olds they aren't honestly ready to handle. In that sense, I'm all in favor of moving the legal definition of adulthood back to 21.

A 25 year old, or a 30 year old, however, *is* an adult. Get a haircut and a job!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

AMEN to that!!!!

A 25 year old, or a 30 year old, however, *is* an adult. Get a haircut and a job!

 

[sheeplady]

Perhaps "adult responsibility" is more term I am searching for. I don't know a single person born before 1955 who wasn't financially responsible for themselves at high school graduation or 18 (if not before).

Granted I think most of this isn't the young individuals' faults. It's not like they all got together as a generation and conspired to change the job market, raise college and post-high school training costs, and made it more difficult to find jobs at a younger age.

I'm personally not supportive of taking away adult rights and responsibilities from those under age 21 but above age 18. I think in order to do that effectively, we would need a major restructuring of our society. If we decide that people aren't able to be adults at 18, then we need to provide something for those individuals to do and support themselves from 18 to 21. For instance, if we decide that young individuals can no longer join the military at 18 then we need to provide opportunities for those communities that depend on military service as a way out of poverty- which is the case for many in rural or inner city areas.

Most of the changes in responsibilty I've observed have been in middle or middle-upper class families. These families tend to have the leeway to have individuals stay children (or semi-adults) under the age 21, because they can afford it. The problem is that many of the changes that I can see coming that move adulthood to a higher and higher age, tend to hurt those who must be adults at age 18 because of their circumstances.

 

[IsaacRN]

I find the lack of education in today's generation horrendous. Today's learning is more about passing an an accreditation test rather than actually learning. Another point in hand, is that it is a great deal harder to actually fail classes in school. So many kids are basically given answers. I am amazed working with Bachelor prepared people who do not have a clue who Neil Armstrong is, Paul Revere, who fought in the Civil War, and the list could go on and on. By the way, I am 33.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Perhaps "adult responsibility" is more term I am searching for. I don't know a single person born before 1955 who wasn't financially responsible for themselves at high school graduation or 18 (if not before).

Well, my mother was born in 1939, and she lived at home with her parents until she got married at 20. That was the common thing for her generation, in her social class -- for girls to stay at home until marriage. She didn't go to work full time until *after* she was married -- she went to business school for two years after high school, and when she was 21 she got a job as a telephone operator. ( A lot of companies then, including Ma Bell, wouldn't hire people under 21 for fulltime work.)

I was partly facetious when I suggested changing the age of legal adulthood to 21 -- I wish all wars were fought by sixty-year-old men, not by teenagers -- but I do stand by my comment that I don't think 18-19-20 year olds *are* adults. I work with kids that age every day, am responsible for interviewing and hiring them, and I literally have to work thru dozens of applicants to find three or four who I think have enough of a sense of adult responsibility to do the jobs I need done. And I think only part of this is attributable to modern culture -- a lot of it is simply that, biologically, they don't have adult brains yet. Emotionally and intellectually, they're still *teenagers* and not *adults.* Trying to turn them into adults before they're capable of reacting to the world as adults does nobody any favors.

 

[Harp]

-- I don't think 18 year olds *are* adults, mentally or emotionally. I know I wasn't at 18, and I don't know anyone who ever was.

When I was 18-staying alive, and keeping my squad from getting killed,
and returning Stateside was all that really mattered.
Once home, I met a stewardess who invited me to have a drink
with her, and the bar waitress asked me my age. [angel]