The 2011 Reality

I love to listen to adults talking about the past and what the good (and bad) things were from their time as a young adult. In many respects the 'now generation' is living the high life because we've not lived through a war that's affected the home front; we've not had to do mandatory service in the army; and as young people nowadays we have more rights than ever. We live in a modern era where the internet provides the basis for almost everything we do and when we can access just about anything we want (from the past and the present) at the click of a button. We have access to brilliant education and we are encouraged to thrive by our elders instead of being ignored. The question I then ask is this: why do some people think we've got it bad?

So much has changed in my life-time. I can't remember very much before about 1995/1996 but I know, from reading about the past, that the world has changed almost beyond recognition in the last 20 years. Our parents lived a completely different lifestyle to us in so many respects that is almost seems like ancient history to young people. How did they contact each other without mobile phones? How did they learn without the internet? How could they live their lives without touch-screens!? OK, the last one of those is simply a personal preference of mine but you understand where I'm coming from when I say that most young people nowadays couldn't survive without technology as it is just now - even technology from 5 years ago would be stone-age to many people.

In Scotland I feel particularly privileged because of the fact that students don't have to pay tuition fees here. Looking down at the situation in England and Wales, I can understand the grievance that they have with being charged astronomical amounts of money just so that they can learn. I sometimes wonder if I would be where I am just now if I was having to pay for my university degree - a big chuck of me thinks that I wouldn't. I'm very lucky to be where I am but the way that I see it is that I'm here because that is the reality of being a young person, in Scotland, in 2011. University education has changed a lot over the years as well with the dawning of the internet age. Going back to my previous question about: I just don't know how people used to learn without the internet.

I suppose what I'm trying to get at is that it's not all that bad being a young person in 2011. I could have just written that single sentence for tonight's post instead of waffling on but I just wanted to try and provide a little bit of backbone to that message. Sadly there are many people in the World that are worse off than people in situations such as my own and that is the primary reason why you'll never hear me or any respectful young person moan about how rubbish their lives are. Young people can be an  interesting breed sometimes but I think that, on the whole, we realise how lucky we are to be young adults living in 2011.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the bad quality of tonight's writing. I've been essay writing for most of today and my brain needs some rest!

Martin