All dressed up with nowhere to go, an old acquaintance wrote in her column long ago, when discussing about the young people during her days. Well, I would surely be very glad if I were to meet her again and we get to compare our takes on this; the new gens of today. This is because, I reckon there’s a lot of upgrade that has happened between the generation she wrote about and the Zees and millennials of today combined.
For one, the latter are definitely dressed up with a lot of places to go, no question about that. If one looked closely, there’s a full and continuing documentation of that in this age’s social media. In comparison, while her subject, the mostly-confused lot of a few generations long ago, hung around, still recovering from the wake their boomer parents left behind, the Zees for one, insist they ‘have a plan’. Be that as it may, that’s still shy when it comes to willingly include ‘go boldly where no man has gone before’. Meanwhile, their embittered twin on the other hand, have in their possession an upgraded magical navigational tool, the Google map app. In itself, that pointing stick carries with it all the worries of what when and the where.
While her X gen had the types borne of goths and emos, one strain that stands out with this new bunched-up young gens is that they proudly wear what they feel on their sleeves (and hair too). Even as they might have received countless flak from the likes of Russel Brand and Simon Sinek, “who cares” is just two words in their vocabulary that all but captures the range of their mindset.
Weirdly enough, thinking about all these again merely sprung from convos we had of late with the peeps from several gens. Would you believe, talking about the buying characteristics of people during the Christmas season. In the end, by no means are these truths in themselves. They’re not even worthy of serious whiplash. In fact, they fall more under opinions which are just a few clicks above barbershop talk.
But going back to the new gens with their detailed plan and wardrobe of where to go this Christmas, here’s a tip from the old man: impulsive buying is still the enemy out there and it encompasses all generations. It’s more or less like the One Ring of Sauron.
Goggle Map or not, by January I’m sure it’ll be hard to find your bearings again, if you fall into its trap.
