Our Generation is Different

By Makenyze O'Dell

“Gen-Z” refers to people born in the late 1990s and 2000s, elicits a lot of opinions have a lot of opinions on our generation, as do I. Other generations like to say we’re uncultured, mindless, and selfish. An article by Stanford said, “we’re the first generation not to know what life is like without the internet.” I agree with this, because the years that the internet wasn’t as big were the days that people actually got out and explored nature. 

Our brains are going to get clouded with all of the fake things that are on the web; being on your phone all the time increases headaches and affects people's sleep routine because being on your phone or computer causes you to fall asleep later. Every year has its ups and downs, just like in the 1900s, but in my opinion, back then was better than the 2000s for a lot of reasons. Some examples detailed why it was better back then, including the music, the romance, the living, the clothing, and the way things were so much less stressful. There are so many things that I wish were the same back then. 

Music is one thing that's changed a lot over the years. The music that Gen-Z has come up with and listens to is a lot more intense than the songs in the 1900’s. Songs change as people change because as our language changes the words of songs will use that language, and become more intense. Gen-Z has a lot of words that we’ve come up with. For example, “bet”, “hits different”, “simp”, and so much more. Those words have the same meaning as words back then do but they just decided to come up with something newer. The words we use today aren’t better than the words that were spoken in the 1900s when they spoke homogeneous language, which is more proper. That’s just one way our generations are different from the 1900’s or any years before that.

Romance is the way people would love each other back in the day wasn’t in the way people talk about it in songs. Let's take “The Note” as an example. This movie is based in the 1940s and shows the way love was, as do a lot of older movies. The guys treated women with respect and wouldn’t be called a “simp” (this term means someone that is soft) as Gen-Z people would say. They didn’t get made fun of for showing their feelings, but now if you're too soft towards a girl you’ll get made fun of by the other boys. Guys nowadays can’t show any emotion because they have grown up to be tough, and if you're not tough then you're not man enough. Back then, you didn’t have to worry about that. The way people used to love each other is one of the most different parts of the 1900s and the 2000s. 

I believe having phones is a big factor in the way people love one another, because if you wanted to talk to a girl or guy you would have to go up to them or go to their house and talk to them. Then maybe go on a walk or the drive-ins where you could actually spend time together, instead of just snapping at each other and then claiming you know them just from that. 

With that being said, the stress levels back then were a whole lot less because they didn’t have social media, where things can get spread by someone who doesn’t like you just because they could. Things spread on social media could be there forever, back then they probably just talked about you to their family or friends. People's lives were just happier without the things we have now. There are things I'm thankful for that we have now like better medicines, better cars, more jobs, more free will, but if I had the choice to be alive in the olden days I would. 

My father says back when he was younger, “In 1982, there were no capable TVs, and there were landline phones which compared to now I would like to say was better because my friends and I would have to be more social and we would see each other more. Another thing I believe is that relationships would be better back then because there wasn’t a lot of outside interference, meaning back you would spend time with just that person as nowadays if you were dating a girl they would know because of phones and the way news travels faster to others. Music back then was more relatable, emotional, and nonaggressive. The way artists would sing and rap about women or anything wasn’t so disrespectful as today’s music is, they wouldn’t take it as far as rappers today would. Overall, I would say life back then was better than how life is now.”

Life has changed a lot over the years and there are things I’m grateful for that we have now, but life in my eyes back then things were simpler. I know there were problems that we learn about in history that have happened in the past, but if you look over how people were as one their lives were good. Those were just some things that have changed over the years and how I view them.