Dear Mr. and Mrs. Angry Older Generation:

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Um, hello, older generation.

See, I've got a problem. I inherited the earth, sure, but I think it's broken. May I have another one?

There was this hippie saying that went "we are borrowing the Earth from our children".

Well, it turns out there was no collateral, so we burned it all up and handed you a polluted cinder.

Our bad.

[Messier Undertree]

in fact you're usually considered something of a social pariah if you don't partake in this modern Soma

I can't help but notice this too. People are literally surprised when I tell them I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account.

Apparently, if you don't have an RSS feed of someone's sleep, food and bathroom schedules, you aren't a real friend.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Twitter is bullshit.

Here's some REAL fucking, courtesy of us old bastards:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33377328/ns/business-personal_finance/page/2/

So the data is available if you're willing to dig a little. There are plenty of economists and analysts who take issue with the "official" number. John Williams, who runs a Web site called Shadow Government Statistics, does his own calculations each month that adjusts U-6 to include an estimate of the number of "long-term" discouraged workers - those who have been in that category for more than a year - and fall off the BLS radar. By his count, the unemployment rate hit 21.4 percent last month.

Welcome to the new great depression.

[Cainad (dec.)]

in fact you're usually considered something of a social pariah if you don't partake in this modern Soma

I can't help but notice this too. People are literally surprised when I tell them I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account.

Apparently, if you don't have an RSS feed of someone's sleep, food and bathroom schedules, you aren't a real friend.

Whenever I see a Facebook status that says "Goin to bed now" or "brb taking bio quiz" it makes me want to delete the damn account. Probably shouldn't have made one in the first place. I delayed for like 2 years on a MySpace account; probably time to delete that shit too.

Twitter is bullshit.

Here's some REAL fucking, courtesy of us old bastards:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33377328/ns/business-personal_finance/page/2/

So the data is available if you're willing to dig a little. There are plenty of economists and analysts who take issue with the "official" number. John Williams, who runs a Web site called Shadow Government Statistics, does his own calculations each month that adjusts U-6 to include an estimate of the number of "long-term" discouraged workers - those who have been in that category for more than a year - and fall off the BLS radar. By his count, the unemployment rate hit 21.4 percent last month.

Welcome to the new great depression.

But that's just it. You're talking about real things. You old people may have mixed and baked the shit cake, but now it's our turn, and all that's left for us to do is apply the frosting.

[Da6s]

The real world is disappearing underneath our feet and right before our eyes. In modern times the spectacle has replaced the real; the image, the perception of things is all that matters anymore. Nothing we do matters unless you buy the t-shirt and update your Facebook status and take some crappy pictures and text everyone to let them know you bought a t-shirt, updated Facebook and put up some crappy pictures on it.

Personal experiences is no longer enough, We rely on a constant stream of inane babble  to validate our existence. Communication has become so easy and so cheap that there is no longer any real information contained in what we say. For every one message that relates to a real physical happening, there are thousands more that amount to nothing beyond "I'm here. Are you there?"

As social animals it is natural for us to derive pleasure from interacting and communicating with each other. But we've made this communication so freely available--in fact you're usually considered something of a social pariah if you don't partake in this modern Soma--that we've become thoroughly dependent on it even as it becomes less and less satisfying. All this endless chatter is like a shower that never gets quite hot enough, so you twist and turn to get as much of yourself under the lukewarm communication as possible. The air chills your skin and you stay in longer and longer because you keep hoping that eventually the water will heat up and you'll finally feel satisfied and clean and be willing to step out into the chilly air. But there's no external power, no reality heating the water; it's just the heat of thousands of other tepid bodies, everyone showering with each other's runoff so it never gets above body temperature and we never get clean.

My generation has destroyed information. The world ends not in fire or in ice, it ends not with a bang or a whimper...

But with a Tweet.

Is it bad that this gave me the warm fuzzies?

[Cainad (dec.)]

Is it bad that this gave me the warm fuzzies?

No, but the fact that you touched yourself because of it... nope, still not bad.



Also, this should probably be moved to OKM. I just wanted to be cool like all the other kids who were ranting in Apple Talk.

[Da6s]

Is it bad that this gave me the warm fuzzies?

No, but the fact that you touched yourself because of it... nope, still not bad.



Also, this should probably be moved to OKM. I just wanted to be cool like all the other kids who were ranting in Apple Talk.

I can't honestly complain about the value of worthwhile conversation and how it has gone up tremendously.

I wonder how that factors into net-worth.

[Pariah]

The good people I know don't have Twitter
The very best people I know don't have a Facebook

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Twitter and Facebook both make me laugh

but then, I only read posts by people I think are funny.

Also Facebook is startlingly effective for organizing and inviting people to events. If you don't know how to use such media effectively, it might be a sign that you're not trying.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I still wish my mom wasn't on it, though.

[Corvidia]

I still wish my mom wasn't on it, though.

That was so awkward when my mom had one.

I have one because my friends and relatives are scattered across the country and Europe and I find it easier to keep in touch with them with Facebook.

Yep.  And the "middle" between my generation and my father's generation is most at fault (people that are 50-55 right now).  The boomers get a bad rap.

^ This. My parents are that age (they turned 54 this year) and my father agrees with you there, TGRR.

We've also been sure to have WAY too many kids, world-wide.  Now the planet is turning into desert.

You're welcome.

Or so polluted with toxic chemicals that breathing kills you, one brain cell at a time.

[Requia ☣]

Or so polluted with toxic chemicals that breathing kills you, one brain cell at a time.

So thats where all those brain cells went.

[Jenne]

Yep.  And the "middle" between my generation and my father's generation is most at fault (people that are 50-55 right now).  The boomers get a bad rap.

^ This. My parents are that age (they turned 54 this year) and my father agrees with you there, TGRR.

My own parents turned 54 this year, and they consider themselves Boomers.  I know they're more of a later-in-the-generation Boomer, but they totally relate to their decade-older-elders.

[Corvidia]

Mine, too, I think. But they apparently never went through the hippy-dippy liberal stage, so I wonder if that has something to do with it. Though ironically, it's my mother (who comes from the more liberal of two sides) who's the most conservative. My dad's family is traditionally Southern in a lot of ways and he, aside from his Builderberg delusions, is the more liberal one nowadays.

Aren't both our parents Boomers anyway? 1955 is mid-generation, I thought.

[Nast]

My grandma is all like "Kids these days, they're at least 100 times worst than my generation!"
And then we're all like, "But grandma, didn't your generation cause and participate in the deadliest conflict in human history?"

or

My mom is like "Young people these days are just always engaged in such terrible activities!"
And then we're all like "But wasn't your generation engaged in being hippies?"