The « 90's Kids Paradox »

The « 90's Kids Paradox »

Hi everybody, Mary here.

So, I just watched a video made by the lovely Salma Mo about nostalgia (here's the link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUGAGwj1gGc) and it made me think about how our generation uses the word « nostalgia » more than the previous ones.

And then I realised why.

First of all, Salma had very good points about how, firstly, we are young ; and five years is way bigger to us than to our parents or grand-parents. When we get older, obviously, we see time as something shorter and less significant. When I tell my mom about how « nostalgic » I feel about my life five or ten years ago, she says she doesn't remember it because it's less important to her. And in a sense, she's right ; I'm turning twenty this year, and she turned fifty last year, so obiviously, five years is barely one-tenth of her life, and to me, it's a quarter, which is more significant.

Secondly, our generation, unlike our parents and grand-parents, live in an ever-changing world. In only twenty years, we got the Internet, cellphones, laptops, social media, highly-functioning portable and house gaming consoles, and so on. We had to adapt ourselves in a very short period of time, which makes our generation even more nostalgic about things that change so quickly.

But in a second point, I'd like to add more things. The other day, I was talking on Tumblr about how « the 90's kids » will, in a sense, always be a generation that is seperated from the others. We grew up in a very different environment that we now live in ; the changes all happened in our childhoods and when we were teenagers, which makes it even easier to see the nostalgia settle in.

I'll repeat the example I used in one of my posts : I was born in 1996, among the last « 90's kids ». I grew up playing outside with friends, playing with Pokémon cards, marbles, and scoubidous. The utter delight was the candy our parents would give us and that we would share with all our friends at school, which would determine our level of « coolness » (I never got the candies so I was a little bit envious to be honest). We had Game Boys, but no cellphones before we were teenagers, and we would spend a lot of time outside. Now take my little brother, who was born in 2002 ; he grew up with agaming console in his hands, always playing video-games. Children get cellphones earlier and earlier and they also get on social media earlier, which makes their life somehow dependent on it (and I will admit, my life is also dependent on it right now). Even a friend of his, who was born in 2000, is drastically different in her upbringing than me. To summarise, just a few years can make a big difference.

Basically, we are stuck between two time periods ; our parents who grew up non-tech and our younger siblings and children, who are growing up all-tech. My cousins are five and seven ; they had an I-Pad and their parents' cellphone since the moment they could touch them. I'm not judging anything, by the way ; I'm just seeing the differences between my upbringing and theirs.

In the end, we are notalgic for our parents' generation that we had a glimpse of, before being kicked out and pushed towards our siblings' generation, who will probably will never feel this feeling of nostalgia and alienation from the other generations. It's also the same for economic opportunities and the job market ; schools won't adapt themselves to the new market and keep ancient, useless techniques of teaching (that bans tech from class and exams, which is ridiculous when you know that in the real job place, you'll have Google and helps everywhere), and create graduates that aren't fit to the new created job positions.

About opportunities, let's blame the financial crisis of 2008 for fucking up your kids' future by ruining the economy, leaving thousands of young people with no job, starving on the streets. Before the crisis, the 90's kids had been brought up with the bright idea of our parents' generation ; work sufficiently and doors will be open. Go to university, have a couple of internships, and amazing jobs will be offered to you. Have moderate to high productivity, and you'll be promoted. But let's face it ; now, it's impossible to have an equal life to our parents. Our generation is the first one since the 1940's who will see a decrease of their quality of life compared to the previous generation. And our kids will only see worse, if the people in charge today (our parents) aren't willing to see the change and act accordingly (but they'll never do it because it doesn't benefit to them).

But at the very least, our younger siblings and everyone who will come afterwards will know about it. They won't be brought up on the illusion of a great life. They'll know how fucked up the world really is, and while it's saddening that we'll have to do this, we'll have to literally raise our kids against each other in a sort of melee to see who's the Chosen One™ to have the Golden Ticket™ to the opportunities. My mother, after the crisis, has constantly told be to be The Best™, pushing me towards The Best Classes™, and The Best Business School Ever™. And while I thank her to have pushed me to my true potential, I wish I could have done the thing... with half the stress (at the very least).

In a nutshell, our generation, between the Generation X (our parents) and the Generation Z (my sibling, friend and cousins), the Generation Y (the 90's kids) are in the middle of two worlds, one of which we wish we could have stayed and another we have to live now.

And that obviously makes us sad as fuck.

Mary out.

Alright, that's it for today, I really hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll see you very soon with a new one, hopefully !

And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !!!