Cherry Picking, False Nostalgia, and the invention of Boredom


Sometimes, I wonder at how much Boomers–the most privileged generation in the history of humankind–feel compelled to call today’s youth fragile, lazy, coddled, etc. To lament how things are not as awesome as they were “back then.” I am so over the notion that because we have social media we have become dumber than folks hundred years ago or that kids are different. Please! Romans used to watch people try to fight lions because they were bored. Dog fights, cock fights, bear baiting, extreme gore on the Elizabethan stage, silly pulp romances, getting drunk to the point of falling out of windows… there are myriad examples in history that show that we have not become less focused or more shallow than people 100 years or 500 years ago. Does that mean we should not be striving to do things better? Of course not. But let’s stop with all the cherry picking false nostalgia.

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