Are 20 somethings and younger shallow?

ah crapped mah pants wrote:

Uh....sex IS normal. The fact that we've created such a taboo about it is why people end up being so secretive about it, and why young kids are so desperate to find out about it (and subsequently try it out).

Do you honestly think that making sex less of a "taboo" and putting it out in the open much more through the media is going to make young people less eager to find out about it and try it out?!

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets,

not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink; with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, DyeStat, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays and we threw lawn darts at family reunions in the summer, and we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were. That is, if you can pry their pasty asses away from their com-puter screens.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

sex is not normal if you are maturbating 5 times every day and doing it with a different person every weekend. if you think this is normal, then the media gods have taught you well.

does the real question have to do with religion? i see more and more evanglists and the like. we all know WHY we believe in God. do we know how we can justify our beliefs?

everyday more and more scientific discoveries are made that make it difficult. The Bible was written in what seems like an almost pre-historic time. if those writers were right -- the religious are home free. if not, then we're virtuous.

people just care about themselves more than others... it's only natural. we don't know why we're here. even with all the scientific breakthroughs were hopelessly stuck without answers permanently. "let's live life to the fullest." hopefully my kids will live with a purpose.

one day it's all going to end. if we don't blow ourselves up the sun will explode or our galaxy will colide with some other galaxy hurling through space at however many million km per hour. it probably won't be in our lifetime or our grandkids'. but we're all lucky to be here, because someday the shit's gonna hit the fan and something bad will happen. are we going to be so distracted that we don't care?

our civilization is the blink of an eye in the timeline of whatever sort of universe we're in.

Writing long research reports was a staple of my public school education from 6th grade through 12th grade. These involved compiling bibliographies, filling out hundreds of note cards, composing an outline, and then writing multiple drafts before turning the project in for grade.

I have yet to see either of my teen-age sons (one already out of high school) do anything similar, and both have taken a steady diet of AP classes. So yea, I would say that the younger generation knows little of the intense engagement with learning that such projects required and helped instill.

On the other hand, my kids have talents and aptitudes that I don't have, and I work with some young men and women who are amazingly precocious. Still, I think the infatuation with popular culture, celebrities, leisure activities, social life, and media have taken their toll on things us old geezers value. In part, the concepts of seriousness, deepness, and committment to social change, academic inquiry, and sophisticated artistic appreciation simply seem to be out of fashion.

bos wrote:

nyc wrote:

[quote]remember they are the ones who have the wealth and the power to change things, yet they never do anything about the world. why? because it might hurt their career.

We'll see how proactive you are when you hit 45 or so. The real world is a quite bit more sobering that you know yet.

I could be wrong, but it appears that you defended my post. I know their are reasons for the change in attitude.

However, I would hope that you could come up with better reasons than by stating that life is hard.

No, the 20 somethings right now are pulling the weight. As a military retiree who joined one year after viet nam and retired in 1999 two years before Bush's War, I find this generation of 20 somethings and (a few years younger) to be sacrificing much with not much complaint.

I have a new respect for these young high school kids I coach. Several graduates have spent multiple tours in iraq and Afghanistan as marine snioers and Army Rangers.

They are better men already than i could ever be.

I'm sorry that tehy were led so poorly and dishonestly, but as a volunteer coach, I now look at each and every one of the runners in a brand new light, wonder what will become of them, realize that for the most part they take it all in stride and promise myself that I will continue to support them at my level with respect in any way that I can.

I don't know, but they sure like their body piercing and tatoos. These are the girls I'm talking about. (I think)

letsrun womyn wrote:

sex is not normal if you are maturbating 5 times every day and doing it with a different person every weekend. if you think this is normal, then the media gods have taught you well.

exactly.

frankly, it is not normal to have multiple sexual partners in circumstances such as "one night stands." it's also not normal to be so engrossed in this current porn culture where practically pornography is on t.v. at all times. you can call it soft if you want, but the effect is the same. mtv shows like undressed and next and all the other dating shows of crap glorify being with people purely on looks and the size of body parts.

that's normal?

to add on to my post:

correction, maybe IT IS normal (now), but is that healthy, more importantly?

healthy for future development for long term relationships. healthy for young men in their view of women not as means of sexual gratificiation? etc.

Read any 10 page thread on DyeStat without getting a major headache and therein lies your answer, Andrea. DyeStat is sort of a celebration of immaturity, insecurity, all-knowingness, and superficial thoughts.

Honestly, I get annoyed when baby boomers post this sort of drivel. It seems to be the trend of older generations to slam every change in society that has occured, and to point to younger generations as the cause of them. Also, people seem to like to make sweeping generalizations about the nature of the current generation of 20-somethings based on a poor understanding of how we work and meeting only few of them.

This guy is pretty much epitomizing all the sweeping generalizations and bullshit that I despise about holier-than-thou geezers.

So you braved obstacles during your youth. We do too - they're just not the same ones that you did, and if you DARE imply that you are somehow better for living in that generation then I feel completely justified in calling you shallow and petty.

I've met horrible people from your generation and I've met very kind ones. And I'm sure that your memories of your childhood and adolescence are just that - yours. I have my doubts that everyone experienced a jolly good time as you did - there were divorces, abusive parents, siblings, rapes, murders, drugs, addicts, war, death - then and now.

I've met wonderful people and terrible ones from my own generation. Just like every 20-something generation that has come before us, we have to find our own solutions to problems that have changed with the world around us. Some people have found solutions that I agree with, and some I do not. The requirements on us are different - pressure is applied (especially to girls) earlier and earlier to succeed in every possible endeavor you apply yourself to. I think people in college and high school are stretched a little too thin, among everything they do. It's hard to focus on doing one thing well now, because it no longer seems to be enough. You have to be able to handle more.

So, no. I don't think we're any more shallow or any less shallow than any previous generation. For every sensationalized article about the degeneration of national values there are unheralded people doing what they can to make things better.

Well stated.

OK. I read your post carefully (more carefully than you read mine); And, you do make some good points. I felt one good and interesting point is that young people are stretched too thin with demands. I think this is greater competition for grades, the pack resume, and from an early age to sign up for 2 million adult organized activities.

I didn't really say my generation was better; I did say that our generations are different in how we process and think. I did use the pejorative "shallow" but I think its an accurate description on how many process now days.

Being stretched too thin adds to my point about not having the ability and time to process more deeply.

People, period, are more shallow and superficial than ever, as least in the US. It started with the boomers, because they were so often indulged and sheltered in the post-war era of prosperity and plenty. It only seems more prevalent now because the generation that used to temper the boomers' vanity and vapidity, the generation that went through the depression and the huge wars, is dying off rapidly. It isn't people under 30 who've been giving American Idol and quasiceleb crap like that (along with genuine celeb crap) the attention that it's drawn, the 30-60 age group is a huge target demographic and, yes, they show an incredible lack of depth.

I hate when somebody starts a thread asking a question, when really they just want to make a statement, but anyways...

To defend my age group, lets look at some key differences...

We are more accepting, as polls show of non-traditional ideals(gay marriage, multicultural couples, etc). To me this is one example of not being shallow, and instead being accepting. Seems as though two generations or three back, we were much worse, segregation, rampant racism, much more prevalent anti-semetism. To me, that reeks of self-centric behavior. Lets make ourselves better than others due to their sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity. Also, we believe moreso than in the past that women have the right to have a job and equal wages, instead of being a housewife. In that respect, please tell me how you can say we are more shallow, when we are more accepting. We believe moreso than previous generations that we need to fight to allow equality in this country. So please, don't tell us we are more shallow. I am sure in some respects we are. But in others, your'e generation is worse.

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=754

Pardon any spelling erros, my apologies in advance.

So why does the current 18-30 generation still not turn out to vote even when such issues hit the ballot? To me, based on what I've seen from posts from younger people on this board, the current 18-30 generation is as openly bigotted (thanks partly to the rise of the charismatic evangelical radical extremists) as any in recent memory. I've seen more slurs and prejudicial criticisms against women, gays, and minorities from this site than anywhere else in my life, and I'm extremely doubtful that it's people over 30 going around using the label "gay" in the pejorative. See Jackie Zeigle for a prime example.

I hope they are. I hate the thought of some serious droppy 20 year old worrying about the events of the world.

Unless you are 20 yr old solider in Iraq, your teens and 20s are a fun time.

Actually if you go back to Caveman times...

Then yes it is completely and totally normal...

In Europe they are way less worried about sex...porn is up on billboards and sex is not a taboo subject...yet they have a way lower teenage birthrate than America and a way lower unwed mother percentage than America...

So please tell me who has the right system...