The "Echo Boom" Generation. People born from 1986-1993.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not attacking every person born between '86 and '93, nor does this exclude everyone born outside of that span of years, but this is where i have determined the problem to lie, and it just so happens that there is a specific generation, dedicated to these.
What's the problem you ask? It's the entire change of attitude, over a short span of merely 6 or so years. Those born in that generation, more of them closer to born in the early nineties, are now around 15-17 years old, and quickly tumbling into adult life. The problem though is their "my-parents-work-for-an-auto-maker-and-I'm-set-for-life" attitude, because they are used to A-plan discounts and the days when houses that were over 100 grand were the types of homes that people the likes of Michael Jackson lived in, and they haven't opened their eyes to look around and see what real life is really like.
I am terrified for the future of our people, due to the majority of this generation. They have grown knowing nothing other than having instant messengers, text messaging, and cell phones on their hips with processor power that of my first home p.c. God forbid the electricity go out, without techno-gadgets and cancer blocks glued to our heads, how would we EVER communicate with our friends!? I KNOW! YOU COULD RIDE A BIKE THERE! Oh...wait...bikes...those went out of style as soon as the world became so paranoid that we've practically began installing metal detectors in churches.
Now that tree huggers and those parents terrified their child might get a hang nail playing on that good old fashioned steel slide (which...gave for the BEST speed in the winter time if you had snow pants on and got a little snow up at the top) have desensitized the whole world to ANY danger whatsoever that their children may ever face, you've also taken the most important part of growing out of a childs life. Socializing. Babbling on a cell phone about what Brittany said to Bobby at school when she found out he was sending Ashely messages on myspace, is NOT socializing. It's gossip. There is no learning involved except practice to appear on Jerry springer. It's already too late, but we cant blame the generation, it's their parents. Which many of us from this generation have those same parents, some of us have siblings that are in the generation i speak of, and we are in the previous generation, but throughout our life growing up, is when the extreme paranoia started. No longer is the largest concern in kindergarten class who's allergic to peanuts and who's not, but who's family doesn't allow them to eat them because it doesn't fit with their SOUTH BEACH DIET. This younger generation has also started a trend by manipulating parents with the power of the law, and too many parents have fallen prey to this. This is something that this generation is abusing. There is a protective service for a reason, it's not so you can sneak out at 2 am to fuck your 24 year old boyfriend, and then get off scot free when you come home drunk and high and break the living room lamp stumbling to your room. No. Your parent should have knocked you clean through the drywall into your room, and then maybe you wouldn't have done it again, and ended up giving birth to your first child before you started drivers ed. I am thankful that my parents gave me a swat a few times in my life. I was never mistreated or abused, I was corrected when I was wrong, and I learned to be a better person because of it. There's a reason spankings were used for so many years as a disciplinary action at home and in the school...IT WORKS. Finger shaking and lecturing a teenager who doesn't listen to what their best friend has to say doesn't work. Bottom line. They hear you, but they aren't listening. Oh yeah, cell phones aren't a god damn necessity either. We survived just fine without them when I was a teenager, we were just more RESPONSIBLE and EXPECTED to pick up a telephone, be it friends phone, pay phone, whatever, call and let your parents know where you were. I would be willing to bet if you investigated the facts, of how many more teenage pregnancy there are nowadays compared to before every woman infant and child had a cell phone/mp3 player/camera/blender the results would be astonishing, because having to WORK to make up a lie was just so much more work, and easier to get caught. Parents didn't call YOUR phone, they called your friends PARENTS phone, and asked for you. Parents used to meet, and discuss what their kids did together, rather than once one of them gets picked up for possession and tells the cops they got it from their friend the parents go "well...I've never even met this person before." Great parenting. Keep it up darwin will be making his rounds.
Jobs, this generation thinks that every person in the world is setup with a comfy high paying job at a desk at no cost to you. NEWSFLASH. You're a minor, you have to do a shit job to move up to a better one. Unless you're the mother fucking Dali Lama, you're not walking into the best job in the world. On that note, GET ME MY FUCKING FRIES AND MAKE IT FAST. Suck it up, when you get into the real world, it doesn't get much better. You get paid more, but thats only because now you can work more hours at your shitty McJob. If you despise your McJob so bad, that you just want to quit, do something about it. Learn a skill, and apply it. Don't or can't learn any skills? Goto college, pay your dues, and get a degree. Oh yeah, and on the way up the tree, DON'T FUCKING CRY ABOUT IT. When you think you're a grown up, because you got a cell phone bill and your 2007 Chevy Cavalier(that your parents paid for every penny of) takes 30 dollars in gas a week, you haven't scratched the surface. I pay more in taxes per week than most of you make IN A MONTH. And I still struggle. However, I wouldn't trade it for the world, because I am a viable contributing member of society.
In conclusion....
Welcome to 2007. A new time in our lives. A time of toys we enjoyed as children, are now deemed illegal and "weapons". A time of resentment toward having to make an honest living, by those who know nothing of life on your own, parents living in fear of the man letting their teenagers life spiral out of control, instead of seeking help. A time that we are spending more money per month in fuel in our cars than we spend to own them. Parents, step up to the plate, get help with your out of control children if you need it, don't be afraid to ground them to their room and be allowed to have no form of entertainment except books. YES! THATS RIGHT! GOOD OLD BOOKS! Do not fear forcing your child to use their brain and imagination to amuse themselves. Contrary to popular belief, life will continue on without myspace, instant messangers, and cell phones. For those of you parents working out deals with your kids to assist with buying nice newer things and luxuries such as cell phones, in trade for good grades and good behavior, pat yourself on the back. You are not bribing your childs behavior, you're not buying it, you're just finding a way to "stick it to the man", just like they are. They may think they are outsmarting you by getting what they want, but in reality, you are outsmarting them by helping prepare them to be a better person, and more acceptable to society, and raising someone who will be prepared to carry this world on into farther generations.
