Generational Gaps

Here is one of those alluded-to posts, written some time ago but never published.  This one from the early spring of 2014.  Looking back, even though it's not really been that long ago, it's interesting to see the small changes in my writing style on this blog.  Happy reading!
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One of those headaches with pictures came to me just now…I think you educated folk call them “thoughts” or “ideas”…

I was reading an article about the Millennial Generation, and how we’re (yes, I am a Millennial, just like everyone else born between 1982 and 2000) impoverished, underemployed, and generally holding a bleak outlook that our lives will not be better off than our parents’.  The article, however, took an optimistic slant, with the author averring that as a GenXer, he and his peers had been labeled “stoners” and “lazy”.  Now, having only relived GenX through Nirvana music videos and Pepsi promo commercials, I am in no position to say whether or not this claim is true.  What I can say, however, is that I believe the Millennials have a very different world confronting them than the GenXers did (and yes, I do fully acknowledge that each subsequent generation faces new and insurmountable obstacles than those that preceded it…let me make that arguement before anyone brings it up).

What I’m thinking of, though, is that Millenials aren't comparing our lives to our parents.  Sure, I often look at where I am, what I’m doing as compared to my parents at my age, and that is certainly a thought that keeps me up at night.  To me, my parents had so much more going for them.  They had so much more at their disposal.  They were much more secure.

We, I believe, compare ourselves to our peers more than we do to our parents or our parents did to their peers.  Unfortunately, we have Facebook.  We have Twitter. We have all these innocuous venues for our friends and classmates to fill us in on how wonderful their lives are.  How their new car is incredible with its heated seats (already outdated, I realize) and fancy computerized everything.  How great it is to call this house “theirs”.

Constantly assaulted by these updates, which, in all likelihood come from less than 20% of all the people in my age group) hold more sway than people worse-off than myself…

Parents are no longer the only milestone against which we judge our success…now we have instant access to everyone else as well.