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As an active reader, I always get a kick when I see multiple posts about how this generation’s lackadaisical approach to life is the best thing since sliced bread, how it is going to change the world for the better, and so on and so forth. Sometimes as I’m scrolling down the illuminated screen after dinner, I get a little laugh when the columnists try to justify Generation Y’s total laziness and lack of willpower. Like everything my generation does, there wasn’t enough heart in it to be a full on laugh -just motivated enough to be audible.
The thing that really drives me up a wall is when people say that our procrastination is going to produce better work. Procrastinating actually stresses us out which causes a better end result, or whatever they are trying to sell. I’m not buying it. It’s like handing a test to two students, one has studied for weeks and the other a few hours. Who is going to do better? It’s an obvious outcome, but for whatever reason we are totally deluding ourselves into believing that procrastination is actually our saving grace. By hurrying the process and lowering our standards, our work magically becomes better! Whatever happened to, I don’t know, a work ethic? Was it really that hard to forget about? Our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, the whole line of family, worked hard to give us better lives and we are literally blowing it all sitting in front of our TVs playing Grand Theft Auto 5 being a casual five minutes late to work…again. Our ancestors would have rather pushed a brick out of their colons, but we just need ten more points for a level up…
Speaking of video games, all of that is just pretend. We can stop justifying our gaming addiction by pretending it’s going to make us rock stars at life. Last time I checked, I didn’t buy an app to learn how to do my job. I actually did my job and suddenly I knew how to do it. Weird, right? It’s like with the military. People who sign up go through training. They don’t just pop in and loudly proclaim they’ve beaten every single Call of Duty ever made and get shuffled on in. It doesn’t work like that. Why? Because video games are a hobby. Don’t get me wrong, now is the time to hop in the video game design industry. Seriously, there is a demand over there. We need to understand that just because there is a demand for more designers, doesn’t mean that the games can replace real life experiences. That’s why your level ups don’t translate outside of your living room. You still have to level up for real at some point.
My favorite misconception is that our tech-savvy ways will make us smarter. At this point, my internal amusement becomes audible. Are you serious? My addiction to SnapChat is making me smarter? I can’t believe this. You’re telling me that by paying less attention to the world around me, half the time ignoring crucial elements I could be learning from, I’m smarter than I was before? This is completely unreal. I get where this was going, I really do. The idea that our tech-savvy ways will lead to advancements in medical and military technology! Surely it will, if only we could stop tweeting about it. Our own drive to push the technological limitations will be our own demise. Did you know there is a device that actually takes photos for you? Now we don’t even have to think about what we are taking pictures of, we have this thing that clips to our shirt and takes 50-200 photos per hour so at the end of the day, we only have to pick our favorite ones to post! How is not thinking about (or in this case, not even taking) my photos making me a better photographer? The idea is good, really it is, it’s just not functional. We can’t use technology as a crutch and claim we are smarter.
At some point in time, and it definitely won’t be tomorrow, we are going to wonder aloud how we got so self absorbed and how come all of the latest advances revolve around the consumer and not for the betterment of society. At this point, we will all have to admit that we allowed ourselves to be such egotistical and material beings. Honestly, as a species, we are clearly better than this. We had to work really hard to develop a machine that can take your selfies, work harder to make something beyond it.
