“In fact, for the first time in American history, the majority of parents do not think that their kids will be better off than they were. This is true of rich and poor, men and women. Now, some of you might hear this and feel sad.”

“This quote from the Ted Talk did make me question something.  Why would parents think of their children this way.  If/when I have kids I want to raise them the best I can to go out and become better off than me. I would have thought that all parents would try to raise their kids to be as successful or better than they were and not thinking that their kids will not be better off than they were and to me that’s terrible. I feel exactly what the quote says”

“Across both surveys, the most popular answer is clear and consistent: Americans are most likely to mention family when asked what makes life meaningful in the open-ended question, and they are most likely to report that they find “a great deal” of meaning in spending time with family in the closed-ended question.”

This quote in the reading gives us the outcome of the two surveys done and I can honestly not be surprised to see that the most popular answer was being with family.  When I think about what makes me happy I first think about what I like to do and most of the activities I do is always with my brother, so with the activity, I also enjoy every moment with my little brother and he is always there for me as I will be for him.  Not only does hanging out with family make me happy I find the most meaning in life sharing memories with the ones that I love the most. One thing that I may ask the authors would be why they didn’t do more than two groups of surveys.

 

 

“…It isn’t because those who are slightly dissimilar get along better. Rather, it’s the nature of small campuses. “A smaller, more intimate place leads to closer relationships as a general rule,” he said.”

Reading this article made me think about my/our school and now relationships are here.  Ole Miss is not a huge school by any means 21 thousand students in attendance is a good number but some will say it’s small. In a town like Oxford (a small southern town) people are generally already nicer to each other.  When walking around campus people love to wave, smile, carry on a conversation with you, and of course party in the grove all together and get along fairly well. Especially in times like these when the school and town in on lockdown everyone has a little sympathy for each other and don’t think twice about helping out.  Even if you don’t befriend someone they will still hold the door for you.  Now with friend groups, I can say they are closer than ever and certainly have a good relationship.  Also outside of friend groups and greek life, the Ole Miss Rebs are all one family. Hotty Toddy

“..And 60 percent of all young adults receive financial support from them. That’s a significant increase from a generation ago, when only one in 10 young adults moved back home and few received financial support.”

 

While reading this article I came across this section where a piece of factual information caught my eye.  In the current situation that I find myself in going out of state for college, I will ultimately find myself fresh out of college moving back into my parent’s house working to pay off my student debt.  What I did not know though was that 60% of young adults still receive financial support from their parents.  This makes me really want to try my best in school so that by my senior year I will have a job set up for me to take off after school and start my career while paying off my loans and hopefully not having to have no choice but to be dependant on my family. This also makes me think if people don’t see a problem with moving back in after college. Also thinking about how last generations students 9 out of 10 went onto start their lives on their own in their own living space while that 10% will go back home and move in with their parents.  Especially in today’s day, I see that being a problem with covid as well.

Beck: “If somebody just said “Hey what’s up” in a dating context, would you feel fine about that, or would you be like, “Eh, they’re not really trying”?”

 

I feel as if this quote of the reading did challenge my opinions/make me think why I personally feel why online friendships and dating is not the right way to go.  In 2021 now technology/social media use is used more than a toilet or trashcan.  Everyone and their mothers have some type of online website or app that they walk to people through the internet.  In my eyes, I can see there being problems. Not just with context while carrying on a conversation but also how apps like Bumble and Tinder can fool people.  When you match with a person their pictures can be altered so much that if you were to see that person in real life you might not even be able to recognize them. That’s so fake. Also when people are talking to each other just as the quote says people may take what you say out of context. When writing “Hey what’s up” depending on who it is you may read it differently in your head than the way the person sending it you intended on it being.  This can cause people to not text you back and possibly think man this guy/girl is a weirdo and maybe block them. So this is why I think that talking, meeting, and interacting with people in person…REAL LIFE, is much better for everyone.

“People want to customize their lives. They want to go in and out of all the places they are because the thing that matters most to them is control over where they put their attention.”

I think that this is so true.  Especially in this day in age where I think that people use their social media platforms to personify someone who they really aren’t. They might have all of these wonderful pictures of their family or the last great place they traveled to, or a major trophy they won, etc, you get the point. I feel as if now people are more worried about how many likes they get on their Instagram post than they do their parents flying home from a trip. Social media is so twisting these days. I think that this could be very toxic for some people who rather care about their internet life than going out in the real world, getting a supporting job, good friends, and staying around the people who really care about you and not what’s on your Facebook page.

“David went on the trip and enjoyed himself, posting several pictures on Instagram.

But he noticed that the friend who’d dropped out hadn’t liked any of the photos he posted.

“I remember we got in an argument, and I was like, ‘You know, you didn’t like any of my pictures on Instagram!’” he laughs. “A year ago we brought it up again, and he was like, ‘Yeah. I did see your pictures, and I didn’t want to like them because I didn’t go on that trip.’”””

 

This article did challenge my opinions.  And the way that this reading did this was by adding in the quote above when David planned a trip with his friends and one decides not to go.  Well after the trip David posts some pictures to Instagram and his friend that canceled did not like his pictures.  This bothers me because if there was no Instagram and Davids friend ran into him after the trip I would expect him to ask how the trip was, what they did, show him pictures, and I’m sure they would have gotten along and his friend would have said something along the lines of oh man I wish I would have gone yall looked like you had so much fun. What challenged my opinions though was why does social media have to be so negative and get others down.  Why can everyone is kind to each other instead of being so judgemental on what they post to their pages.  It will never make sense to me.

“…along with others like #MeToo and #MAGA (Make America Great Again) – has sparked a broader discussion about the effectiveness and viability of using social media for political engagement and social activism….”

 

After reading this passage I quickly took notice of this quote. This made me connect to something that I already know about which is the power of social media influencers.  It’s crazy to think nowadays people will solely base their beliefs on something that some guy/girl on social media posted because they were either paid to do so or to get people on their side on things.  This became very prevalent during this election where I think that a lot of people ages 18-25 voted based on how many good/bad tweets they say about the presidential candidate that they were going for.  When Twitter put a ban on Donald Trump’s tweets it literally went against our freedom of speech. Now people that didn’t like Donald Trump or were right in the middle could see this and say to themselves. Oh, he must be so bad if they delete his Twitter account.   I am sure that social media is the only reason people voted for who they did but I do believe that this year the news and social media played a huge role in the outcome of the 2020 election.

I think that there was a bit of a connection betwwen the reading about Millenials and the reading today about how Todays college students arent who you think they are. The connection I thought of is how when my parents went to college they were able to work part and full time jobs be able to go out and have fun all while going to school for their degree. While millenials cant seem to check their emails and get a job. By the time my parents were 27-30 years old they had their full blown carrer going while in the reading today I learned that 1 in 5 college students are 30 years old. I also thought about how millenials are burn outs and how they have a child or dependent other, how a quarter of students take a year off, (proably because they are lazy), and finally attending school part time the connection being how the statistics line up with why millenials are a burnout generation.  Thats where I think the connecting between the burnout reading and the reading today about college students not being who we think they are.

“Today’s college student is decidedly nontraditional — and has been for a while. “This isn’t a new phenomenon,” Radford says. “We’ve been looking at this since 1996.”…Radford has done a lot of research on this and defines the nontraditional student as having one or more of the following characteristics:

• Financially independent from their parents
• Having a child or other dependent
• Being a single caregiver
• Lacking a traditional high school diploma
• Delaying postsecondary enrollment
• Attending school part time
• Being employed full time…”

This article did make me question something. Why have the past generations changed so much compared to their/our parents.  When my parents were in college they both worked part and full-time jobs while going to school, able to go out and party, be in a Greek life organization and be able to support themselves all at the same time.  I honestly think it could tie into the first reading we had about millennials and why they are so lazy.  But at the same time, these new nontraditional college students and the statistics posted in the reading really had me stumped.  1 in 5 is at least 30 years old.  This took me totally by surprise. When my dad graduated college in the late 80’s early 90’s there were definitely not many people over 25 years old in a graduating class.  In addition, one more thing that also shocked me was a quarter of students take a year off before starting school.  I’m guessing that this is because of work maybe or something else I don’t know just something that made me question why they would do that instead of trying to graduate with your degree as soon as possible.