Saturday, February 02, 2008

Get Off My Lawn

Wow. It has been forever since I've culled any content to talk about from BoingBoing. I don't know why, really. For the past two years, BB just hasn't been the major destination it once was for me. I still visit it on occasion (obviously), but I dunno. I think there might be an underlying snark vibe going on there that kinda puts me off...

At any rate, BB links to a list from Beloit College's Department of Public Affairs on the Mindset List for the Class of 2011, or those four-year college graduates born in 1990, quite the year for those of us who have memories of it (aka the "old folks.").

Some of the things on the list really stood out for me, given my perception of this particular generation, especially #55: MTV has never featured music videos. To that generation, the M has always been about "Material." Kinda makes Madonna's Material Girl oddly prophetic in a way.

See, I DO remember videos on MTV. Hell, I was nearly four years old when MTV launched on August 1st, 1981. I lived in a world without it at all, though I have little to no memory of that time, other than the arrival of my baby brother CJ that December. No different these days, really. Videos have been relegated to insomniac fare, amid the craptastic programming line-up that has polluted what was supposed to be Music Television since the first Real World.

They live in a world without true MTV.

Another one that was nifty for me was #41: The “Blue Man Group” has always been everywhere. I suppose it marks me as old that my first memory of BMG was when they were simply "The Blue Men," a performance art group that made news when they "Buried The 80s" in 1988 or '89. Struck me as odd, given the fact that the 80s still had a year and change to go, and that these guys were walking around painted blue. Years later, when they showed up in their current form, I was taken right back to that news report.

They've never seen a world without a cellphone smaller than a brick. To them, Distrubed did Land of Confusion (originally Genesis), Dope did Spin Me Round (Like a Record) (originally Dead or Alive), and "rapcore" has always been a genre of music.

As the spoiled brats known as the Class of 2011 graduate from High School this year and get slapped with the real world, I offer them this advice: It's a cold place, kids. It's not going to give you what you want, when you want it. Bundle up, add layers, and don't even think for a second that you're just going to "cruise through life." Your generation needs to learn how to not take things for granted. Only then will you be able to function in our modern society, fucked up though it may be...

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