Living in a Lost Generation

By Susan Smith
News You Can Use Editor

Is the growing comfort of the online world aiding the enhancement of communication for our generation, or is it slowly sacrificing our future?

There is a harsh kind of bitterness that ignites when someone older than us talks down on our generation. We’ve all heard it. This sort of wasted youth talk, where the elder speaker revels at “how different it is today,” and openly (sometimes literally) frowns upon the distasteful attitude and lack of morals our generation represents to them.

Maybe it’s because I too am growing older, but I can’t help but agree with them, with an underlining sadness that is almost shameful.

Don’t get me wrong: I can’t begin to portray myself as the ideal model for today's youth. But I have recently began to feel our generation is becoming very distant from the rest of the world. It seems there is a lack of physical communication between my peers, as if the older we get, the more recluse and antisocial we become with each other and society.

I began to notice this lack of communication last year. I was sitting in class, waiting for my professor to arrive. I was not alone in the room, as 15 or so other students were also sitting idly by, preparing for the next hour of tedious comprehending. The strange thing was, with as much in common as we all had (whether it be age, clothing style, or the class itself), the room remained completely silent for the entire 15 minutes before the professor arrived. Not only were no conversations started, but any intent of communication was avoided at all costs. It almost seemed we were all following some combination of prison rules in that classroom, where eye contact was avoided and staying as far away from the person sitting next to you was necessary to retain that comfort level we worked so hard to achieve.

But what was really noticeable was the constant clacking of every single cell phone in the room. Not only were we uninterested in any interaction with the people around us; we couldn't stand to be bored for even a few minutes. It was like we had some subconscious need to always be communicating with something, as long as that something didn't breathe or speak.

This, of course, is assuming our peers continue in the physical world at all, or if the remainder of our generation will be survived solely through the digital world of social networking sites.

Yes, Facebook.

Again, as a disclaimer, I want to mention that I am no stranger to the beautiful world of statuses and photo comments. Nor do I intend to ever walk away from a world where I can express my favor, concern, or acknowledgment of something with the simplicity of a "like" button.

But if the majority of your ideas and conversations have solely been through type for so long, I would think the margin for error would be slim. But again, I am surprised.

I often click through pages of profiles and come upon one post after the next where the message can hardly be deciphered due to unending grammatical errors and sometimes even a lack of any real words at all. I don't believe perfect spelling or punctuation is always necessary, and yes, in the fast world of the web, we're expected to shorthand here and there. But come on: we were taught in middle school how to conjugate simple verbs. I just can't understand how suddenly "Your going?" or "Their they are" are littering the pages of senior college student profiles.

This frequency of grammatical errors may not seem to be a pressing problem since, after all, it is only Facebook. However, the toll of living in this online world unhindered by basic education is beginning to become drastically noticeable. In fact, in a recent article from the Canadian Press, it was remarked that the frequent use of "social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, are all being blamed for an increasingly unacceptable number of post-secondary students who can't write." The article included the results of a study from the University Of Waterloo, Ontario, where 30% of their freshmen are failing to meet the minimum standard of an exam testing their skills in basic English grammar.

The fact that these results are already becoming present when the popularity of digital communication is still fairly new is troubling to me. If this phenomenon of the encompassing digital world continues, what will the future hold for the education of generations to come? Will simple communication and grammar be unobtainable to them? And possibly more troubling, will the English language be ruined in an attempt to relieve the stress of a society who refuses to learn anything above the bare minimum?

There's no telling whether this estranged quality of communication and ignorance will improve or decay the future of society, or if those in the future will come to terms with living, as I do, in a lost generation.