Still sort of ranting
Feb. 12th, 2008 10:41 pmOne of my younger friends, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
maliciastarling, has recently said some things to me (in a comment on my recent cell phone rant) that has really made me think about the young people coming up and what's been done to them, and how they've reacted.
They really have grown up with Big Brother looking over their shoulder. Like my age group growing up "knowing" that "they" would probably launch the nukes and blow us all up before we could stop them. (strange how quickly we went from not trusting the establishment to BEING the establishment)
So, just like a lot of my cohort tended to be very fatalistic, and try everything today, we may not have tomorrow, this group has just abandoned the whole concept of privacy it seems.
I would have thought i would make them secretive and private, jealously guarding what they can. (It sort of has me) But here we all are, posting our thoughts on the world wide web. And having intimate conversations as if everyone else in the checkout line can't hear us. I don't understand the young woman who this morning explained her surgery in detail to someone on the phone, and tho I tried not to listen, me. And it was not like she thought she was alone. I was sitting in a lobby when she came in, sat next to me, and made the phone call!
On the other hand, there is such a thing as "hidden in plain sight." The best place to hide a book is in a library. Maybe the very flood of information so assaults us that we don't really know anything about anybody. It's too hard to pick the real and important stuff out of all the STUFF. Might as well tell everyone everything, so that if we accidentally let something real or important or private slip, maybe no one will notice.
Actually, the cell phone thing is two issues, one is the lack of privacy. The other is the whole, can't be still, can't be alone, can't waste a moment, must be multi-tasking business.
maliciastarlingwrote:
"In fact I think you're closer to the truth on the whole "they're afraid to be alone with their thoughts". We literally are a generation that's being taught that the idle moment alone is a moment wasted. We must always be multi-tasking."
I'm truly, truly sorry that this the message that they took from us. We meant to say, "Life is precious, and ephemeral, and must be lived every minute, and enjoy the little stuff, because the big stuff is few and far between and fill every second with the things that feed your soul, and bring you light, and show you who you are, and who you can be..."
Yes, we did say, fill every second. But we meant for you to fill it with things worth your time. And YOU CHOOSE what you fill you time with. you don't have to be at the disposal of every fool who can dial, just because they can.
And really, if it can't wait until I get out of the bathroom, then the firetrucks better already be in the front yard.
maliciastarling, has recently said some things to me (in a comment on my recent cell phone rant) that has really made me think about the young people coming up and what's been done to them, and how they've reacted. They really have grown up with Big Brother looking over their shoulder. Like my age group growing up "knowing" that "they" would probably launch the nukes and blow us all up before we could stop them. (strange how quickly we went from not trusting the establishment to BEING the establishment)
So, just like a lot of my cohort tended to be very fatalistic, and try everything today, we may not have tomorrow, this group has just abandoned the whole concept of privacy it seems.
I would have thought i would make them secretive and private, jealously guarding what they can. (It sort of has me) But here we all are, posting our thoughts on the world wide web. And having intimate conversations as if everyone else in the checkout line can't hear us. I don't understand the young woman who this morning explained her surgery in detail to someone on the phone, and tho I tried not to listen, me. And it was not like she thought she was alone. I was sitting in a lobby when she came in, sat next to me, and made the phone call!
On the other hand, there is such a thing as "hidden in plain sight." The best place to hide a book is in a library. Maybe the very flood of information so assaults us that we don't really know anything about anybody. It's too hard to pick the real and important stuff out of all the STUFF. Might as well tell everyone everything, so that if we accidentally let something real or important or private slip, maybe no one will notice.
Actually, the cell phone thing is two issues, one is the lack of privacy. The other is the whole, can't be still, can't be alone, can't waste a moment, must be multi-tasking business.
maliciastarlingwrote:"In fact I think you're closer to the truth on the whole "they're afraid to be alone with their thoughts". We literally are a generation that's being taught that the idle moment alone is a moment wasted. We must always be multi-tasking."
I'm truly, truly sorry that this the message that they took from us. We meant to say, "Life is precious, and ephemeral, and must be lived every minute, and enjoy the little stuff, because the big stuff is few and far between and fill every second with the things that feed your soul, and bring you light, and show you who you are, and who you can be..."
Yes, we did say, fill every second. But we meant for you to fill it with things worth your time. And YOU CHOOSE what you fill you time with. you don't have to be at the disposal of every fool who can dial, just because they can.
And really, if it can't wait until I get out of the bathroom, then the firetrucks better already be in the front yard.
