What’s the Deal with Millennials?
Are Milliennials the Babyboomers’ greatest achievement? Perhaps not…
Sure, life expectancy is finally at its highest – people can actually look forward to their thirtieth birthday. Okay maybe not ‘look forward’, but they don’t have to worry about contracting smallpox or the plague. School is free and available to all. Mass wars don’t look to be a concern either. But when you strip this away – the evolutionary progress of humankind — and take a deeper look at the inner workings of it all; this generation sucks.
Hold up! I gotta Instagram this!
I’ve recently concluded my fourth and final year of university, where I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know people from all walks of life. However, over the countless gatherings, meetings and conversations over the years, there was one striking similarity. People just didn't have that much to say when you ask them about their interests and hobbies. They can tell you all about the last picture Kim Kardashian posted on Instagram but not that.
Indeed, “what do you do in your free time”, has been a killer question on Tinder many times — and by ‘killer’, I mean: ‘unmatched’. It’s like people have nothing to share. Sure, there are several perfectly reasonable explanations for this; even take the changing work-life balance over the course of the last thirty years — that could be enough to kill this whole argument. Or maybe I’m just not that appealing… But I’m not buying it. I will not accept that people do not have the time — any time — to follow their interests. Because they do. They’d just rather spend it scrolling infinitely through Instagram or Twitter.
Not to mention the temporary nature of social media trends is shrinking people’s attention spans to that of a goldfish. There go all hopes of reading a novel — mind you, it does look good sitting on the bedside table.
I realise this isn’t the case for a lot of people, and many people do indeed have interests, and purse a whole, fruitful life beyond their smartphone or tablet — but that doesn’t make the ever-increasing dependency on social media any less disheartening.
See you on Xbox tonight?
Not only are people slowly morphing into an army of celebrity-obsessed clones, but they’re also beginning to limit their social life to the internet, step-by-step.
Be it at high school some years back or whilst completing my master's degree— the Xbox and PS4 lobbies seemed to be becoming the hub of interaction.
What’s happened to going out? What happened to conversations; in person? Don’t misinterpret what I’m trying to say here — I’m a big video game fan myself — but balance is key, and all I’m seeing right now is lobby invites and not enough days out.
This is becoming increasingly popular with the rise in popularity of streaming services such as Twitch or Mixer, allowing users to not only hang out with their classmates but also streamers and celebrities, all at the expense of a drink down the bar.
I need to get myself back out there: *opens Tinder*
You know who you are — reducing your entire romantic life to a few swipes of your thumb across your latest iPhone’s screen. Now, this isn’t to say that there’s anything particularly wrong with Tinder and dating apps alike — but come on!
Re-downloading Tinder is not getting back out there! It’s a lie you tell yourself to avoid those awkward icebreakers at your local bar. Plus, it’ll probably only attract your ex.
It worries me that given the ease of online dating and apps alike, in a few generations time, the ability to communicate without technological support will be altogether gone. Instead, there’ll be a fancy algorithm deciding who you’ll ultimately regret marrying a few years down the line.
There’s hope though… right?
This isn't to say that this generation is completely screwed. On the contrary, with the growing size and diversity of our society, there are certain groups that challenge every respect of this argument. It is, however, more and more prevalent for people to trade certain aspects of their life for a digital alternative, be it reading, shopping or learning. But we can’t let our entire social interaction be reduced to satellite signals and pixels on a screen. Can we?
