The Screwed Generation

[Arakhor]

Moderator Action: Suicide is not an appropriate topic for discussion at CFC. Please seek competent medical advice instead.

 

[luiz]

No, it doesn't. I was personally vaccinated against any interest in Harry Potter since I was forced to read the first book in English class in school, but fantasy is a good genre, and I have lots of friends who like fantasy and some who like Harry Potter. Nothing incomprehensible about it. Neither with Pokemons, though I was also a few years to old when they got famous in Norway. Lots of friends like collectibles, or play pokemon, or heartstone, or whatever else.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying stuff that isn't 100% factual, grown-up and serious all the time.

Did I say it was wrong? I just said it was alien to people my age. Just like a lot of the stuff I grew up watching (Jaspion, Jiraya, all the Japanese super heroes) were alien to my older cousins, let alone my parents.

 

[Cheetah]

Did I say it was wrong? I just said it was alien to people my age. Just like a lot of the stuff I grew up watching (Jaspion, Jiraya, all the Japanese super heroes) were alien to my older cousins, let alone my parents.

But I'm 33 years old. I'm people your age luiz!

And while I don't personally have any interest in Harry Potter or Pokemons, it's not incomprehensible to me, and some of my friends are still fans of it.

 

[Broken_Erika]

I still occasionally play Pokemon Crystal. I use an emulator running at 400-500% speed which makes it more playble, especially when trying to level up my pokemon by running around in circles in tall grass and decimating the local wild pokemon population.

 

[metalhead]

I feel like the more recent generations in the West are exclusively encouraged to study what they love. It's even a stereotype. While say Indians, Chinese and Koreans are encouraged to pursue a career that will bring a bright financial prospect. I agree with Warpus, some balance is needed. In most countries there are far more people graduating in humanities than the economy can support (I.e., there is far more supply than demand), which is why so many of them end up working outside of their field of expertise or doing crap jobs for the gig economy.

Is there any such thing as "outside their field of expertise" for a humanities grad? Humanities education teaches critical thinking, and oral and written communication skills. These are indispensible skills in a very wide array of professional fields.

Maybe it's just me, but I have a degree in electrical engineering, and I don't feel like I acquired any kind of specific, professional knowledge with which I could actually do a job in that field. I also have a law degree and feel like there was a reasonable amount of specialized knowledge I gained there, but certainly not enough to go out and actually practice law without a ton of guidance and oversight.

What do you think people are learning in undergrad that a humanities degree is less useful in a professional setting than a STEM degree anyways? This whole focus on STEM just seems absurd to me. Oh wow, you can analyze a black box system and solve the resulting differential equations!? GET OUT THERE YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU! Blech.

People don't go into the trades because we have decided 4 year degrees are best for anyone and that's where parents send their kids. It's not even a question so much of kids picking bad degrees; it's as much if not more a question of bad parents making well-intentioned but seriously stupid decisions for their kids.

The 18-22 crowd do not have as much autonomy as we like to think. Particularly in a time when you can't find a job that would allow you independence until after you've completed a degree program.

I also think trades, like STEM degrees, are inappropriately romanticized. Don't get me wrong, I think it is very respectable for someone to want to make a skilled trade their livelihood. I just think that it's also something that you have to be suited for. Not only do you have to be willing and able to get up every day and spend your time fixing wiring or pipes or what have you, but you have to work odd hours. You have to be on call a lot. If you want to advance and make a comfortable lifestyle from it, you also have to have to be a capable businessperson.

As for college decisions, the utter and complete lack of guidance that educational institutions provide kids is a disgrace. I received ZERO guidance in either high school or college as to what I should do, at a time when people are making hugely consequential decisions that will impact the entire course of their lives. My parents are baby boomers and thus clueless about pretty much everything, so therefore were no help whatsoever.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

But I'm 33 years old. I'm people your age luiz!

And while I don't personally have any interest in Harry Potter or Pokemons, it's not incomprehensible to me, and some of my friends are still fans of it.

If you're 33 then you were 13 when the first book came out, so pretty much exactly the right age to have become a Harry Potter fan.

 

[Lexicus]

Is there any such thing as "outside their field of expertise" for a humanities grad?

Anything with math

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Also wouldn't really want one of them performing dentistry on me. Or fixing my boiler.

 

[metalhead]

I think you'd be hard pressed to explain how effective communication skills aren't useful in any of those fields.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Well being able to tie your shoelaces and dress yourself would be useful in any of those fields too, but they're hardly the primary requirements.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

20-somethings play Pokémon and adore Harry Potter, which alone makes them incomprehensible and alien to 30-somethings.
.

This is so wrong it hurts. If only you knew just how many 30 somethings obsess over Harry Potter or similiar Young Adult fiction (or Star Wars, for that matter) you wouldn't make statements like this. Harry Potter is honestly universally adored by all age groups. Also, I would say that many of the 30-something demographic are casual gamers, I'm sure there are plenty of statistics around that support that.

'The Harry Potter franchise aged considerably over its 10-year, eight-film lifespan.

The audience for the two "Deathly Hallows" films — the last one opening over the weekend — were 56 and 55 percent over the age of 25, respectively.'

So we can assume that at least half the visitors were in their late 20's or older. Source: https://www.thewrap.com/harry-potter-numbers-series-grew-older-bigger-better-29195/

I think that's already a lot, actually, if you consider that the actual target demographic for HP is teens between 12 and 19.

If you're 33 then you were 13 when the first book came out, so pretty much exactly the right age to have become a Harry Potter fan.

Which, once again, kind of disproves luiz hypothesis that 30-something are alienated by HP.. Because half of the 30-something most definitely grew up with it, whether they liked it or not.

 

[Lexicus]

I think you'd be hard pressed to explain how effective communication skills aren't useful in any of those fields.

The whole premise that the purpose of education ought to be to ready people for jobs is a problem, in my view. Innonimatu is right. Tweaking with education, telling more people to get STEM degrees, is going to do precisely nothing to fix the structural problems with the economy, which are mainly the result of the rich planning the economy for the benefit of...the rich.

 

[Cheetah]

If you're 33 then you were 13 when the first book came out, so pretty much exactly the right age to have become a Harry Potter fan.

But then so is luiz and all the other people in our age group.

 

[warpus]

If you think it's weird that 30 year olds are into Harry Potter, wait till you find out about bronies

 

[Manfred Belheim]

But then so is luiz and all the other people in our age group.

I don't know how old luiz is and his arguments are his own, I'm just saying that I don't think you like Harry Potter despite being 33, more like because you're 33.

(When I say "you" I mean "one")

 

[metalhead]

Well being able to tie your shoelaces and dress yourself would be useful in any of those fields too, but they're hardly the primary requirements.

Not really, you can hire someone to dress you and tie your shoelaces. Hiring someone to communicate for you is nigh-impossible. Communication is a fundamental part of most jobs. Being able to communicate effectively makes one significantly better at almost any job imaginable, than someone of similar skill who cannot effectively communicate.

 

[metalhead]

The whole premise that the purpose of education ought to be to ready people for jobs is a problem, in my view.

Yes, I agree. Education doesn't ready people for jobs at all. It's a fundamental misconception of education that this is either its purpose, or its effect. That's why it's so laughable when people slag on humanities degrees - at least there, the education one receives provides skills which are meaningful and broadly applicable in dealing with other human beings, whether in a professional setting or anywhere else. That was my point. Having a STEM degree doesn't mean one is going to be able to work effectively in a STEM career, either, which is another place the whole "More people should get STEM degrees" idea falls flat.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Not really, you can hire someone to dress you and tie your shoelaces. Hiring someone to communicate for you is nigh-impossible. Communication is a fundamental part of most jobs. Being able to communicate effectively makes one significantly better at almost any job imaginable, than someone of similar skill who cannot effectively communicate.

You really think being able to dress yourself isn't even useful for those jobs? You think people without humanities degrees can't even communicate? You think being able to communicate is of paramount importance in dentistry and/or boiler maintenance?

If you even think any of those things then we're clearly not even living in the same universe, never mind if you think all three of them. I mean if I need a filling done and I have a choice between a naked, mute, qualified dentist, or some guy in a suit who can charm the birds of the trees and has never held a drill in his life, I'm going with Dr Weirdo every day of the week.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Having a STEM degree doesn't mean one is going to be able to work effectively in a STEM career, either, which is another place the whole "More people should get STEM degrees" idea falls flat.

Well you're certainly not going to be able to work effectively in them without one. Or at all. Unless you count being the tea boy/office gopher as working in a STEM career.

 

[luiz]

This is so wrong it hurts. If only you knew just how many 30 somethings obsess over Harry Potter or similiar Young Adult fiction (or Star Wars, for that matter) you wouldn't make statements like this. Harry Potter is honestly universally adored by all age groups. Also, I would say that many of the 30-something demographic are casual gamers, I'm sure there are plenty of statistics around that support that.

'The Harry Potter franchise aged considerably over its 10-year, eight-film lifespan.

The audience for the two "Deathly Hallows" films — the last one opening over the weekend — were 56 and 55 percent over the age of 25, respectively.'

So we can assume that at least half the visitors were in their late 20's or older. Source: https://www.thewrap.com/harry-potter-numbers-series-grew-older-bigger-better-29195/

I think that's already a lot, actually, if you consider that the actual target demographic for HP is teens between 12 and 19.

Well of course I'm using exclusively anedoctal evidence, because I never looked for actual research on Harry Potter or Pokemon and I never will. But as I said, about 100% of the people of my age group that I've talked about this subject have never read a Harry Potter book or seen a film (I know a couple people in this group who did and are fans and a whole crowd that didn't). People just 10 years younger have in contrast almost universally read or seen HP, regardless of liking it or not. And many are obsessed by it. It's a huge shift in a just a few years. Same with Pokemon (I'm not talking about gaming in general - a lot of 30 somethingd are gamers, and specially games like FIFA are quite popular with that age group. I'm talking of Pokemon. I swear to God I don't know anyone my age who ever played it).

It's odd you mention Star Wars, because that an old franchise whose original fans are on their 50's or 60's. It couldn't be further from HP in this regard (both are silly fantasy movies, ok, but quite apart).