The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: millenials

  • We’re All Lonely But It’s Not Our Fault

    We’re All Lonely But It’s Not Our Fault

    Shifting the blame of loneliness from individuals to institutions

    There’s an epidemic of loneliness in modern America. It’s a trauma encompassing political, economic and social realms. We’re all alone, but it’s not any one person’s fault.

    Imagine the stereotypical millennial: they moved home after college, unable to find a job or afford a home of their own. It may sound pathetic. But maybe they’ve found the home they need.

    The alternative for the millennial generation is living alone in an overpriced closet. It leaves them fragile and alone. A 2018 national survey by the healthcare provider Cigna found 46% of Americans felt alone some or all of the time. Adults aged 18-22 responded as the loneliest age group. A 2010 AARP survey had similar findings.

    Lonely people are vulnerable. Alone, a small problem becomes a crisis. That crisis festers and becomes a trauma that stays with a person for life. Without a support network, a minor issue can snowball into an avalanche. Studies have linked loneliness to depression, distress, suffering, poor sleep, high blood pressure and death.

    Loneliness almost feels normal in a society that sees the world in terms of the individual. Privacy can feel like success. Appearing independent is an achievement. And we see weakness in a cry for help.

    We weren’t always this way. Prior to modern industry, humans often lived in close-knit communities, whether related by blood or not. Fast-forward to the 1950s, and the nuclear family emerges. There’s the working husband, the stay-at-home wife and the two or three kids. It might have been romantic then, but a 2020 article from The Atlantic by David Brooks shows this small, private family wreaked havoc on our social lives.

    Jump forward 60 more years and you get the loneliness epidemic. One could criticize nuclear families for pages—read Brooks’ piece for a full account. But as they relate to loneliness, they popularized small families and mistrust of anyone outside of those families.

    Small families can produce lonely individuals. Imagine a single child. Imagine their parents pass away. That child then has to live on their own, without the support of a family around them. Financial, personal or professional stresses can lead to a free-fall when you have no safety net.

    Small, nuclear families disintegrate, and children are left on their own.

    Youth are finding new ways to survive the aftermath of a nuclear family disaster.

    The good news is we seem to be adapting. We are, in some sense, valuing extended families again. Pew Research Center found a record 64 million Americans living in multigenerational households in 2018. In 2016, Pew found the most common living arrangement for the 18-34 age group to be living with parents.

    We’re also expanding families beyond biological boundaries through shared housing units and groups for single parents. These new arrangments provide a way forward that doesn’t necessitate stay-at-home wives or gender discrimination. We’re finding ways to balance our want for individual freedom with our need for a family.

    Living together doesn’t necessarily make for less lonely people. We should be cautious about praising housing arrangements that can be born out of economic necessity, but research suggests many are choosing less lonely housing by choice. Living together is a good first step toward a more stable society.

    Youth are finding new ways to survive the aftermath of a nuclear family disaster. Make fun of the millennial in their parents’ garage if you want. But it looks to us like they might have found shelter from modern loneliness. They’re going to be OK.

  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi against angry fans

    Star Wars: The Last Jedi against angry fans

    Star Wars: The Last Jedi was a fun, complex and beautiful movie. When I got home from the theater, I was confused when some of the posts on various sites said that it was the worst movie since the prequels. I haven’t seen the Star Wars prequels, so I didn’t know what they meant. There were a lot of complaints, but some are boiled down to a few key ideas.

    One of the main complaints on these sites involves millennials. The cast in the current movies are more diverse from the first Star Wars movies. According to Vox and Forbes, there is also a concern about The Last Jedi trying to push a political agenda. However, I couldn’t find definitive posts on Reddit backing that claim.

    The closest I found was a video of conservative radio host Alex Jones going off on how The Last Jedi was full of “lesbians” and “It’s the same story over and over again and it’s a formula. It’s state-sponsored. It’s brainwashing.”

    A more frequent concern about The Last Jedi was the disregard of any fan theories and interconnectedness in the story. Any questions about the main characters’ background, namely Rey and Finn, was dismissed as irrelevant. They shouldn’t have to prove that they were related to anyone important in the story in order to be worthy of the fight against evil. It showed that anyone in the vast universe can be important and special.

    Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, even disagreed with director Rian Johnson about his character in movie saying, “He’s not my Luke Skywalker.”

    The Last Jedi showed a more pessimistic Skywalker, filled with regret. Skywalker was also mischievous and caring. It was a realistic development of the character.

    There were a lot of high expectations from fans. The director took numerous risks with the plot line of the story, some good and some flawed. Overall, it’s a decent movie.

  • Talking about my snowflake generation

    Talking about my snowflake generation

    Right wingers love to call liberals “snowflakes,” a popular slang used to describe self-absorbed, thin-skinned millennials.

    For instance, you might be labeled a snowflake if you are easily offended by someone calling another person “gay” or “retarded.” This is true even if the words were not intended to be a direct slur against the LGBT community or people with disabilities, but rather an alternative way to describe someone or something as being stupid.

    “They’re only words,” comedian George Carlin said. “It’s the context that counts. It’s the user. It’s the intention behind the words that makes them good or bad. The words are completely neutral. The words are innocent. I get tired of people talking about bad words and bad language. Bullshit! It’s the context that makes them good or bad.”

    In his 1990 HBO special “Doin’ It Again,” Carlin continues his rational bit about euphemisms, or “words that conceal reality.”

    Though Carlin attempts to make sense about sugarcoating language to the point of total political correctness, derogatory expressions have been normalized for too long. This is especially true and accentuated in the days of the Trump administration.

    Herds of hateful Americans have come out of the woodwork to protest against leftist values since Donald Trump took office. Many of them reckon it is their time to shine following the presidency of Obama, especially Richard Spencer. They also feel empowered to be blatant assholes, which are validated by mutually intolerant values.

    It’s easy to call someone a snowflake, a narrow-minded redneck or what have you. We hear what we want to hear and impulsively strike with insults. It’s also easy to leave snide remarks about an entire community rather than understand why an individual is sticking up for marginalized people.

    While it’s not necessary to be constantly politically correct, try to understand why it’s not appropriate to undermine those defending marginalized people by just labeling them snowflakes. It’s a case-by-case issue that demands good judgement and respect.