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Our generation is screwed up. Our country's former focus on individuality and strength has been sold out and everything now is about a self-gratifying lifestyle. Every trend and pop icon is marketed and sold out and we are left with nothing truly original or legitimate. Everything is an imitation of imitation. Why have style when it can be purchased at Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters? It's not just that either- our generation is self-obsessed and vain. Our lifestyles are being advertised to us by means of text messages and pop-up ads and billboards. Why soul-search when you can imitate the hipsters dancing in the ipod commercials? If you aren't in the vacuous world of fashion and trends, you are looked down upon and alienated. If you don't buy in and sell out, then you are left with nothing.
The narcissism is everywhere, from myspace to youtube, and McDonald's "have it your way" campaign. It's all about us. We must have instant gratification. We must have broadband instantly delivering useless information to us overt the Internet. Everything else is "so dial up". We must be constantly connected to it too. We are naked without our phones. The great iron y of all these networking social-networking sites like facebook and myspace and these phones that keep us constantly in contact and online is that they were meant to bring us together and "network us", but in reality all it did was isolate us even more. It stole the human part of interaction from us. Now it's sterile and cold with "ily's" and "<3's" and other meaningless, empty abbreviations representing nothing.
The digital media are what is bringing down our generation. We sit in living rooms where we do the total opposite of living. We vegetate and we decay. Our bodies go to waste as we eat our TV dinners and tune into the latest gossip regarding Paris Hilton. If we are not constantly entertained, we change the channel. If the movie is not packed with explosions and sex, it's a bomb. We are constantly marketed to and selling ourselves simultaneously. Very few people in our generation can hold a coherent conversation in regard to philosophy, but nearly everyone can tell you if Lindsay Lohan is in rehab this week. No one wants to ask any real questions about life. That kind of thing is difficult and confusing. With media, we can cling to the surface and ignore all those troublesome things. Why this digital obsession? Why are all the kids crowded around the interactive screens at a museum instead of looking at the actual exhibits? Why are video game graphics becoming so incredible that within a few years they will look like live action movies? Because people are scared of something. They are scared of living. They are cared of being alone so they watch the TV. They are scared of boredom. They keep themselves busy. It used to be busy work that kept us happy, but our generation is too lazy for busy work. We want entertainment. We don't want to earn it either. It has to be fed to us because of our apathy. And why? It's a distraction we all support. You aren't thinking about life when watching the Hollywood buddy cop movie. You aren't question yourself and challenging yourself to grow when you watch flava flav yell one of his trademark phrases on TV. The concept of the individual is all but dead. The struggling individual who reads Bukwoski and tries to engage everyone is pseudo-intellectual bullsh*t they feel is poignant is just as clichéd and unoriginal as the kids who dress according to the fashion tips of celeb magazines.
Don't get me wrong here-I'd be a hypocrite to say that I'm not guilty of the majority of these things, but it is rapidly going too far. Movie theaters were originally such a huge hit because they came out in an era of great suffering. Stock markets had crashed on black Tuesday in 1929 and the country's economy fell between 40 and 60 percent almost instantly. The great depression had stolen everyone's spirit and the theater was a form of escape. It was one of the first large establishments to have air-conditioning and it was a place for people to pay a few dollars and escape the heat and the problems of their lives for 90 minutes. The difference now is that entertainment is no longer a reprieve, but a lifestyle. Without constant entertainment and superficial "aesthetics" as dictated by people paid to come out with seasonal fashions to sell clothes, we are left with nothing. If we are concerned with what we are going to wear tomorrow, then we don't have to be concerned with the bigger, tougher questions. We can distract ourselves all the way to death- having learned nothing and having contributed nothing.
What do we do then? We are hopelessly ensnared in marketing campaigns and flashing signs and bullsh*t "global warming" hippy-resurgence nonsense (whatever urban outfitters, al gore, and every ex scene kid pretending to care about anything beyond themselves). I think the only respite is for people to realize this. Personally, I've changed what I spend my time doing. I don't entertain idiot notions of being some enlightened teacher who is thusly given license to condescend to everyone. I'm well aware that there are many who have come to the same conclusions I have. Much of my realizations regarding all of this came from my career at boarding school. I was forcefully removed from technology and placed on the hill in the middle of nowhere. I had to camp in snow several times a year and all of it gave me a different perspective on life and technology. Boarding school pushed me to see things I wouldn't normally have been able to. I was ripped form my "life in the fast lane" attitude and "young Hollywood" narcissistic attitude and I couldn't be more grateful.
"I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."
-Kurt Vonnegut
Being pushed to the edge several times in my life, I was able to realize much of what I valued was completely worthless. It's not worth spending time on aim when you could be out with friends. It's not worth giving up the human part of interaction. It's vital that our generation makes a change. With the amount of horrible things occurring worldwide on a daily basis, it is tragic people spend their money on things like $90 tank tops and manicures. American teenagers are being shot to shreds in Iraq, but for people here, having the latest clothing and hairstyles is still paramount. Our standards for life need to change or else a new regression will hit our country- and if that happens, nothing will matter. The world would not be missing out on a damn thing if we were to die. By that point, it'd be too late anyway.
"We have no great war or depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives"
Chuck Palahniuk
The narcissism is everywhere, from myspace to youtube, and McDonald's "have it your way" campaign. It's all about us. We must have instant gratification. We must have broadband instantly delivering useless information to us overt the Internet. Everything else is "so dial up". We must be constantly connected to it too. We are naked without our phones. The great iron y of all these networking social-networking sites like facebook and myspace and these phones that keep us constantly in contact and online is that they were meant to bring us together and "network us", but in reality all it did was isolate us even more. It stole the human part of interaction from us. Now it's sterile and cold with "ily's" and "<3's" and other meaningless, empty abbreviations representing nothing.
The digital media are what is bringing down our generation. We sit in living rooms where we do the total opposite of living. We vegetate and we decay. Our bodies go to waste as we eat our TV dinners and tune into the latest gossip regarding Paris Hilton. If we are not constantly entertained, we change the channel. If the movie is not packed with explosions and sex, it's a bomb. We are constantly marketed to and selling ourselves simultaneously. Very few people in our generation can hold a coherent conversation in regard to philosophy, but nearly everyone can tell you if Lindsay Lohan is in rehab this week. No one wants to ask any real questions about life. That kind of thing is difficult and confusing. With media, we can cling to the surface and ignore all those troublesome things. Why this digital obsession? Why are all the kids crowded around the interactive screens at a museum instead of looking at the actual exhibits? Why are video game graphics becoming so incredible that within a few years they will look like live action movies? Because people are scared of something. They are scared of living. They are cared of being alone so they watch the TV. They are scared of boredom. They keep themselves busy. It used to be busy work that kept us happy, but our generation is too lazy for busy work. We want entertainment. We don't want to earn it either. It has to be fed to us because of our apathy. And why? It's a distraction we all support. You aren't thinking about life when watching the Hollywood buddy cop movie. You aren't question yourself and challenging yourself to grow when you watch flava flav yell one of his trademark phrases on TV. The concept of the individual is all but dead. The struggling individual who reads Bukwoski and tries to engage everyone is pseudo-intellectual bullsh*t they feel is poignant is just as clichéd and unoriginal as the kids who dress according to the fashion tips of celeb magazines.
Don't get me wrong here-I'd be a hypocrite to say that I'm not guilty of the majority of these things, but it is rapidly going too far. Movie theaters were originally such a huge hit because they came out in an era of great suffering. Stock markets had crashed on black Tuesday in 1929 and the country's economy fell between 40 and 60 percent almost instantly. The great depression had stolen everyone's spirit and the theater was a form of escape. It was one of the first large establishments to have air-conditioning and it was a place for people to pay a few dollars and escape the heat and the problems of their lives for 90 minutes. The difference now is that entertainment is no longer a reprieve, but a lifestyle. Without constant entertainment and superficial "aesthetics" as dictated by people paid to come out with seasonal fashions to sell clothes, we are left with nothing. If we are concerned with what we are going to wear tomorrow, then we don't have to be concerned with the bigger, tougher questions. We can distract ourselves all the way to death- having learned nothing and having contributed nothing.
What do we do then? We are hopelessly ensnared in marketing campaigns and flashing signs and bullsh*t "global warming" hippy-resurgence nonsense (whatever urban outfitters, al gore, and every ex scene kid pretending to care about anything beyond themselves). I think the only respite is for people to realize this. Personally, I've changed what I spend my time doing. I don't entertain idiot notions of being some enlightened teacher who is thusly given license to condescend to everyone. I'm well aware that there are many who have come to the same conclusions I have. Much of my realizations regarding all of this came from my career at boarding school. I was forcefully removed from technology and placed on the hill in the middle of nowhere. I had to camp in snow several times a year and all of it gave me a different perspective on life and technology. Boarding school pushed me to see things I wouldn't normally have been able to. I was ripped form my "life in the fast lane" attitude and "young Hollywood" narcissistic attitude and I couldn't be more grateful.
"I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."
-Kurt Vonnegut
Being pushed to the edge several times in my life, I was able to realize much of what I valued was completely worthless. It's not worth spending time on aim when you could be out with friends. It's not worth giving up the human part of interaction. It's vital that our generation makes a change. With the amount of horrible things occurring worldwide on a daily basis, it is tragic people spend their money on things like $90 tank tops and manicures. American teenagers are being shot to shreds in Iraq, but for people here, having the latest clothing and hairstyles is still paramount. Our standards for life need to change or else a new regression will hit our country- and if that happens, nothing will matter. The world would not be missing out on a damn thing if we were to die. By that point, it'd be too late anyway.
"We have no great war or depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives"
Chuck Palahniuk
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I'm just not there yet.
Alfonse the Turtle wrote:
> Interesting, as I'm currently engaged in trying to free myself
> from the shackles of materialism as we speak.
Can I have all your stuff then?
> Interesting, as I'm currently engaged in trying to free myself
> from the shackles of materialism as we speak.
Can I have all your stuff then?
Interesting, as I'm currently engaged in trying to free myself from the shackles of materialism as we speak.
El Viking wrote:
> But waiting for an answer to something can be rather a drag as
> well, remember...
Only if you're impatient. Emailing is more likely to annoy me. I'll send something and get fairly p**sed if i dont get a reply within a couple of days.
> But waiting for an answer to something can be rather a drag as
> well, remember...
Only if you're impatient. Emailing is more likely to annoy me. I'll send something and get fairly p**sed if i dont get a reply within a couple of days.
Nin wrote:
> On a physiological level i'd imagine talking in person to be of
> far more benefit. Psychologically though, MSN makes it easier to
> break the ice and talk about the more difficult things that
> people struggle with in person. It also helps to have a
> structured back and forth conversation where you 30 seconds
> silence to think.
Yeah, that probably explains girls I've met at parties asking for my MSN addy and then asking me all sorts of quite probing questions a day or two later!
But waiting for an answer to something can be rather a drag as well, remember...
> On a physiological level i'd imagine talking in person to be of
> far more benefit. Psychologically though, MSN makes it easier to
> break the ice and talk about the more difficult things that
> people struggle with in person. It also helps to have a
> structured back and forth conversation where you 30 seconds
> silence to think.
Yeah, that probably explains girls I've met at parties asking for my MSN addy and then asking me all sorts of quite probing questions a day or two later!
But waiting for an answer to something can be rather a drag as well, remember...
spoonbeast wrote:
> YOU! YOU! YOU'RE IN ON THIS! YOU HAVE THE MOST TO GAIN! This was
> your plan wasn't it? do the right thing for a price and when
> everyone was in shock you'll intercept, kill everyone and get the
> prize! I knew it!
>
> *hiss*
* Puts down poisonous gas canister *
As if i'd do something like that.
> YOU! YOU! YOU'RE IN ON THIS! YOU HAVE THE MOST TO GAIN! This was
> your plan wasn't it? do the right thing for a price and when
> everyone was in shock you'll intercept, kill everyone and get the
> prize! I knew it!
>
> *hiss*
* Puts down poisonous gas canister *
As if i'd do something like that.
Nin wrote:
> Vexxxed wrote:
> Due to this, the GAD prize will be revoked, and re-awarded to
> another lucky chappy/chappette!
>
> Give it to me! I've been top poster on here for at least 2
> months :D
YOU! YOU! YOU'RE IN ON THIS! YOU HAVE THE MOST TO GAIN! This was your plan wasn't it? do the right thing for a price and when everyone was in shock you'll intercept, kill everyone and get the prize! I knew it!
*hiss*
> Vexxxed wrote:
> Due to this, the GAD prize will be revoked, and re-awarded to
> another lucky chappy/chappette!
>
> Give it to me! I've been top poster on here for at least 2
> months :D
YOU! YOU! YOU'RE IN ON THIS! YOU HAVE THE MOST TO GAIN! This was your plan wasn't it? do the right thing for a price and when everyone was in shock you'll intercept, kill everyone and get the prize! I knew it!
*hiss*
El Viking wrote:
> Agreed, it keeps the brain going... and I quite prefer it, even
> being on MSN Messenger to someone all afternoon is no true
> substitute as it's not real company.
On a physiological level i'd imagine talking in person to be of far more benefit. Psychologically though, MSN makes it easier to break the ice and talk about the more difficult things that people struggle with in person. It also helps to have a structured back and forth conversation where you 30 seconds silence to think.
> Agreed, it keeps the brain going... and I quite prefer it, even
> being on MSN Messenger to someone all afternoon is no true
> substitute as it's not real company.
On a physiological level i'd imagine talking in person to be of far more benefit. Psychologically though, MSN makes it easier to break the ice and talk about the more difficult things that people struggle with in person. It also helps to have a structured back and forth conversation where you 30 seconds silence to think.
YH wrote:
> Well, whever wrote it, it's an interesting piece. Can't say I
> agree with all of it. One bit seems pretty spot on though, and
> that's the bit about social networking sites seeming to stop
> people actually interacting on a face to face basis.
>
Although, Facebook has its uses for inviting people to things, and arranging to meet people, etc!
> Plus scientists reckon that speaking aloud actually stimulates
> part of the brain which otherwise gets little work and can help
> keep the brain in trim, as it were. Emailing people and texting
> them does not stimulate the brain in the same way.
Agreed, it keeps the brain going... and I quite prefer it, even being on MSN Messenger to someone all afternoon is no true substitute as it's not real company.
> Well, whever wrote it, it's an interesting piece. Can't say I
> agree with all of it. One bit seems pretty spot on though, and
> that's the bit about social networking sites seeming to stop
> people actually interacting on a face to face basis.
>
Although, Facebook has its uses for inviting people to things, and arranging to meet people, etc!
> Plus scientists reckon that speaking aloud actually stimulates
> part of the brain which otherwise gets little work and can help
> keep the brain in trim, as it were. Emailing people and texting
> them does not stimulate the brain in the same way.
Agreed, it keeps the brain going... and I quite prefer it, even being on MSN Messenger to someone all afternoon is no true substitute as it's not real company.
Your time may come Nin :p
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