There are fewer common touchpoints in our world today than when I was a kid.
Everyone is going to remember where they were during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is something we all shared in 2020.
However, recent movies, songs, books, and other news are probably a much less cohesive set of memories for today’s teenagers. The Best Picture Academy Award for 2020 went to Parasite, a movie I still haven’t seen. I haven’t heard the song Bad Guy by Billie Eilish, which won Song of the Year in 2020. And I’ve only read two of the most popular books from 2020.
Let’s compare this with the year I graduated from High School. In 1988, the Best Picture Academy Award went to The Last Emperor, an amazing movie. The Song of the Year went to Somewhere Out There, which I learned how to play. The most popular books included The Alchemist, Matilda, A Brief History of Time, The Silence of the Lambs, Dead Poets Society, Guess How Much I Love You, and The Essential Calvin and Hobbes, which I’ve all read or seen the corresponding movie.
Almost anyone my age would be familiar with most of these touchpoints.
Today, there are too many options, each with its own small subculture. Everyone I knew watched the TV show Cheers. Today, we’re all watching different TV shows. Not only that: we’re getting our “news” from different sources!
We live in different worlds to a much greater degree than when I was growing up. Does this mean that Gen X is “better” than younger generations? Of course not! It just means that more of us Gen Xers can remember the same things.
Does every generation find fault with subsequent generations? Probably.
I remember laughing when my parents talked about the “Good Old Days”. Then, I would think of the following lyrics from Keeping the Faith, by Billy Joel.
“You know the good ole days weren’t always good
And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems”
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