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Tyrphanax said:
Why did you destroy CP3S' childhood, D_E?
Why?
I didn't do it alone. We're a worldwide conspiracy...didn't ya hear? ;)
I find your comments rather enlightening, Anchorhead. And don't worry - none offense taken. I'll try and address some of your points on the personal spectrum, but save you -- and everyone else -- the trouble of block quotes ;)
I consider myself in the middle ground regarding my generation's problems. I like to think I could handle myself better than Zuckerberg in an interview, but I'm certainly no expert. For me to reach eye contact with a person often requires serious attention to the idea on my end, for instance. Or on a lesser scale, casual conversation is kind of difficult for me. If I'm not interested in the conversation at hand you can expect a lot of "uh-huh"s or a sudden departure on my part. Even among friends, I'm this way; sometimes, I just always have to be doing something to be engaged. That's why I always fall back on multiplayer video games with friends: it's solid interaction without the fear of losing interest in the person. It wasn't a progression or anything due to technology, I've just sort of always been this way. Only recently did I honestly get a good grasp on the idea; I tended to place the blame on others not showing interest in me, or whatever.
However, my social skills are not a good measure of my intellect. You must understand, though, that more often than not you're seeing my best here. I tend to put a lot of thought into what I say, especially on a serious subject like this. That said, I like to think I'm a smart enough person that I'll be able to get by in the world regardless of whatever situations come my way.
What's really interesting on the global scale is that I've seen both in person and on the internet how people of my generation often lament the loss of their childhood despite the fact that so many elements of it are available at the tip of their fingers. I've been there. I was there for a very long time; only three years ago, I would have told you (given the time and agency) how much better cartoons were from the '90s, how this element of commercialism I'd never noticed really pisses me off, whatever. And I still reach that point sometimes. However, I think the difference between me and the aforementioned is I know it's not the right outlook. Of course, I'll slip here and there -- but as long as I acknowledge that it's a shitty way to look at life, always lamenting what you only think is gone, I'm above where I was before. I'm plenty mature, but there's still a lot of growing to be done and I (usually) understand that.
By starting out with what you told your high-school teacher, you really struck a chord with me. I don't know if you expected me to say right off the bat "I've been there" but I really have. In fact, I'm still there. Nobody else could understand what it's like to get a mohawk at 3 AM in your friend's bathroom the night before your graduation. Nobody else could understand the feeling of isolation spurred on by a lack of connection to anyone else's problems in my immediate life. Nobody else could understand WHY I missed my friends I hadn't seen in years so much. The problem with experiences in high school is, as interesting as they are in the moment and upon personal reflection, they're... well, personal. Your life's experiences, then and now, shape why whatever memories you wanted to highlight were so important and it would take a damn good writer to make them matter to anyone else. I'm tempted to link that monologue I mentioned in my first post; it discusses more personal elements than ones people could relate to, though. It's not really related to instant gratification or the like as much as it is a realization coming from a kid who probably wasn't in a good place and was falling back on times he wanted back.
Hm. This has got me thinking about hedonism in relation to instant gratification, but perhaps that's a subject for another time.
A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em
Tyrphanax said:
Why did you destroy CP3S' childhood, D_E?
Why?
I didn't do it alone. We're a worldwide conspiracy...didn't ya hear? ;)
WRONG THREAD (set decoder rings to stunning).
darth_ender said:
Tyrphanax said:
Why did you destroy CP3S' childhood, D_E?
Why?
I didn't do it alone. We're a worldwide conspiracy...didn't ya hear? ;)
So now you're taking the Jews' jobs?
Damn Mormons.
Keep Circulating the Tapes.
END OF LINE
(It hasn’t happened yet)
They aren't as bad as the Lessmons and the Staythesamemons, thank God.
With Obama being elected, our plans were set back...for the moment! But our secret meetings and behind the curtain string-pulling will ultimately lead to WORLD DOMINATION!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Will it?
Oh that's nice, it's about time the world dominated something, I think it's a bit of a pushover myself.
Bingowings said:
They aren't as bad as the Lessmons and the Staythesamemons, thank God.
I used to watch Digimon, too!
Keep Circulating the Tapes.
END OF LINE
(It hasn’t happened yet)
I'm old enough to remember the analoguemon craze.
Media on demand can facilitate the breakdown of communication and relationships. Homes used to have one, maybe two entertainment hubs where families and friends would watch what was programmed or agree on a movie. Not as desirable as people actually interacting, but at least you were in each others' company. Now everyone just fracks off to their own computer to demand their own media. It's great; I wouldn't go back to watching commercial TV, but it sure makes it easy to get sucked into anti-social behaviour patterns.
You can extend the blame to the internet in general, or rather people's inability to regulate their own use of it. I have friends I barely see any more because of the internet. I used to watch movies and play video games, go skateboarding or shoot hoops with a couple of guys - one is now completely obsessed with online gaming and can't talk about anything else, the other is addicted to fan fiction and has read so many of them that he has actually started reading fan fiction stories with characters from TV shows he has never seen. It wouldn't annoy me so much if they were, you know... actual books. Even he admits most of them are terrible.
Now I'm off to watch nine straight hours of cartoons, six is amateur stuff.
I agree wholeheartedly with Anchorhead's post about our generation being socially immature. The internet is the blessing, and the curse, that our generation has been given.
On the subject of nostalgia, I believe that this forum wouldn't exist if the original Star Wars movies were available in high quality. There's something about not being able to instantly access our nostalgia that rubs our generation the wrong way, and many of us stay here because of nostalgia withheld. If the OUT ever becomes available, it may be the death of this place.
Finally, about Anchorhead's comment about writing a book at 18:
After, and even during high school I felt the opposite way about the accomplishments in my life. I felt like I had not even scratched the surface of all that there was. My life was in upheaval, and I was revising every deeply held belief I ever held. In such a situation, how can someone express themselves if they don't even know who they are? What good is the word of a kid who knows nothing of the real world? This outlook is rather unfortunate, because before that I had written a novel in my spare time, not ever planning to publish it, for it wasn't worthy of publishing. But that wasn't the point. It is in actually doing something that power lies, and that's something that our generation has forgotten to some degree.
So yeah, feel that nostalgia for this revived thread!
You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)