What will "Generation Twitter" be ignorantly opposed to when we're old?

Polyamorous marriage, perhaps?

Older traditions are going to continue to break down, and there will be political spats surrounding that. Marriage (1+1 for life) is already a very dysfunctional institution, and it will only continue to make less sense as time goes on.

I suspect how exactly children will be raised, and who can act as a parental figure for them, might be a big challenge. If people couple in shorter term relationships, as is likely, multi-parent “family” units are going to be more common. In fact, it’s probably just a question of this becoming socially acceptable.

Minority rights are always an issue, and minorities can be generational divisions. Boomers and older gen Xers are quite ignorantly unaware that their policies are harming younger generations, perhaps for life. Millennials will likely be jealously guarding institutions later in life too.

Youth rights. We believe it’s acceptable for youth to enlist in the military and “die for their country” at the age of 18, however they can not legally drink alcohol. In most states, youth can work (and pay income tax) from the age of 14 but cannot legally drive or vote. In the future, there may be a movement to lower the voting age to 14 or eliminate age-based discrimination altogether.

Animal right. Today, most people consider raising and killing animals for meat acceptable. Fur has mostly fallen out of fashion, but it’s still worn by some. In America, eating “pet” animals (dogs, cats, etc.) is distasteful, but we do not feel the same way about “meat” animals (cows, chickens, pigs, etc.). Over time, our view of “meat” animals may move closer to our view of “pet” animals, especially as we discover more about consciousness and the brain.

Non-violent drug users rights. You can currently be imprisoned for ingesting a substance that grows in nature. That’s a bit strange if you think about it. This group has slowly been gaining support since the 1960s but still enjoys less political support than the gay rights movement has today, at least in America.

The right to (end your own) life. Suicide and euthanasia are illegal. In the future, we may believe that people who wish to end their own life should have the right to do so.

Immigrants. In many countries, immigrants treated as an under-class and don’t enjoy the same rights as citizens.

Workers rights. Laborers in many countries that import goods to America work under conditions that are considered unacceptable and are illegal in America. As borders between countries become less significant, we may not tollerate this discrepancy.

Basic human rights. Billions of people around the world live in poverty for reasons that are not of their own causing. In the future, we may no longer consider this acceptable.

I could go on but I’m starting to get depressed.

My vote is on poligamy.

If i dared to dream i’d say Robosexuality, too.

Hopefully they will abhor how politically correct we’ve all become.

Abortion, if we’re damn lucky.

@sferik Have you considered that perhaps they are denied alcohol precisely so that they can be permitted the chance to make unaffected military and political decisions? Food for thought.

Massive stockpiles of nuclear arms

Our kids might be amazed that we were ever for war.

Ah. I see I read that wrong. I hope that our kids are disgusted that we ever had an abortion-happy culture.

I hope marijuana is next on the list of things to be given to the people.

All people including males will realize that random sexual encounters could result in the conception of a child. Then we won’t have to worry about abortion-happy cultures.

You probably don’t want to hear this, @Nullo, but it will be the opposite of that in a few years. My kids will wonder how we ever let the government control peoples bodies.

@rooeytoo Maybe we’ll see a more birth control-happy culture instead :)

By age, I think I must be of your grandparents’ generation, @J0E, and I am astounded at your generalizations. Do you honestly believe that everybody of a certain age has the same opinion?

My generation, the youth of the sixties, supported civil rights and desegregation. The three murdered civil rights workers were among the slightly older members of that generation and were martyrs we mourned. We honestly believed in peace, love, and brotherhood, and we marched, sang, sat, dressed, and voted accordingly.

Not everyone of my age shared those feelings in our youth, but the people I knew did.

What’s more, since my sons are in their twenties like you, you might count me in your parents’ generation. Again—where do you get your information about what we support and oppose? Against gay marriage? Not I. The very notion that you’d think you could predict my opinions from the decade I was born in or from the age of my children is mind-boggling.

@augustlan That would indeed me amazing.

I agree with @sferik that attitudes towards animals will change. But I think it’s not necessarily true that we’ll be more respectful of them. It seems equally probable that future generations will think that our obsession with “endangered species” was so short-sighted when they will be able to produce new species at will or recreate the old ones.

@Jeruba I didn’t think I would have to explain this, but of course I don’t think everyone falls into these quick categories I made. I’m glad you don’t fit in the categories, but many others do.

Looking after us.

Wouldn’t you at least have to think most people of those ages had those views, before you could make a global remark like that? I don’t happen to think those opinions are generational at all. I think they relate much more to social and regional patterns than chronological ones.

Here, I’ll simplify it for you. What will my generation be disagreeing with our children about?

@Blackberry – that would be great if there were a birth control method that is 100% effective. Or if in case of failure, the female could say to the male, I’ll loan you my female equipment and you can carry it for 9 months, whelp it and feed it until it’s 21!!!

Young people are denied alcohol almost exclusively because alcohol is associated with pleasure, and pleasure is something that the young should be deprived of. The prigs are perfectly okay with driving, as long as the fatalities caused by driving are accompanied by sobriety.

@bolwerk – that’s an interesting theory, why do you think pleasure is denied to the young?

@Nullo Historically, whatever demented moral doorstopper was ever placed around by your religion has been defied in time, not relished.

* shake magic 8 ball * ...I’m w/ @Blackberry.

@Nullo by that logic, all adults and active military should be prevented from drinking, even after they turn 21 (or only people under the age of 21 should be allowed to vote and serve).

vat-raised meat.

@6rant6 Talking for myself here but, why? I already want that to be available, and i’m from generation Y, why would someone from gen Z or AO be against it?

@rooeytoo: hard to say, really. A lot of authoritarian power trips just seem to be about power for power’s sake. That’s why there is ultimately no reasoning with prohibitionists and other police state sycophants. They lack the power to take alcohol away from everyone, like they can with other drugs, but they’ll take what they can get.

And that’s all taking into account, sure, maybe there was some misguided liberal-ish well-meaningness behind drug prohibition at one time.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me.

Things that are out in the open by definition can’t be conspiracies. That’s why Hillary was famously wrong.

So you are saying that not allowing children to purchase alcohol is a misuse of authoritarian power?

@rooeytoo well, whether deliberate or not, it clearly is a misuse. Much like it is a misuse of power enforcing drug laws and shit like that. There are more urgent problems to solve.

@rooeytoo: That, and also not letting adults purchase alcohol. 18-year-olds are not children, even under the law. Hell, I have trouble buying that 15-year-olds are children in any technical sense.

I always find it interesting that teenagers are not prosecuted in adult courts or punished for like crimes as adults, or put into adult prisons and I hear no complaints about that. Their brains are not developed, they don’t realize the consequences of their actions, and on and on. But when it comes to alcohol, teenagers suddenly take on a maturity and grownupness that it astounding. I don’t think you can have it both ways, you want to be treated like an adult, that’s great but it should be across the board. In my town a 17 year old repeat offender was once more smacked on the hand and released after beating an 84 old lady on the head with a stick and stealing her purse when she was walking to get the newspaper early in the morning. After all, his brain is not yet developed and he didn’t realize an 84 year old shouldn’t be fair game.

@rooeytoo Many teenagers (at least in the US) are charged as adults, and go to adult prisons, etc. But the main problem, as I see it, is having so many different definitions of “adult”. You are legally an adult at 18. You can vote, go to war and die for your country, but you can’t have a beer until you’re 21? I think it should be all one way or the other. Either you can do everything legal at 18, or none of it til 21.

@augustlan – what age are the teens who are charged as adults? And isn’t the drinking age determined by the states? I remember when I was a kid everyone who lived in Virginia would go to DC because you only had to be 18 there, maybe Maryland too, I forget. New York for sure was 18. I hate booze for anyone at any age but I agree that if you’re going to be deemed an adult at 18 then it should be 18 for everything.

What I got me into this discussion was up above where it was said “Young people are denied alcohol almost exclusively because alcohol is associated with pleasure, and pleasure is something that the young should be deprived of.” I never noticed as a kid nor do I see evidence now that young people are denied pleasure? Do you?

@rooeytoo Children as young as 13 have been tried as adults and sentenced to die in prison.

Drinking age used to vary by state, yes. But the drinking age is now universally 21 in the US. I’m not sure if that was federally mandated, but I think it was.

I agree with you on your last paragraph. Certainly kids are denied some pleasures, but I’m sure that’s not why the law was put into place.

@augustlan – the 1977 case of a mentally disabled kid is pretty unbelievable. I don’t know what to say about the rest of it, thousands in jail???? And what do you do if a 16 year old kills someone? What if it is a horrible crime on someone who can’t defend themselves, too young or too old? I don’t believe that a 16 year old or even a 13 year old does not understand dead.

I have lost track though, what are we debating? It started with the guy saying the young are denied pleasure, and then 15 year olds are not children. So I said you want to be an adult until it comes to responsibility, then you want to be children. So now you are saying children are being tried as adults, but in fact that is that the exception, or the rule? And I think too, one must consider the view of the victim and family, if your loved one is brutally killed, do you want the perpetrator punished? I don’t get what point you are making?

@rooeytoo As a matter of fact i don’t agree with treating kids with kid gloves, either. Separate prisons are one thing, separate standards are another. Teenagers should be tried as adults, and should also be treated as adults. If you’re old enough to work, you’re old enough to pull your own weight.

@rooeytoo: There just isn’t a logical reason not to manage “underage” drinking better, yet for some reason people keep insisting on prohibition despite its failure. I just don’t see any parallel between the judicial system and “kids” drinking. The question as far as I’m concerned is more similar to teenagers having sex. Banning it won’t stop it. It never has, it never will. Banning it does drive it underground, exacerbate the problems surrounding it, and cost society more money trying to battle those problems. Teenage drinking is and of itself not a moral issue, unless you make it one for some reason, but the consequences surrounding it need to be managed better.

And, yes, actually, American society is pretty rotten toward children in general. When we were in groups we were accused of loitering, we had little opportunity for recreation, and our very presence offended adults. Trying to ban drinking and stop teenage sex are probably just the tips of the iceberg. Fun really offends neo-puritans, and fun might be any deviation from the regimen inflicted on us.

Actually, the only hypocrisy I see when it comes to the age matter is on the side of the authoritarians/prohibitionists. They were able to arbitrarily extend the definition of “underage” to 21 in an instance that suited them against adults. On the other side of the scale, kids who can’t even vote can be punished as adults, without losing and of the legal impairments of being a minor. As @augustlan says, they should at least be consistent.

All this angst about 3 years difference. But yes I have said I agree, if 18 is the magic age for becoming a grown up, you leave home, get a job, support yourself, join the military (there is no draft as there was when I was young) then yep drink away, although I still find it sad that alcohol is necessary to have fun or viewed as such a huge source of pleasure. Basically it is the means to make and ass out of yourself, kill yourself or someone else in your car and the ticket to feeling like shit the next day. But I degress.

With regard to American society being rotten to children and not wanting them to have fun, I find that to be a totally false statement. Lack of consideration for the rest of the world is what offends most people, and that includes other children who do have manners and consideration and respect and manage to have fun too.

@rooeytoo I actually wasn’t trying to make a point, just answering your questions.

@augustlan – well then no wonder I didn’t get it!!!

@rooeytoo: frankly, alcoholic drinks are healthy (in that it improves general health) and people who drink them tend to be healthier. Sure, they can be pleasurable, but most drinkers don’t do the things you mention. What’s sad is that a few problem drinkers and overzealous prohibitionists ruin it for the vast majority of people who don’t bother anyone, either by controlling themselves or through voluntary abstinence. And if you’re so concerned about people killing other people in cars, it might be more worthwhile to consider a car ban, since most automobile fatalities are not “alcohol-related.”

I hardly see how the USA’s prison-like schools, lack of recreational opportunity, and general angst toward allowing kids to enjoy themselves in groups is pleasant toward children.

@bolwerk – The studies that show drinkers are healthier must be funded by the alcohol industry. I only cited car related deaths. If you go beyond that, 85% of police calls are alcohol related, spousal and child abuse is as well. Health related problems linked to alcohol are endless. And if you think alcoholism is a rare disease, I suggest you go to a couple of AA meetings or alateen.

I am truly sorry that you are forced to go to prison like schools, that you have no tennis courts, basketball courts, swimming pools or other recreational facilities to enjoy. Yes it is so sad that kids can’t enjoy themselves by playing video games, or on their iphones and ipads. It’s a rough life kiddo, and let me tell you, it ain’t gonna get any better when you are an adult. Actually that is when real life sets in!

@rooeytoo: it must be funded by the alcohol industry, so it can’t be true? (They’re not funded by the alcohol industry, of course, but nice try!) As for those other things, so what? That people prone to antisocial behavior are prone to substance abuse isn’t news. Many of them are probably smokers, drivers, and masturbaters too. Something like 100% of automobile accidents involve a car, so by your logic you should absolutely be part of Mothers Against Driving Sober too. Religious cult AA meetings no more show that drinking is bad than Weight Watchers means food is bad.

BTW, I’ve been out of school for a long time. I only imagine it’s gotten worse since I was there. I remember hearing after 9/11 that my then rural/exurban (now more suburban) high school started locking its doors. And while I don’t see anything wrong with video games by themselves, that they have replaced physical activity is pretty worrisome.

Okay you win, alcohol is wonderful stuff and kids have it terrible.