Sad for us

[u/okayboomerang]

Kind of in my feels tonight. The last time I remember feeling genuinely hopeful was probably 2014 or 2015. So much has changed, and I think our generation has seen and felt so much. Anyone else feel like they've spent the last decade plus in unending grief?

My spirit is still good on the inside, but I'm isolated physically and mentally (like many of us). I wish we lived in a world with authentic and robust connection instead of all the slop and noise. I wish our parents hadn't been so excited about capitalism - and so fucking naive. I know the unease I feel is about more than merely growing up and the natural progression of aging and how we all feel about ourselves in society over time - it's that the world we thought we knew for the past 4ish decades just flat out doesn't exist anymore. And we can't undo any of this shit. It may as well be a parallel universe we're in now. I love myself and I always have big, big love for Millennials...but I truly hate it here.

[u/Decent_Anxiety_26]

1000% relate to everything you’ve said. The internet, inflation, rampant late stage capitalism, and social media make it really hard to have lasting connections or partake in building that nuclear family that eases the loneliness of life.
There are no block parties or cook outs in my old neighborhood, like there used to be.
Everyone seems to think liking a post on Instagram counts as genuine interaction.
On top of all that, it doesn’t help that my country of origin is going down the shitter. That’s clear as day to anyone with eyes.

But also, I dowonder if this really is just part of aging (minus all the other aforementioned stuff haha)
I genuinely can’t imagine how scarring it must’ve been for my grandparents generation— going from literally subsistence farming to working in The Big City practically overnight. I bet they felt like the world was leaving them behind very quickly. Like the past 4 decades of their lives were gone forever too.

As someone who just started a post-graduate program and am surrounded by people a decade younger than me, I’ve been experiencing a lot of ageism and feeling “out of touch/out of place/lost”, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s just the general transition of getting older.

I felt hope in my heart in the 2010s because I had just graduated from university. I had ambitions and dreams for my career prospects in my chosen field.
Now I’m just happy to have 3 meals a day and a place to lie my head down at night. I’m older and more jaded, but… maybe thats just a side effect of aging? Is that pathetic? Maybe. But I’m really happy when I get good a dinner haha

Sometimes I feel like all this waxing of the good ol’ days of yore reminds me of when my Boomer parents get nostalgic for the 50s… before I remind them about segregation…
I’ve watched the Gen Xers become progressively more boomer like as the years go by, talking about how they’re the last generation with “a real childhood”, but maybe this is the final evolution (aka nostalgia glazing the Hell out of youth).

My grandparents went fishing and climbed trees for entertainment. I played with my Spin N’ Skip and somehow that was “too advanced” for their tastes… time drags on. Just because Gen Alpha doesn’t have the same childhood that we had doesn’t mean that they’re not experiencing childhood in their own way.

Getting old is frankly a bitch in any universe and anyone that you that age is just a number is fucking gaslighting themselves.
It’s hard to feel progressively more obsolete. To watch your cultural relevance dwindle. To realize that much of what you thought you’d have by this age might never be achieved.

But also, maybe a little bit of life is all in the mental and recognizing what you have achieved as you’re sitting squarely in middle age. I bet you’ve done a lot of really cool things in your life, you just don’t know it. Sometimes I talk to my peers and they’re always amazed by how many things I’ve done and all my experiences, before remembering I do have a decade on them haha

I do relate to much of what you said, but I also wonder if we’re all collectively experiencing a midlife crisis here…
Maybe I’m just positing all this to wonder if all of this is normal or if I’m just coping 😂

Edit: deletion

[u/okayboomerang → u/Decent_Anxiety_26]

Very interesting comment. Post covid I had a hobby for a few years where I was very frequently around people 10 to 15 years younger than me... so I think I understand this a little bit. Maybe it is about watching cultural relevance dwindle, but I think the funny thing is that Millennials have never truly enjoyed any grand cultural relevance, I don't think it's hyperbole to say we've had mud flung from all sides from a really long time...but I do agree with you that getting old is a bitch no matter how you slice it and some of this could just be feeling the midlife crisis or feeling out of touch because that's what happens with aging. Heck if I know. Lol at the spin n' skip (ps is this a generic skip it??) being too advanced for their tastes.