I recall an article written by an old acquaintance in her national column long ago. While discussing the young people during her days, she penned, “All dressed up with nowhere to go.” Well, if I were to meet her again and we ever got to compare our takes on this, that’d be swell, as I wonder what her take on the gens of today is. I know there’s surely a lot of upgrades that happened when comparing the generation she wrote about and the Zees and millennials of today combined.
For one, the latter are definitely always dressed up with a lot more places to go, no question about that. If one looked closely, there’s a running full and continuing documentation of that in this age’s social media (comicon or not).
In comparison, while her subject, the mostly-confused lot of a few generations long ago, hung around, still recovering from the wake their boomer parents left behind, the Zees on the other hand, insist they “have a plan” and be that as it may, they’re more than willing to be less tame and just almost blindly “go boldly to where no man has gone before.”
Unlike the Exes, their embittered twin, all the gizmos (a boomer term, clearly), are at their disposal more than ever before, being in possession of upgraded magical navigational tools like the Google map and Waze apps. In them, these pointing sticks do away with all the worries of what, when, and where.
While my acquaintance’s X gen had their share of Goths and Emos, a more notable strain that also stands out in this new bunch of young gens is that they’re more open and proud to wear what they feel on their sleeves (and hair too).
Even as they receive countless flak from vocal criticism from the likes of Russel Brand and Simon Sinek (oldies), “who cares” is just two words in their vocabulary that all but capture the total range of their mindset. Weirdly enough, thinking about this, sprung from many convos with peeps from several gens, one realizes all are equally guilty of the who-cares attitude.
In another vein, this attitude bears heavily on their supposed buying characteristics during the Christmas season, and some parents swear by this. In the end, it doesn’t matter if they have their outrageous (to others) choice of wardrobe and detailed plans on where to go this Christmas.
Here’s a tip from the old man: impulsive buying is still the enemy out there, and whether one believes it or not, that what-do-you-care stand will hit you hard. True, with Google Maps and what-have-you, the roads may readily open for you, attractive mall sales, and other vacay destinations, be ready. By January, it’ll be hard to find your bearings again. By then, you’ll have nowhere to go.
