The other day while I was on Twitter, I scrolled through my feed when I came across one of the people I follow who had tweeted a picture that basically depicted a photo that jokingly said our generation’s kids, or even grandkids, are going to be going to dances with a 2010s theme, and they’ll be twerking.
It initially never came across to me as anything but a scenario that could quite possibly happen. But even though the guy who tweeted this did it all in good fun, it in some way has got a point. This generation, at this moment, is pretty frightening.
Now, I don’t mean this in a completely horrible way. Our generation may not be the most attentive, hard working or impressive group of people there has been, but one thing is, we are creative. Some of the technological advances we have come up with, and will continue to invent, are pretty interesting to say the least. CNN.com reports an average teenager sends about 3,339 texts per month. Being able to spread something as we can today, whether negative or positive, is quite astounding.
But when we are 50 years old, looking back, I can’t help but think, am I going to be proud or embarrassed? And as of late, I would venture to say I’d be kind of embarrassed.
When I turn on the radio or open up a social media site, it’s all about Justin Bieber wearing pants with his crotch down to his ankles, or Miley Cyrus twerking once again, and it’s almost repulsive how focused our society is on these disgusting fads we allowed to grow. Teenagers today spend more than seven and a half hours a day consuming media, such as TV, Twitter, Facebook, etc., according to the Washington Post.
I mean, it’s great that we can share our opinions with millions around the word so quickly and create these relations with people that one wouldn’t have ever been able to had social media not been so accepted by this generation. The problem with our openness to share is when what we are sharing is incredibly careless.
Also, we spend most of our days sitting on our phones, doing who knows what, rather than paying attention to the class that is trying to prepare us for a better future. In the Pew Research Center, located in Washington D.C., findings, almost 90 percent of 2,462 teachers said that technologies were creating “an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.”
And I am just as guilty as anyone, which makes me feel very hypocritical because I can sit here and say all of these stupid things our generation does, but I’m still listening to the same music, watching the same Vines, and ignoring the same classes. I do these things that I say I’m embarrassed of, and I doubt I will stop because it’s what I’ve somewhat grown accustomed to. But I know better than to cuss in every sentence on social media or post pictures where I am half naked, because one day, when I want a serious job, I really do not want the reason I don’t get hired to be my ignorance on the internet.
So, 30 years from now, I guess I will just have to accept this generation’s embarrassing fate, while I send my kids off to their dance to twerk in booty shorts or hipster clothes, knowing I was fully a part of the mockery that will come in the future. Unless we can, as a whole generation, overshadow our past with better actions, the outcome is inevitably bad.
Though I may just be pessimistic about this generation for everything bad we have done instead of looking at the good, it sometimes is easier to point out the wrongs. I can see that we’ve become such a technologically advanced generation, but I can’t help but be judgmental.
All I know is, that photo on Twitter really made me think. It has forever been etched in my brain. I no longer want to act in the way our generation seems fit. I don’t want to become a part of the travesty and I sure hope as this generation matures, the past will be overwritten with beautiful achievements and future generations don’t fall into the inevitable foolish mockery that our generation is currently enduring. But at this point, I can only hope uphill is the only option left.
By Renata Williams