Complex Numbers

Re: Generations

I'm getting more than a little tired of crap like this:

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/weddings-cheese-radio-what-will-millen...

This just in: the popularity of things waxes and wanes over time. Film at 11. (That's an old-person reference.)

Actually, the whole concept of "generations" irks the living shit out of me. Baby boomers, Gen-X, Millennials, whatever. It might as well be astrology. "Aquarians are killing meat!" "Capricorns are killing Christmas!"

For example: most of the definitions I've seen put Boomers ending with people born in 1965 and Gen-X ending in 1985. If you go by this, then someone born in 1966 would have more in common with someone born in 1985 than they do with someone born in 1965. Similarly, someone born in 1985 would have utterly different interests and experiences than someone born in 1986.

This is obvious nonsense.

Okay, sure, we're all products of the times we grew up in. But that doesn't mean we're stuck in them. Sure, I didn't have a personal computer until I was 12, and mobile phones weren't a widespread thing until I was fully an adult. But that doesn't mean I didn't embrace these technologies wholeheartedly. And yes, I like a lot of music from the 70s, but I also like a lot of music from the 90s and noughties. And the 60s. And the 50s. Good music is good music and doesn't have a "decade." And bad music will always be bad music, like 90% of the horsefarts they forced into our earholes in the 80s. Music to me isn't so much about how it fit into my life but about whether it's a good song or not (which I'm aware is somewhat subjective, but the point is it has nothing to do with the release date except in terms of its historical context).

Also, people grow up, they get older, they retire, they die. Usually in that order. They're still freakin' people. There will always be fads and trends as long as there are people around to follow them, and young people have always had different interests than older people.

I don't know if this is just a marketing thing gone rogue, or if some shadowy cabal is trying to find another way to keep us divided and unsatisfied, the better to sell whatever they're selling, but seriously, it needs to stop. Bad enough they've wedged liberals and conservatives apart to the point where we're literally killing each other; all we need now is for "Millennials" to get so pissed at "Boomers" that they'd rather implement euthanasia than deal with taking care of the elderly.

So, give it a rest. Old farts, stop kvetching about "kids these days." (I reserve the right to do so ironically, of course.) Kids, stop blaming Boomers for wrecking the planet. And for fuck's sake, don't fall for marketing hype.