Ever notice the amount of kids with more technological toys than you?
I’m talking about the kids with the most recent iPads, pods, phones, tunes, MacBooks (fucking macbooks) and you’re rocking a 1st to 3rd generation iPod, a basic phone and the simple desktop set-up. These kids are kids; Twelve to fifteen and they don’t know what the fuck they are doing with these things. They’re on social media, chatting away to their friends using phrases like, ‘c u l8ter xoxox’ and ‘your so cuute’, doubling up vowels, using the crappy text talk like it’s still useful and generally just aggravating your older, wiser and superior mind.
This is what we have to look forward to. We can look forward to a generation that has grown up on Facebook, grown up with the iPhone/pad/pod/tunes and will use these things and whatever replaces them for the majority of their lives. The big question is, should we look forward to it or should we try to crush it now?
I looked at it for a little while and thought, ‘What possible use do they have for these things? I didn’t need ‘em and to be honest I still don’t. What the fuck could they talk about anyway? Who has the coolest light-up shoes? What are they listening to? Beiber? The latest bloody Gaga or Adele song? The latest Skrillex bullshit? Are they discussing crappy games like MW3 and terrible shows like Jersey Shore?’.
Problem is that is exactly the kind of thing these kids are likely to use tech for. That and the endless conversations of who has a crush on who and who is cool. Terrible right? Not the kind of thing people who are 16+ use Facebook for. Not the kind music real people listen to. Not the kind of games real people play. Not the kinds of show real people watch and talk about.
Nope. Never. That’s totally not what we intelligent, sophisticated, superior, self-assured, responsible and forward thinking young adults use these technological devices for.
Not at all.
So, these kids that we look at with contempt, bewilderment and scorn are really no better than us. Maybe they’re naive and stupid but aren’t we all? Are their tastes really worse than ours? Are these kids really spoiled and ruined already?
Or are they just ahead of the curve? Catching up to us?
Fact is these kids are just more obvious versions of ourselves. They talk about the same crap, more or less, and often in the same way. They just don’t rationalise it or make it more complicated than what it is. They’re straight up idiots. They don’t hide it away like we all do.
So, before you condemn the kids of iPods/pads/phones and tunes, think about what you do with these things. Think about what you do on Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter.
Is it so different from what they do?
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You listen, watch or read something which points out how bad other people are. I mean I was feeling all down and wanting to fix myself up a little because I was feeling entitled to certain stuff, like a new headset and that I got a tool-set which I don’t really think I’ll be using in the short term. I felt bad and disappointed in myself because I discarded the idea before I looked at entirely. Now, I don’t feel so bad. I went to /adv/ and read a bunch of posts which complain about their situations. Then I watched a vid which highlighted a whole bunch of selfish bastard teenage kids complaining about how they didn’t get an iPhone/iPad/car and that caused their parents to be horrible human beings and their Christmas to be ruined. I felt loads better. I feel better about myself because I don’t feel entitled to anything like that. I feel grateful for whatever I get, even if it isn’t apparent to begin with, I let the idea grow on me.
But there’s something very fulfilling in reading posts about how other people are sad or about how fucking ridiculous their ideas are. It’s comforting to know that you are not a total scumbag, there are in fact people worse than you. People who complain about not having a girlfriend and yet never really try. People that complain about not getting some gadget or a car. I’m saving for a car and I don’t feel like my parents should just up and buy me one, I have to earn that sucker. That makes me feel better. I don’t complain about being overweight and yet do nothing about it, I’ll exercise and try to make better decisions when it comes to eating. If I feel bad about doing nothing all the time, I try to organise things. It’s good to know that I’m not that pathetic to have first world problems that are so easily solved and yet never solve them. If I have a problem I either get over it or fix it. Simple as that.
Reading about how other people’s lives are so fucked up is comforting for some reason. I know I probably shouldn’t take joy out of their pain but I can’t really help it. I know that my problems aren’t that bad, I could always be like this guy complaining about his iPhone being the wrong colour. Or this bitch complaining about not having a boyfriend and yet knocking back guys left, right and centre. I could be like that. Or I could live in a shit hole country, where the government isn’t just useless, they’re corrupt. I could be sick and have no access to health care. And all those factors are what keeps me feeling ok. I don’t feel overly good about myself but I don’t feel bad and that’s a good place to be.
If I really want to feel good about something I just think about a hypothetical situation. What if I am not above average? What if I’m average? Then there is a large percentage of the population which are below average. Well below. SO, that’d put the average lower and place me above that average. BAM! I feel satisfied with my intelligence but I feel a little angry that a large portion of the world don’t even discuss world issues or if they do, they have no idea what they are on about. That’s always nice.
The simple matter is, no matter how bad your problem is, someone is always worse off than you. You really can’t complain. And no matter how bad you are, you are always better than someone else. That’s nice to have. If you worry about not being logical, you can work out a logical way of dealing with that issue, thus voiding the original problem.
We all do this. We laugh at other people’s misfortune. We laugh at their pain and at their complaints. We laugh because it isn’t us. And if we have the same problem, we go on the attack, we start going at people that are laughing. We do that because it seems as if they are laughing at us. So, I don’t feel too bad when someone starts angrily commenting about things because I know I hit the mark.
And in the end, that’s why I write a lot of posts about contentious issues. I want to hit the mark.
