Generation Y

Yesterday I gained an unexpected audience to this blog, and it got me thinking (because I'm in camp, and there's nothing much to do) about how scarily exposed information posted on the Web is. You never know who is watching, reading our listening. That proves true for real life as well, especially with technology that has shrunk the known world so greatly.

Who do we want to be in the eyes of others? What information do we want to make available to others, and what do we want to keep personal? In the past not too long ago before technology was so widespread, such information was easily controlled. You told people around you what you wanted them to know. You kept your secrets under lock and key in a physical diary that gets hidden (mostly) under your bed, at least until your mum or nosy siblings crack them open and start feeding your embarrassing posts to their friends and your relatives.

In the world today, a photo I post now is instantaneously available to strangers across the globe. A tweet posted on a private account is instantly seen by people and shared to unintended recipients. Thoughts and words get misinterpreted, the intended meaning twisted.

The generation of instant information, has got to learn the meaning of building trust and human relationships, instead of instant gratification and pseudo networks built behind an online avatar. This generation, my generation, has lost the meaning of being gracious and human interaction. With every word and phrase uttered, or posted, being scrutinised by a hundred others, we have lost the right to speak freely and staying honest with one another.

I read an article recently about the mentality of us generation Y babies. It was about how we were raised to believe we are all unique individuals, each worthy of a career and life better than the next person. We are in a selfish era, each of us trying to control the rest, imposing our thoughts upon them, believing our perspective is the only right one. Sounds similar to the religion crusades in the early histories of Man. It's depressing and worrying at the same time. At least the crusades happened with like minded on each sides.

Today's crusades is a free for all. The strong will triumph the weak, and even so, the greed of the individual will never be satisfied. It's always about wanting more, and hoarding as much as possible. Haven't we learnt from history about how such elitist thinking will lead to more severe social problems? The world should be a better place with all our advanced technology and wealth of experiences from previous generations. But instead, we have grown selfish and developed an elitist mindset.

It is a pretty grim and cynical perspective on today's society. But I guess this is an inevitable phase of our history. Hopefully our next generation will be more human than us.