dagblog - Comments for "Generation Wuss"

I dunno, here's an excerpt

artappraiser — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 11:09:13 +0000

I dunno, here's an excerpt from an "I was a fat kid" piece in The Guardian that I just glanced at and it reminded me of how really brutal it could get it back in the good old days when there was no internet, meatspace style:

At school my nickname was Danepak Bacon (actually, it was less a nickname, more a routine. The boys would go "can anyone smell Danepak bacon?", then oink really loudly as I walked past). I was, of course, devastated by this. Though I counted myself lucky because there was also a "Miss Piggy" and the shit she got was so relentless that no one even called her by her real name anymore. At least I got to keep my own name, most of the time.

Psychic pain is psychic pain, not as easy to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 as physical pain. Isn't this just sorta doing another version of "Oppression Olympics"? If that's the case, then I'd go with the Jewish boy in 1939 Berlin for the win. He even wins over my mentally disabled brother's berating, name calling and some minor beating on school bus when he was 10 for being "retarded"; he sobbed for many hours, don' t really know if he ever got over it, I know my mother never did.

Sadly, you're exactly right.

Ramona — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 03:33:42 +0000

In reply to Social networks add three

Sadly, you're exactly right. They do have it much harder now.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Michael Wolraich — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 03:02:46 +0000

In reply to Heathers just introduced the

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) introduced the style, followed by Sixteen Candles (1984), Breakfast Club (1985), and host of lesser imitators. All mainstream, including Heathers.

I'm not sure what any of this has to do with internet bullying, though.

Heathers just introduced the

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 15:34:58 +0000

In reply to You're off by a

Heathers just introduced the style - American Pie was where the form took off mainstream.

That is only a portion of

trkingmomoe — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 23:34:38 +0000

In reply to Hmmm, they all seem to have

That is only a portion of them. 40% are below poverty level. Prepaid androids are not that expensive anymore. What designer cloths? I have helped refurbished several old sewing machines this past year that was given to young girls and women so they could use them. Movies? It is pirated movies using bit torrent. There is a economic depression going on in this country and they are hurt the most by it.

You're off by a

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 17:16:01 +0000

In reply to I'm not sure any generation

You're off by a generation...

Heathers: 1988

American Pie: 1999

Mean Girls: 2004

Facebook: 2004

Social networks add three

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 16:47:28 +0000

In reply to Generation Wuss

Social networks add three dimensions to bullying that we never had to deal with.

1) It's public. Humiliation is not confined to a few other kids in the locker room. The whole school can see it, including friends, parents, and most painfully, the boy or girl you have a crush on.

2) People are less restrained online. I think we're all pretty familiar with that.

3) There's no escape. Unless you attended boarding school, you got to leave the ugliness at the end of the school day. With social networks and texting, the bullying follows you home.

Now it's all very nice to say "stick & stones." People used to say that when I was a kid too. But I've seen plenty of adults lose their shit when an anonymous avatar they've never met writes something mildly insulting online. Now imagine it's on facebook among a circle of your best friends, and they're writing, "You're so ugly, you should kill yourself." And keep in mind that these are insecure children who place a much higher priority on social status and who lack the maturity to keep things in perspective.

Generation Wuss? Fuck. That. These kids have to be tougher and have thicker skin than we ever had growing up. And if there's anything we adults can do to make their lives a little easier and a little happier, I'm all for it.

Hmmm, they all seem to have

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 11:30:01 +0000

In reply to I see them as not having the

Hmmm, they all seem to have iPhones, designer clothes, expensive vacations and money for the movies & expensive drinks. Not that I recall hurting for money or finding it an issue around socializing as a kid.

I see them as not having the

trkingmomoe — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 11:10:53 +0000

In reply to I'm not sure any generation

I see them as not having the money to actively socialize like I had as a kid. So they stick with a small circle of friends locally and a very large circle internationally on the web. I see risk taking going on with my grand kids. They care deeply about things. I see that as a plus because they are the ones who will make this a better place to live. Courage comes in all forms.

I'm not sure any generation

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 07:18:08 +0000

In reply to Generation Wuss

I'm not sure any generation ever had their phobias catered to like Generation Wuss. "American Pie", "Bad Girls", "Heathers" and a variety of other growing-up movies since lay out all those problems of puberty and fitting in, and even then, it's somehow not enough. I try to explain to my kids that most kids just grit their teeth and survive through 12th grade and then kiss that world goodbye forever, that their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents weren't any happier, and getting used to the suckiness is one part of dealing with it. Doesn't help. More and more hours/days tackling problems that would have been ignored in the "old days" of "suck it up, kid", and still doesn't seem to resolve things.

The level of cruelty now in some ways is much less - as you note, someting like Prince's "Dirty Minds" was far more shocking than current fare - but then the sexual language and personal attacks as early as say 4th grade level or lower are probably much harsher than what we had. And sex is likely much more a part of their world than ours.

Not shame people? Well of course we shame people - that's one of our basic modes. Grow thick skins and gills, or "get a real life" are 2 of my reactions, but that takes as well as my folks' "cut your hair". But I think the "hypersensitive" tag is most germane - and much of youth is now very introverted it seems to me - oddly in an age of tons of information, it seems the circle of actually sphere of real interest is just as far as a few friends & classmates. And I see an aversion to risk taking - though I don't know how universal that is.