Spend a half hour or less on YouTube, and it's only a matter of time before you come across “I'm 16, and I was born in the wrong generation” in the comments. No matter what the content of the video is, whether it be a Pink Floyd album or the latest meme or trend, the saying applies -- just in very different ways.
For timeless music from the '70s, millennials express their wish to have been alive when arguably some of the best bands in history were performing. Conversely, the saying is used negatively on mainstream memes to express discontent with the level of entertainment value that other millennials feed into.
One thing most of my disgruntled generation can agree on: if they had to choose, they'd all rather have been born in the past, not the future, failing to acknowledge some of humanity's greatest achievements.
Sure, they could just be grossly dramatizing the suggestion of erasing their current lives (and the accompanying technology) just to experience the swooning voice of Sinatra over the radio or the cult-like craze following Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead. But the resulting insinuations stray from being simply dramatic, instead, resulting in hopeless naïvety.
The latest generation of human beings (in the first world) has grown up with technology readily available to them -- cell phones are common in elementary schools, Netflix makes watching television an active pastime rather than just a noise in the background and self-driving cars are a reality that couldn't have been dreamed of when our parents were giving birth to all of us two decades ago. So would millennials be prepared to discard their treasured conveniences and flow of information that they are so contingently entitled to?
Herein, lies the fundamental problem with what I've coined “anti-generationals,” a phenomenon I've noticed differs from anti-millennialism. Anti-generationals wouldn't be satisfied regardless of which generation they were born in because they fail to recognize the relevance of change in human history. Has society degenerated in the past 20 years? Probably if the 2016 presidential election cycle is any indicator, but in the 60's when protests were erupting across the United States over the Vietnam War, I'm sure people wished they had been born much earlier in history as well. Or when former President Nixon's elaborate Watergate scandal broke news headlines. Or during the nuclear standoff of the Cold War.
Every generation has its downsides, politically and socially, and fawning over time-travel into better times is an indication of curiosity euphemistically, but ultimately a representation of ignorance and weakness.
In a year riddled with plagues in the human timeline -- countless fatal attacks from ISIS, a possible Trump presidency, the Zika virus and a shocking insight into Brazil's volatile infrastructure brought to attention by the Olympics -- it's easy to wish away the bad and find the good in previous eras. However, to do so ignores the progress of humanity and the biggest caveat of all: certain demographics only would appreciate existing in the future and would never wish to experience past or, in many cases, present discrimination. Syrian refugees: they want to go home to a country that is no longer war torn, a country free from ISIS, a country free from Western intervention. Latino immigrants: they want to escape corruption and crime in Mexico and Central America, to start a new life in America, to eliminate the fear of deportation. Women: they want equal treatment in the workplace, equal pay, equal representation across all fields. The LGBT community: they want to erase stereotypes, to gain acceptance, to secure equal rights.
For sexual and racial minorities as well as all mistreated social groups, the discrimination and stereotypes that have persisted for most of human history are finally beginning to wear down. Social justice is imminent; no longer will the seemingly perpetual oppression continue.
Before one is to talk about being born in the wrong generation, consider the following: African-Americans in the early 1800s, Armenians in 1915, Jews in the 1930s to 40s, residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. People who were massacred and oppressed for no other reason than when and where they were born. Society has advanced both morally and humanely since then, and to forget that in the hopes of seeing Genesis with Peter Gabriel instead of Phil Collins is idyllic but short-sighted.
Appreciate the fact you live in a first world country with grocery stores on every corner. Appreciate the fact that modern medicine has already saved your life just by preventing fatal illnesses that killed your ancestors. Appreciate the luxury of skimming a Wikipedia article instead of going to the library and reading five books on the subject. Most of all, appreciate where you came from and stop perpetuating the stereotype of self-righteous millennials.
