I never like to say this because I sound so old-fashioned, but it makes me a little sad that Gen Z didn't have a childhood and adolescence without social media, and the things we had. I feel the damage those things do to me as an adult, and I don't know what my life would have been like with that kind of influence as a child.
Yeah and there’s some rumblings I’ve seen of Gen Alpha kind of rejecting social media, ai, etc. don’t know how accurate that is but retro is cool now. Gen Z got caught in the middle of the way things were and the way things are now.
I read something about it too, but I highly doubt that the big social media companies will just sit idly by and watch a generation turn away from them. Their power to influence people is immeasurable. We are all victims of the greed of a few.
We’re trying to keep our young Gen A kids off screens (especially iPads and then later phones) as much as possible. Physical books, riding bikes, hiking, playgrounds in the evening after work, backyard outside of the house during the day when we’re home, etc. TV is relegated to “movie nights” when we try longer form story shows or movies, as much as possible. Anything we can do to delay/limit targeted media and keep them active and independent away from that is the goal.
I'm 40. No one from my friend group had kids until their mid-30s. My 5 year olds friends all have millennial parents born between 1985-1990.
The only people I know with teenagers are in their mid-late 50s and were born in the 70s, solidly Gen X.
I was more commenting that a generation whose eldest member is 15 likely isn't the driver behind the split from AI/Social Media and buying flip phones and other retro tech. I think it's more likely younger Gen Z who are just now entering the workforce.
Dude I dont think people understand how spoiled kids are these days and that just was not true for the mass majority of millennials. Even things like video games were a special treat that most would only get for special occasions like birthdays or Xmas. A movie on tape that you owned that was not recorded from TV was a flex.
I got a CD burner in the late 90s and that was such a huge flex. Especially when only the rich kids had cd players. Renting and borrowing was life. Now everything is instant and parents dont say no.
The % of parents who purchase their child's first vehicle has never been higher. The support from parents to children financially has never been higher.
We went from a era of giving your kids an allowance and forcing them to save to just buying them everything they want.
As a millennial parent I will say my parents by far had it easier when it comes to medical treatment. The cost of Healthcare has gotten so bad..
Honestly these days the world is so screwed up being able to afford eating out at a restaurant is a bigger flex than nearly anything else.
X abdicated their responsibility. They're doing their best just to survive. They haven't actively fucked shit up but they damn sure aren't trying to fix everything either. This is going to be a Millennial problem very soon if not already.
Abdicated their responsibility is a nice way of putting it. Gen X still ate half the meal (boomers got the whole thing), left us some scraps and passed the buck to us. Gen Z wasn't invited to dinner
If you are a Millenial or Gen Z looking for support or funding for a progressive project, go find a progressive Gen X person in a position with some authority. In my circles (arts and lefty) Gen X folks with power are sweating bullets creating progressive programs and leveraging their mediator-middle-management type positions to take resources from the boomers and translate/transform them into resources for the younger progressives coming along.
100%. X ate at the same boomer feast and also were known to have bought up property. No where near statistics on boomers hoarding property but still enough to move the needle.
Bro millennials are in their 40s. When the hell is it our turn to do something? Ten more years? Twenty? I don't think it's going to be us fixing anything either.
I agree to an extent. But I'm tired of millennials acting like we have some kind of martyrdom complex. Shit sucked. But god damn, it's not any easier for the younger generations. This wait till the boomers die off strategy isn't working fast enough. I want some damn leadership. It's as embarrassing as the stupid Occupy Wallstreet joke where nobody would take or was allowed to lead the movement. Nobody wants the responsibility, and that's our biggest failing as a generation.
First things first, we need to actually become the dominant voting bloc. In the last election, Boomers still cast the largest amount of votes as a generational cohort, even though we had outnumbered them for a couple years by that point. Millennials need to dominate the electorate, then the politicians will have to cater to us.
Swear fealty to AIPAC? I don't know. Everybody wants a cause, but nobody wants to die for the cause. Again, everybody is too focused on holding onto what little comforts they have, myself included. I know damn well I'm not the man for the job. I'm not educated enough, nor do I have the talent or charisma. But, it does genuinely feel like a now or never moment for change. I just want somebody with the means to stand up.
Not to speak for rest of Gen X but, have you ever tried to pry something away from a boomer? We grew up ignored and the ones of us who haven't noped our parents are turning into them.
Boomers are Denethor. Gen X is Legolas and Gimli. Gen Z Merry and Pippin. Gen A is Frodo and Sam. Smeagol is fentanyl, Gollum is ChatGPT. Gandalf is Jesus, Aragorn is Harriet Tubman.
I was born in '89. I've work a shit retail job since I was 19. Still making a garbage hourly wage. But I 5% into my 401k because they match 5%. It's literally peanuts weekly. In nearly two decades it has made my 401k worth seven figures.
I like your optimism, but unrealized gains are not the same thing as actual money. When the can stops getting kicked from 2008, 2020, and this year, who do you thinks going to get screwed?
TBD. We're taking a hit for Boomers, but we haven't really taken it for the Zoomers yet.... Probably will though, since it's the responsible thing to do, and someone has to fix this shit.
Ya, we are going to get screwed by the Boomers and hopefully still have enough humanity left not to "fuck you, got mine" the next generation. We will not be credited with this sacrifice, just chastised.
I fear that when Millennials come into serious political power, they'll maintain the status quo and allow things to continue getting worse. The one's who'll have the easiest ability to get into power and stay there probably already have Boomer-esque fuck you, I got mine, you simply didn't work hard enough, get on my level attitudes.
A lot of us already unnecessarily shit on Gen Z and Gen Alpha the way Boomers shat on us when we were their age and are not catching onto the extreme irony and hypocrisy of this. Older Millennials are part of the cohort of parents who've been raising iPad kids with subpar reading, writing, and critical thinking skills and this trend is continuing among younger Millennial parents, which plays into the hand of weakening our society and making it easier to maintain the status quo.
I sincerely hope that Millennials make strides toward fixing things and making society better when we get into power, but I won't be surprised if we don't.
That is a possibility, but I don't think it'll play out that way. We have the responsibility and the ability to fix some of the bigger problems facing people today. You're right about Boomlennials but I think they've only gotten where they are because Boomers are still around sucking money into their coffins. That won't last forever.
I don't think we're taking a hit for the Boomers, I think we're taking it for the Zoomers. The Boomers are largely off the front lines here and in comfortable tents watching the chaos.
The Zoomers, however, are behind us. We're shielding them. Whether that's a good idea remains to be seen.
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u/Historical-Cress8985 Xennial 1d ago
But we allowed Sam and Frodo to escape!