די ניו וועלט: וואָס טאָן 20-יאָר-אַלטס וועלן?

The change of generations cannot be peaceful: only having won a victory over their fathers, children get the right to take their place. Parents are preparing for a struggle for power, trying to discern in their offspring the features of the new Bazarovs. “Show yourself,” they demand. “Prove that you are smarter, stronger, more courageous.” And in response they hear: «I’m fine.»

The once «unwhacked» generation of Decembrists not only defeated Napoleon, but also challenged the tsar. The first post-Soviet generation seems to have overslept its historical chance.

Instead of brilliant poems — rap albums and imitations of Brodsky. Instead of inventions — one-day mobile applications. Instead of parties and manifestos, there are VKontakte groups. Many modern 20-year-olds are like high school «smarts», ready to have petty disputes with teachers, but not change the world.

Here and there you can hear the murmur of the elders: infantiles, “shkolota”! They are squandering what their ancestors fought and suffered hardships for. They have not learned to love and sacrifice. Their existential choice is between Apple and Android. Their feat is to go to the temple to catch Pokemon.

Anxiety is mixed with neglect: what if war, famine, total unemployment? Yes, they, perhaps, will arrange a new Chernobyl, filling the dashboard with cappuccino from a cardboard cup.

Skeptics do not get tired of pointing out their isolation from reality: “If you have a flash drive with all the knowledge of the world, can you build a hut in the forest or cut out your appendix if there is no doctor nearby?” But aren’t we exaggerating too much? Do the vices of youth have a downside? Let’s try to figure it out.

They are consumers! Rather, experimenters

When the American psychologist Abraham Maslow formulated his theory of needs, which his followers presented in the form of a pyramid, the Great Depression was raging in the United States. Few could reach the upper «floors», that is, the most advanced needs.

In Russia, the crisis has dragged on. Generations that have grown up with scarcity and the uncertainty that what has been achieved can be sustained are cautious and value moderation. Young people who strive to reach everything, to try everything, seem unreasonable to them.

Moreover, in the upper floors of the «pyramid» there are not only spiritual, but also quite material needs. For example, the need for sexual harmony (and not just satisfaction of attraction), culinary delights and other sensual pleasures. The young became pickier and were labeled hedonists.

But living in abundance does not necessarily mean rushing from one vivid experience to another. Wandering through the «supermarket of feelings», the young learn to identify their own.

“At the age of 16, I started dating a young man,” recalls 22-year-old Alexandra. — I completely dissolved in it: it seemed to me that this was how love should be — “soul to soul”, like my grandparents. We began to live together. I did nothing, just sat and waited for him to come home from work. I saw it as the meaning of existence.

Then I realized that I have my own interests, began to devote more time to study, found a job, began to go somewhere with friends without him. There were people who were nice to me, fleeting loves.

I realized that I want an open relationship. It was difficult for my partner at first to accept this, but we talked a lot about our experiences and decided not to leave. Now we have been together for 6 years … It turned out that in this format we are both comfortable.

They are lazy! Or picky?

“Loose, uncollected, immature” — university professors, tutors and employers do not skimp on harsh epithets. The problem with the inner core is also recognized by those to whom reproaches are addressed.

“Before, at 22, people were already adults,” 24-year-old Elena reflects. — It was not customary to look for yourself for a long time — you had to start a family, find a job, get on your feet. Now we give free rein to ambitions, we strive to slip through boring and unpleasant moments. Against the background of their parents, young people turn out to be eternal threesomes and undergrowths.

“Parents are perceived by children of the 90s as epic heroes — powerful, able to cope with difficulties,” says psychotherapist Marina Slinkova. – Their life was a series of overcoming: like it or not, you have to become strong. But the parents survived, the intensity of passions fell, everything is already there for happiness. The children were inspired: now nothing is stopping you, go ahead!

But this is where the «reach-machine» fails. Suddenly it turns out that for the «advanced level» parental rules no longer apply. And sometimes they even get in the way.

“The model of gradual movement towards success has been damaged,” say Validata sociologists who have studied the life strategies of “children of the 90s”. Victory in the Olympiad and a red diploma can remain the main triumphs.

«And it’s all?» exhales a brilliant graduate disappointedly, who is offered to trade his dreams for a comfortable chair in a corporate tower. But what about those who change the world?

Maybe it takes more than well-learned lessons? And if I don’t have this, then it’s safer to remain just an interesting conversationalist and an “experienced” amateur, without entering into painful competition, where there is a risk of realizing that you are mediocrity.

They are rough! And yet vulnerable

Trolling, the ubiquitous use of swear words, the willingness to ridicule any idea and turn anything into a meme — it seems that the generation of network pioneers lacks sensitivity and the ability to empathize.

But cyberpsychologist Natalia Bogacheva sees the picture differently: “Trolls do not make up the majority among users, and usually they are people prone to manipulation, narcissism and psychopathy. Moreover, the online community often becomes a place where you can get psychological support.

We see examples when users unite to help someone, find missing people, restore justice. Maybe empathy works differently for this generation, but you can’t say that it doesn’t exist.”

What about the habit of distance communication? Does it prevent young people from understanding each other?

“Yes, the ratio of verbal and non-verbal components of communication is changing; at a distance, we understand worse what emotions the interlocutor is experiencing,” continues Natalia Bogacheva. – But we learn to notice the details and interpret them: put a smiley face or not, whether there is a dot at the end of the message. All of this matters and provides clues.”

The youth style of communication seems rude and awkward to someone for whom a heart instead of “I love” is unthinkable. But it is a living language that changes with life.

They are scattered! But they are flexible

They easily switch from one to another: they chew a sandwich, arrange a meeting in the messenger and follow updates on social networks, all in parallel. The phenomenon of clip consciousness has been worrying parents and teachers for a long time.

It is still unclear how to avoid constant distraction of attention, if we now live in a stormy and heterogeneous information flow.

According to Natalia Bogacheva, the “digital generation” really thinks differently even at the level of individual cognitive processes: “Sometimes they would like to focus on one thing, but they are not capable of it.”

And for those who are older, it is not clear how you can do three things at once. And it seems that this gap will only grow — the next generation is on its way, which has no idea how to navigate the terrain without Google maps and how to live without communicating with the whole world at once.

However, in the XNUMXth century BC. e. philosopher Plato resented the fact that with the advent of writing, we stopped relying on memory and became «sham-wise.» But books provided humanity with a rapid transfer of knowledge and an increase in education. The skill of reading allowed us to exchange ideas, broaden our horizons.

Psychologists note in young people the flexibility of the mind, the ability to navigate the flow of information, an increase in working memory and attention span, and a tendency to multitask. The authors of books on productivity urge contemporaries not to mourn dying abilities, but to listen more carefully to the music of the “digital revolution” and move in time with it.

For example, the American designer Marty Neumeyer believes that in an era when mental powers will be divided between the brain and the machine, interdisciplinary skills will become in demand.

Developed intuition and imagination, the ability to quickly collect a big picture from disparate data, see the practical potential of ideas and explore new areas — this is what young people, in his opinion, should learn first of all.

Are they cynics? No, free

“Ideologies collapsed, as did the ideals that the heroes of the XNUMXth century carried,” writes student Slava Medov, a user of TheQuestion. – Don’t make yourself a hero by sacrificing your young body. A person of the present will not perceive this as an act of Danko. Who needs your heart if there is a flashlight from the «Fix Price»?

Apoliticality and unwillingness to formulate a positive program are blamed on hipsters, the main youth subculture of recent years. The 20-year-olds have almost no political sympathies, but there is a common understanding of the boundaries that they are ready to defend, political scientist Anna Sorokina notes.

She and her colleagues interviewed students from XNUMX Russian universities. “We asked the question: “What will make your life uncomfortable?” she says. “The unifying idea was the inadmissibility of intrusion into personal life and correspondence, limiting access to the Internet.”

American philosopher Jerrold Katz predicted back in the mid-90s that the spread of the Internet would create a new culture based on an ethic of individuality rather than leadership.

“The only dominant ethical idea of ​​the new community will be freedom of information. On the contrary, everyone who tries to lay their hand on this is suspicious — the government, corporations, religious organizations, educational institutions and even parents, ”the philosopher believes.

Maybe this is the main value of the generation «without a king in the head» — the freedom to be anyone and not be ashamed of it? Be vulnerable, experiment, change, build your life without regard to authority. And revolutions and «great construction projects», if you think about it, everyone is already full.