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Nothing is Forever


"Generation X" is the term used to describe and define the generation born after 1970. Although it is given as being this age group, Generation X is more of a mind set, than an age. Described as lacking morals, ethics, and diligence, elder generations look down on Xers as if they were willfully deceitful. While truth may lie in some of these accusations, the roots extend far deeper. Generation X lacks a perception of permanence, which causes problems when functioning in the real world.
Psychologists have long known that a child's upbringing has a profound affect on its behavior later in life. Today, steady streams of stimuli entertain children, requiring little or no thought on the part of the child. This "mind candy," as it has been dubbed, causes short attention spans, and conditions the children to being fed their entertainment. In fact, the television has become a sort of mass surrogate parent for today's youth. This "surrogate parent" is a fickle one, with MTV fashions changing faster than the seasons, children are left with very few permanent roll models. Sadly the most lingering figures are those like Kurt Cobain and Tupac who die young. This combined with the glorification of violence caused by Stalone style movies causes a decrease in regard for human life.
Hand in hand with television violence comes the violence of the video game world. Games like Mortal Kombat and Doom, where blood and killing are displayed graphically and repeatedly, can cause desensitization to violence, and the recurrence of the killed characters later may create the illusion of death as a temporary state. The acceptability of violence is not the only myth spawned from the digital world. In video games, "good guys" and "bad guys" are well defined, with no middle ground. One of the more cliched differences is that life has no reset button. The presence of a "reset" button adds greatly to the delusion that making mistakes is...