Ummm....
Please comment-
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16529/index.html
The specifics are very New York centric (ho-freakin'-hum), otherwise it is pretty interesting.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16529/index.html
The specifics are very New York centric (ho-freakin'-hum), otherwise it is pretty interesting.
posted by misreall at 9:22 AM
5 Comments:
That's funny. In the past few month's I have been thinking that a large problem with our generation is that so many of us just don't recognize that we are adults. We still have a self-image tied to the person we were in high school - or at least early 20s. It seems more like a refusal to recognize that we are getting older and to start planning accordingly
I have also noticed that aside from this, there are many people from our generation that try to stay cool. I will admit to being guilty of that (on the pitiful level that I have always operated on) until I was married - after that I just gave up.
People refusing to act their age has always vaguely irritated me - not on a concious level, more just like a constant low-level itch. It also makes me feel a little guilty - like we are co-opting time that belongs to another generation. I believe that we need to step aside and let the next generation create their own culture - to continue trying to influence and participate just seems wrong. It is similar to what Gen Xers complained about Baby Boomers for - always acting like the time they were kids was the time to be alive and that what came afterwards was just a pale shadow. We are not necessarilly doing that - rather we are just extending our own allotment of time to include the period that rightfully belongs to the next generation.
One more thing to consider is that us Gen Xers are not nearly as cool as we like to think , and that while we are still participating in pop-culture, it is not true pop-culture - we are just as locked out of the new pop-culture as our parents were locked out of ours.
The last comment I'll make is about the interpretation that this cool-retaining trend is due to people wanting to keep things in their lives that they are passionate about. It was rather comforting at first. On further reflection I am not sure if it is so much people trying to retain the things they are passionate about or just continuing being spoiled children?
I had a conversation similar to this not long ago with a friend. She used to work for some big company in New York, she got married and they moved back to Oak Park to raise their kids. They have a huge, beautiful house, all three kids have college funds, she belongs to a book club, helps with liberal causes, keeps very fit, and now she is having an unpleasant divorce.
In short she is a real, live adult.
And most of the other real, live adults she knows bore her.
Almost everyone else I know exsists in a state of semi-arrested adolesence, not so much refusing to grow up as ignoring the imperative to do so. They still go out all of the time, and talk about bands as if "they matter," and dress in an updated version of how they did in their 20s.
I don't really have an opinion about it one way or the other. There are too many arguements, starting with youth being wasted on the young and ending with act your age. But as someone who would rather eat glass than buy jeans designed to fall apart in a month, but who is also very excited about the new Jenny Lewis cd I am not sure what I can say that won't make me sound like a hypocrite.
I understand exactly what you are saying Misreal - please don't misconstrue any of my comments as coming from a holier-than-thou attitude.
I am sure that if I had the time/ability/coolness I would be leading just such a lifestyle as described.
I am just as conflicted in my feelings about the subject as you - on one hand it seems very desireable, on the other very childish.
But is is an interesting evolution,and I am curious to see where it ends up.
"You have to have a little bit of Dora the Explorer in your life." This is, like, sooooooooooo true.
I have neither a wife nor kids, nor a messy divorce in my past. I'm 36, feel and act like I'm still in my 20s, and am a unique flower--if there are breeds of flowers that are lazy, unmotivated, and shiftless. I watch DVDs and play on my computer. Last night my big accomplishments were taking the garbage to the curb and shaving, both done at midnight. I don't own a suit and don't have much money in the bank. I smoke too much. My anti-social tendencies stem from nurture, and are commonly expressed as sarcasm.
I'm not nearly interesting enough to have a label attached to me.
I think we should come up with a group name for just the three of us. It has to be pithy and slightly embarrasing.
RD-I think that puts it in your department.
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