Iain Brouwer

Period F

January 14th, 2014

Final                      

What Makes Our Generation So Unaware and Inexperienced?

Throughout the years, this generation has proven themselves to be a bunch of “softies” or “pampered” young adults and teens and I find this to be very true for many reasons. It’s about time we look at ourselves and each other and realize that it’s time to grow up. We under appreciate what we have and we expect things to be handed our way without having any work done. We are a generation that needs to take initiative into the future. But there are a lot of things that are holding us down.

We always feel to be entitled to everything as if we deserve a reward for it. We seek attention for everything we do. No task can be done without seeking a reward from it. Acts such as “Do well on a test? Here’s $100.” The reward system has caused us to seek attention for everything that we do. We don’t need attention for everything we do. If you do something good, then congrats to you. But expecting everything under the sun for it is what so many people expect.

A 9-5 job doesn’t solve your life problems with money. It’s not the key to success and not many of us aim for more than that. A 9 to 5 mentality is going to get you nowhere. Nothing comes easy in this world and becoming successful is going to take effort and a lot of time. The effort we put into things is low. We expect to slowly graze a subject, expecting to become a genius or just to make it by. It’s not the right mentality and we need to reach beyond our levels of work to see a positive result in what we do.

“We are also used to being spoon fed everything.” - Some people claim that everything is too convenient for our generation. We only can depend on our parents and not ourselves in many occasions. This world is rough and once the day comes that you have to leave your home, you’ll have a rough adjustment if you think everything is going to be as easy as living at home.

My least favorite thing is that this generation rewards stupidity. “In America, stupidity is encouraged more than it is frowned upon. We tune in every week to see ridiculous shows such as “Teen Mom”, and “The Jersey Shore”. The people here benefit from our views and it just encourages themselves and other people to keep on doing the stupid things that they do. People like Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, are both famous because of their ignorant and childish behavior. The sad thing is that people in our generation idolize what they do and I find it ridiculous. More people know what’s going on in this world with Kim Kardashian than what is actually going on in the world itself. It’s a sad reality that is not taken care of. These people shouldn’t be idolized at all considering they’ve been pampered brats their whole lives.

We rely on technology way too much. “Our phones are our lifelines”. They’re not. Teens overreact over the fact that they can’t live without their phones. How do you think people lived life before phones? They actually had to put effort into the things that they do without a phone even in human thought. If we take phones away for at least a day, we can actually realize that life is more than just social media, text messaging, and playing nonsensical games. With all this technology, we don’t care how we use our words towards each other. This generation is solving their problems by spilling it all online for people to take a poke at and when they get trashed for it, “it’s not their fault.” This is when verbally assaulting on the internet takes action. It’s unnecessary and I find it extremely unnecessary and just stupid and very childish. And also if you’ve done it, mind your own business, don’t keep the argument going, and move on with your own life while the others sit on their phones trying to take a stab at someone else’s mainly because they’re too afraid to say it to the persons face and actually settle it. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the applications where these childish arguments take place.

In this generation, we always seek to find the easy way out. In situations where you know the consequences will not be good in the long run, you always tend to find the easy way out of it. This isn’t always the right thing to do either. We are afraid to get into the trouble we would expect so we try to keep in the shadows; maybe procrastinating is the best idea. In the long run, procrastination was the wrong idea. We are a group of people that think they can get away with every little thing that we do. And the outcomes of the times you get in trouble usually end up with yourself being grounded or just being yelled at. Back then, punishments were taken more seriously and less lightly than serious situations are being taken today.

And to finish things off, we live in an era that is too politically correct. What we say has to be extremely careful because everyone has become more sensitive. “More terms have been labeled more offensive in this generation than at any time before, People need to realize that not everything that is said is meant to be offensive, it is just a style of talking that people may use.” 

Iain Brouwer

1/8/14

Journalism F Block

Unnecessary Staring.

When I’m sitting, relaxing, working and just minding my own business I usually feel a little uncomfortable at times. Mainly because out of the corner of my eye I’d see a bystander and or student giving me a stare that I've never been able to realize the fact as to why they were staring at me. Maybe they were intrigued by something about me or just got lost in thought and are staring blankly, but it’s a very uncomfortable situation that I cope with. But sometimes in the spur of the moment I realize that it is in fact me, who stares down the soul of a person for no logical reasons without even realizing it as well. But if it’s the other way around, please stop. It scares me.

People who walk their dogs and let them poop indiscriminately (like on someone's lawn), and does not pick it up.

We've all seen people walk a dog and maybe you've walked a dog yourself, you usually are equipped with the bare essentials including a bag especially. Bring your bag and use it too. No none wants to have a great day and feel like nothing can stop them but get destroyed morally by stepping in a huge pile of your dog’s s***. Use your brain at least.

When people leave the chip bag open until it becomes stale.

I enjoy my food as much as the next guy, but when it comes to people ruining the food for me such as not putting it back where it belongs, it gets me upset. Mainly with chips. They eat their share and don’t put it back or not even roll it up and when I get to eat it all happy and such, I eat the stalest chip I’ve ever eaten. Close the bags or at least roll them up.

People who refuse to expand their musical horizons.

We all know that you enjoy your certain genre of music as much as the next guy but when it comes to you completely deprecating on a music genre you've never spent a single second listening too, it’s time to reevaluate yourself and check it out for once before talking bad about it.

People who talk about their favorite sports team and say "WE" like they are a part of the team.

It’s not you, it’s the players. You don’t play the game you watch it. When people say that “We won the game.” As in the Red Sox winning the World Series, it had nothing to do with you at all. It was the players who actually won the game.

When you think you know about something but try to put your input into the conversation but it doesn't make sense at all.

I know you’d like to be involved in the conversation or you just like to hear the sound of your own voice, but other people don’t want to hear it. Especially when what you are trying to say makes no sense to the conversation at all and you are oblivious to the topic as well.

When people lick their fingers when handing out a pile of papers.

It’s unsanitary to do it. Yet people still do it all the time. When you lick your thumb and swipe through papers or hand them out, it doesn't really help you THAT much rather than using a clean hand. That’s why I always grab the last paper when the teacher or persons thumb is a little better and dry.

Getting interrupted halfway through your important conversations.

I’m sorry, was what you’re saying to interrupt my conversation THAT important that I had to stop? I was talking first so next time if I try to continue my conversation, it should be a one way story, not one with your story getting tossed in halfway through when it’s not relevant.

Hypocrites.

When people do something such as an act in which you hate but you do the same thing, it makes no sense. You might as well talk down on yourself when you put input on acts you hate but also do. A primary example is talking **** about a person but the reason they did so is because you said something against them as well in the first place.