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Joseph Szabo’s pictures of American adolescents

84 points · 64 comments · prismatic

  1. blendo · · focus · HN ↗
    High school class of 1974 here. We loved the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of the 60s, but we also were keenly aware of the impermanance of the hedonistic lifestyles of Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.
    1. Huarache1 · · focus · HN ↗
      High school class of 2020 here. We wish we could have the life our boomer forefathers did, but their life was so hedonistic, they destroyed ours by proxy.
      1. freetime2 · · focus · HN ↗
        Interesting. Can you give some examples of how boomers were more hedonistic than earlier/later generations, and how that destroyed your life? I'd be particularly interested to see how you feel boomers compare to your own generation with regard to hedonism?

        I'm wondering if young people are really less hedonistic now, or if the types of hedonistic activies people engage in have just changed? Would you consider doomscrolling to be a form of hedonism, for example?

        1. thin_carapace · · focus · HN ↗
          considering that the big cliffs of western fertility coincide with major smartphone releases, you are comparing that which the young gentleman would have appreciated experiencing (shared human experience of pleasure), with the death of his opportunity to experience such. do you genuinely consider lying in bed alone on the phone for hours on end to be comparable to sex/drugs/rock n roll in any manner outside of resultant dopamine spiking?
          1. sodapopcan · · focus · HN ↗
            From what I understand, current younger generations won't dance because they are terrified of being recorded. I'm don't know how rampant this is, but if true it's really sad. Dancing poorly is one of life's greatest pleasures (and really good exercise too boot!). While I absolutely despise "generation wars," the smartphone really did a number on... well, all of us. I hope more people start to ditch them.

            EDIT: I actually don't really know what Huarache1 is really talking about. I'm an elder millennial (Xenial, really) and we were plenty hedonistic, just a little safer about it, so it could be the case of younger people relegating anyone they deem old to be a "boomer." I think Millennials have a lot of blame on their shoulders for being so willing to make social media such a huge part of our lives.

            1. underlipton · · focus · HN ↗
              >I think Millennials have a lot of blame on their shoulders for being so willing to make social media such a huge part of our lives.

              Uh, it was heavily marketed towards us, too. And it was a godsend to those of us stuck at home in suburban hell, around the time when retailers and fast food joints stopped hiring teenagers and cars were becoming more expensive and harder to work on without a bunch of expensive tools.

              1. sodapopcan · · focus · HN ↗
                > Uh, it was heavily marketed towards us, too.

                Absolutely it was. It was also quite different in the beginning, though. Many people saw facebook as a photo-sharing site and a way to exchange stupid, public-facing messages. Remember a year or so after the news feed introduced and fb messaging was just becoming a thing (no dedicated app yet) and people started freaking out that their "private" messages were now public when really it was just stuff they had written on each others "walls" that in everyone's minds (with not fault to them) was private to their friend group?

                > And it was a godsend to those of us stuck at home in suburban hell,

                Very fair so ya, my life-long city-boyness is showing.

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