Are The Younger Generations Doomed?
Nowadays, generation Y (the millennial’s) argue that we may, or may not be doomed.
Call it what you like: “the gloomy generation” “the spoiled generation” or “the depressed generation” that’s only some of the few phrases I have picked up over the course of a few short weeks. A bunch of obnoxious coffee drinkers, Tinder enthusiastic vegans, hanging out in coffee shops posing as “trendy hipsters” in their baggy, yet layered attire and monochrome coloured clothing.
Sitting aimlessly in front of their apple macs, endlessly swiping through their phones and browsing the latest updates on social media. Starting from early 80s to mid 90s, citizens didn’t have it so bad, the property ladder was just about affordable, baby boomers (generation X) received adequate pension schemes and education fees were relatively low-cost. The majority of women in their twenties during this era, would receive enough earnings to be knocking back the cocktails after office hours in trendy bars centered around Piccadilly Circus. Or could live the family life and become stay at home Mum's, not necessarily having to embark upon a high lifestyle career. Personally, I always thought of the 90s time period to be the most excessive of drug users and a new fashionable culture emerged. When I say ‘fashionable culture' I am of course referring to ‘heroin chic’ this new portrayal of models and their extravagant drug overdoses. This movement in politics inspired many film storylines, for example: Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction and The Basketball Diaries.
Nowadays, individuals in their twenties are experiencing the self indulgent “gap years” or student lifestyle, sitting around smoking dope all night and failing to heave their heavy bones out of bed before midday. My generation doesn’t know how to be cool; we’re not encouraged to make an effort to meet our friends. What’s the point in face-to-face socializing when you can connect through a screen on Facetime? Brexit has killed Britain, enabling it merely impossible for the majority of generation Y and Z to survive. We can barely afford rental fees, let alone purchasing a property. Will we have any money to send our children to University with the way the fees are trebling every ten years? Or will attending University be out of fashion by the time our offspring arrive?
With inflation continuously increasing, wages remaining the same, job shortages and low pension schemes, is this the reason generation Y is so depressed and turn to drugs whilst we dwell over our future?
There’s a decrease in moral political standards and girl power is one of these influences that has sadly only reached so far. Many protests over the past year have been occurring all over the world, expressing hatred and anger for the limited rights over “feminist power” not to mention our beloved LGBTQ community, which has been at threat since Donald Trump was elected president of the US. Are feminists technically Suffragettes? We’re still fighting for equal pay and our rights in politics, it’s just taking place in a different century. However the Suffragette political evolution continues to be a fashion we are currently reliving.
The Baby Boomer generation tends to remind us millennials “back in the day (a famous grandparents quotation) you could walk out of a job one morning and receive another by that afternoon.” But it’s not all bad, we have one advantage Baby Boomers never received and that new technology is social media, where the world has never communicated better or being more in sync. It’s all about staying connected with social media being a portal to job opportunities, relationship beginnings and online pets (if you're that morally depressed.) “Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose your future. Choose life.”
-Danny Boyle: Trainspotting, 1996
