To think current young adults are heading for a tough mid life crisis?

[clairemcnam]

Most generations since we have moved in the west beyond bare survival, have had a significant group of young people questioning the point of focusing on a career, buying more stuff and living an ordinary consumerist life. But this generation seems incredibly conformist. Amongst young adults the emphasis seems to be on agitating around being able to buy a house, rather than questioning capitalism.

I suspect when a lot of current young adults hit mid life, they are going to be hit very hard as they begin to question their life and why they strived so hard to be consumers.
AIBU?

Op I'm not exactly sure what you want young people to do. Smash the capitalist system? My ddad was trying to do that in his youth, and he's 81. Young people have seen generations before them try to 'smash the capitalist system' . Maybe they don't want to. Maybe what they are doing, using their power as consumers is far more effective. And it was only the priveleged few who could afford to spend months hanging around protests who did that. Other people had to pass exams to get jobs because they didn't have trust funds to keep them going. Rightly or wrongly, the nuclear threat was designed as a deterrent, and worked as one. Climate change is not something we can control as humans. It is nature rebalancing itself. Young people are facing a threat made worse by those before them and denied by the generation before them, that they alone will have to live with.

nice is hardly raging against the machine, is it? Hardly cutting edge. Doesn’t imply much fire in your belly.

😂 imagine thinking that you can magically tell how much ‘fire’ there is in someone’s belly based on whether they’re a nice person or not. At sixteen I was very socially aware, invested in animal rights (not welfare), vegan, passionate about mental health provision and suicide prevention and the minute I turned eighteen started long term, pretty heavy going voluntary work (that I’ve done ever since). I was furious and devastated about the things I was learning about the world and how unjust it is and trying my best to do whatever I could within my power to be the change. None of that has changed btw and my views at 31 on those issues are identical. But when I showed up to work at the weekend and then each day you’d never have known any of that about me because I was there to do a job and not dumb enough to think everyone wants to listen to a teen on their soap box during their workday. I got on with my job, was polite and pleasant to everyone, and went home. Genuinely chuckling at the idea that you can infer so much from someone being nice!

Loads of young people care about loads of important things and are cracking on with making whatever changes they can.

Not to mention the obvious logical error in the OP, if ‘rebelling’ and ‘non conforming’ were such reliable hallmarks of youth in generations gone by, surely a generation knuckling down, working within the realms of reality and doing what they can to secure their future, taking education and work seriously etc. Is as subversive as it gets?

I know I’m going to piss off a lot of people but my following statement is based on my own personal experience and not a dig at entire generations of people.

In the last few years I have noticed that younger people (25 and under) in general have far better manners than the over 65s. I stress again that this is not everyone, just my experiences on average.

They will say please and thank you, will smile and are just more polite. Whereas many over 65s are quite ill mannered and entitled and seem quite bitter and angry with the world and anyone younger than them. No please or thank you’s even as they barge past you as you hold the door open for them. I say this as someone in their 40s.

Back on topic I also think the fact young people pay so much for uni is the driver for them taking it all very seriously. You’re not going to fuck about if it costs you £50k in debt. Plus buying a house is the way to eventual independence. Paying rent to ‘the man’ forever is not non-conformist.

@clairemcnam - so, your generation protested about nuclear weapons and was scared of nuclear war. What did that achieve? We still have nuclear weapons and are scared of nuclear war. We now have people marching against climate change and are scared of that. We also have a massively bigger world population than your generation did. What do you think the younger generations should be doing that they aren't doing? What did your generation actually achieve?

this generation of students turn up when they are supposed to, and do what they are told to do
If I was paying £9000 per year for uni I'd definitely making sure I turned up on time!

OP I don't get your point

why are you worried if people are looking for financial stability?

Imagine pretending not to know that Ed Sheeran’s fan base is 90% women over the age of 40.

Yeah right! The bland ginger one's adorers are mostly in their 20s. We all know this.

Climate change is not something we can control as humans.

This is just a lie.

we had Greenham Peace camp and massive massive marches against nuclear weapons.

Why is that you view these things as subversive challenges to the system but don’t give the same credit to Occupy Wall Street, climate change protests, Me Too, Black Lives Matter etc?

You are taking a bizarre perspective where you view the activities of your own generation as being non-conformist, agitative, anarchy but won’t accept that the protests of younger generations are operating in the same way. You’re making appeals to historical understanding but exhibiting an almost wilful blindness to reality.

Older generation: Kids are so conformist and lazy! Protest! Change the world! Change the status quo!

Younger generation: Ok, we're going to protest the upcoming climate catastrophe, turn out in record numbers against Brexit and the Iraq war, vote in droves for Corbyn, start #MeToo to get you to stop sexually harrassing us, #BlackLivesMatter to stop police shooting black men and we'll do it while turning up for the goddamn expensive education your generation forced on us in order to get on in the world and try and have a shred of what you had.

Older generation: Wait not like that.

halloumi much as your posts made me lol, I think the OP isn't really indicative of any group and most of us are quite baffled by what she's saying.

@RosaWaiting yeah I got a bit heated up and already slightly regret my over the top bashing of the older gen! This OP is just bizarre.

I must say I find it ironic that the #MeToo generation are the same ones merrily dismantling women's rights. Ironic in a really-not-in-the-least-bit-funny way. Young women have really had a number played on them with the overriding insistence that to be kind and inclusive is absolutely something they must devote themselves to 150%. The stats compiled after the GRA consultation make it very clear, they are the main supporters of self ID, and you see them handmaidening all over social media.

I think this is something that those of us with younger daughters need to address urgently. We cannot have another generation of women effectively acting as MRAs.

However - one generation bashing another is as old as the hills!

start #MeToo to get you to stop sexually harrassing us

Never heard of Tarana Burke?

Young women have really had a number played on them with the overriding insistence that to be kind and inclusive is absolutely something they must devote themselves to 150%

This is some seriously impressive mental gymnastics.

Kindness is irrelevant - what really matters here is your view on inclusivity.

It is not anti-feminist to preach inclusivity of marginalised groups. Intersectional feminism is the most powerful tool we have against patriarchy. It’s no coincidence that Me Too, protests about reproductive rights, Black Lives Matter etc are all happening concurrently.

It has always been a tactic of oppressors to keep the marginalised oppressed by insisting that battles must be fought one at a time. Women were told for generations that their rights could be addressed once the class war was won. Black women were told their rights be a priority just as soon as white women were awarded the vote. It’s a tactic to prevent the radical change that can happen (and is starting to happen now) when marginalised groups DO prioritise inclusivity and fight together to challenge the structures that allow oppression to flourish.

What a ridiculous sweeping generalisation. The fact you wear your apparent 'anarchy' as a badge of honour with no real proof that it's made any kind of difference to society is laughable.

The number of posters saying this generation does as they are told is a negative is crazy. Could it not just be that the younger generation are more considerate and compassionate?
I too would turn up, sit still and listen to what my educators were telling me if I was paying £60k for the privileged. I would turn up, sit still, listen if I wanted to educate myself to help bring a better future to all. I wouldn't rebel to polish my own ego.
All I see from the younger generation is fear. Fear of leaving the EU, fear of irreversible climate change, fear of financial collapse, fear of gun crime.

The younger generation being brain washed by social media and pocket sized computers is also an easy drum to bang. It's the 40 year old 'mummy influences' with their ads for Boden and them selling a false reality that concern me, you can not buy happiness.

Forgive me, but wasn't it the younger generation who have prompted bigger protests than ever seen before? in the UK (remain campaign) and across the globe (climate activists). Isn't it the younger generation protesting for tighter gun regulation in the US?
have we forgotten the poster girls for this generation?
MALALA YOUSAFZAI
Greta Thunberg
Emma Gonzalez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
AMARIYANNA “MARI” COPENY
SOPHIE CRUZ
XIUHTEZCATL MARTINEZ
BANA ALABED
SONITA ALIZADEH
look them up and educate YOURSELF.
If your version of conformism is fighting for a better, safer, healthier world then bring it the fuck on! You can not learn if you don't listen, you can not change the world if you don't learn.

Don't understand the need to criticise younger generations continuously. I'm 29, a 'millennial', my generation are usually accused of being 'self-entitled snowflakes' and now we are 'conformist' too. WTF

Me and my DP worked really hard to buy our first house last year, this was a key goal to us, not to be conformist but to provide some security. We both entered into adult life in the midst of the financial crisis and have been on the tough end of low wage increases and escalating rent costs ever since. Buying a house seemed the best option to steady ourselves and our finances and stop pissing money up the wall lining the landlord's wallet.

We work extremely hard at our careers to the point of near exhaustion sometimes because we want to achieve well, we want to earn enough one day to be comfortable and have a more pleasant time in our 40s+ let alone retirement. Another reason we slog our guts out and save, the daunting prospect of an ever increasing retirement age, increasing lifespan and how the hell you're going to pay for it.

I feel that my generation don't expect to be able to achieve what our parents did as a given, my parents are baby boomers and have managed to get to their comfortable position by of course working hard but helped along by inflation, economic growth, good pensions and a property boom. The current financial climate means I know if I want to achieve what my Mum and Dad have now in their 60s I have got work bloody hard for it. And if that's boring and conformist then sorry about that.

I also worry a shit load about climate change, my child's future in this world, the increasing political volatility and lean to the right, nuclear war, sustainable energy etc

Luckily I have enough money to avoid cheap wine and so I go through a fair bit of it

However - one generation bashing another is as old as the hills!

So true.

Never heard of Tarana Burke?

She came up with the movement (and should be rightfully credited), but you can't deny social media popularised it.

'She came up with the movement (and should be rightfully credited'

That was my point. Claiming #MeToo as something 20 somethings created seems a bit off when the person who created the movement was a middle aged African American woman. Especially when you then go on to talk about the #BlackLivesMatter campaign.

This is one of the most interesting threads I have read for a while, have loved reading it over lunch

Claiming #MeToo as something 20 somethings created seems a bit off when the person who created the movement was a middle aged African American woman

Completely agree and my word shouldn't have been created but rather popularised or some alternative that describes the massive movement it became in 2017.

I'm in my early 30s, have marched against the iraq war, for gay rights, against tuition fees, as part of the MeToo movement... And yes, I've also bought a house as paying 1/3 of my income to a landlord who can chuck me out with a month's notice is not ideal.

I really don't understand the 'working within the status quo' comment. I think lots of environmental and feminist activists are hugely aware of how the 'status quo' enables environmental destruction and social inequity and are working hard trying to address that. But they don't just go out on the street shouting Death To Capitalism, instead they are trying to get organisations and governments to come around to ideas of degrowth, four day working week, etcetera, and making alternatives plausible.

I disagree. I teach college students so from age 16+ and I think they’re the most intriguing, inspiring and diverse generation yet.

My oldest ever student was 66 and he was an interesting guy too but he was the most prompt of all of my students. The younger ones tend to need a bit more of a push to be on time and hand assignments in. That’s in response to the younger generation apparently conforming and always doing as they are told- not true.

I’m not sure how many young people you actually encounter but your statement simply isn’t true.