Ava V’s last blog post..Uninspired

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Consider this: the army was once the greatest example of suppressing your individuality to become a well-oiled cog in a fine-tuned machine. Now to attract young people of this generation, their slogan is “Army of One,” trying to sell the army as an instrument to exercise your individuality!

My feelings are (1) our parents’ encyclopedic knowledge was usually geared toward making a living or being useful (cooking, fixing shit, farming) and ours is geared toward narcissism, trivia and materialistic self-fulfillment, and (2) even if our parents had the same gadget and lifestyle choices we had, they lacked the disposition and free time to binge on them.

But that’s just a function of a natural limit to brain capacity. Our father’s had encyclopedic knowledge of a host of things that were relevant in their time but not necessarily in ours. In the same way, 17th century men in agrarian communities had encyclopedic knowledge of soil types, ‘smithings’, the personalities and proclivities of their tax collectors or regents…or whomever was running around in charge of things back then. But that info, or having their minds focused towards that type of info doesn’t necessarily make them more whole or happier than our fathers were or than we are now.

My point with the rapid advancement thing is that something better/faster/more productive comes out next month and we immediately feel the need to get it without reflecting on if we even NEED it. We’re conditioned to want the new thing but our concsiousness hadn’t even fully assimilated our full need/use/implication of the thing it’s replacing. So now there is still unfinished business for the consciousness in “generation N”. But we move onto “GN+1″, then build “GN+2″ on top of that and on and on and in that way we lose our grounding. We don’t know who we are what, what we want, or even what we need? We just become conditioned consumers with no substance to define and guide us.

Smash’s last blog post..Introduction

My theory is that the more we improve in one area, the more we worsen in another area. For example I have an encyclopedic knowledge of celebs, comics, tv show episodes, blog sites, gadget hacks, anime, trivia, everyday technology, etc. But simple home repairs and carpentry and tire changing skills that my dad took for granted were challenging for me.

There are tons of articles about how Generation Y, the first generaton born after the advent of the personal computer, are hypercapable and savvier in many ways than previous generations and know how to multitask, use tech, etc., but simple things likehandling criticism or maintaining an attention span or dressing up to work confuse them. In many ways progress is an illusion, the improvement you see on the surface often masks an underlying deficiency that may not be obvious yet. Like for example in my college there was a 14 year old chem prodigy doing high level work. But his social skills and knowledge of simple things we take for granted was so lacking that it was almost a wash and I think he lost more than he gained.

jason’s last blog post..News Flash!!!

I feel like the minds of every member of a generation are appropriately hardwired for their age. As if people are always in tune with the current zeitgeist. Maybe that seems kind of obvious…and i’m not exactly sure how it fits into this argument but i know that it does.

I think part of the problem is the rate of advancements in various human endeavors and the speed of information dissemination. We’re at the point where both surpass a person’s ability to consume and digest them on a fundamental level.

Humans are highly adaptive and intelligent, to be sure. But I wonder if there isn’t a limit to the degree of growth or progress we can truly and full assimilate into our consciousness. Like how many weeks, or months or years did it take for people to understand, fully, ALL the implications of the telecommunication of Alexander Bell. One might argue that it took over a century or up until the present age.

Any form of human advancement carries with it deep socioeconomic, environmental, and psychological implications. But we live now in an age where within 3 mos. an aspect of human knowledge will take 2,3, or 4 generational leaps. I mean weren’t we JUST getting used to ipods everywhere and blackberries everywhere? Then one day you have IPODS everywhere! I feel like our minds didn’t even ‘gasp’ when it happened.

I guess my point is I feel like they should, at SOME point. Otherwise it’s impossible to stay grounded. I’m gonna stop now becuz i’m not sure if i’m making sense and this quick comment is becoming longer than the post.

Smash’s last blog post..Introduction

Bobby – I used to have a shitty little TV and had no problem with it until different girls I dated complained about it. My girl eventually pushed me to get a big TV and I hated it. After a while, suddenly I couldn’t stand the small one anymore. Then I got an even bigger flat screen. And suddenly even that looks small. Between that and computers, I’ve gotten bitten by the gadget bug bad.

Minijonb – I don’t think it’s just that all the cake has been eaten, everyone is content recycling the old crumbs instead of baking a new one.

xoc – i think part of the problem is the mindset where we obsess over finding happiness in the first place. My parents for example just didn’t obsess over finding happiness or their calling because their choices were limited and they had families to support. They didn’t have the money for gadgets, the time to buy them, the internet to make purchases a snap (meaning they had to travel to shop) and there just weren’t that many cool gadgets to buy anyway. Choices in all those categories changed everything.

jess – Great comment. Sucks that I discover your blog right after you stop fucking posting for good! Ah well, I can always read your back stuff I suppose. I’d argue that in some ways we only have the illusion of more free will, but in actuality have less (due to overregulation of every aspect of our lives) but that’s for another post.

tavolini – you know, I don’t really buy into the whole “we’re greedier than everyone else” mindset, even though my post may make it seem like we do. i just think we have the opportunity to activate and exercise our greed more than past generations and other countries thanks to our success. My parents, for example, if they had the luxuries and advancements and disposable income I had, I think they’d be the same way as I am. I think past generations and other countries are less greedy due to circumstance and opportunity, not due to any higher moral ground.

Of course, I try not to think about how much those plane tix cost in the first place…

this notion that we have so much choice so that the differences between things make their value interchangeable and so less meaningful. the fact that we think there are so many people to date that potential significant others are diminished b/c we think someone more perfecter for us will come along. the idea that there are so many experiences to be had, we are somehow less of a person unless we experience them all.

i am reading a book on spinoza and leibniz. and it strikes me sometimes that folks pre-scientific revolution were happier than we are in modern times. they had no choice: god was in charge. so they were happy with life because it wasn’t theirs to control. now we have all this control (and blame?) over our happiness, so we take up the burden to be happy as much as possible, as if life is less because we experience a range of emotions. of course, free will and opportunity are not something i’d want to give back now that science helped us to them…. still and all, i love that you put this out there. fascinating. something i’ll be thinking about for a while.

jess’s last blog post..i wish i had two more wishes