Those Darn Kids Today...again

[roseembolism]

So, Charlie Stross has a rant up about the latest   "What your Freshmen Don't Know" list at Beloit college.  The list itself is rather overblown, and my reaction to the items ranged from "so?" to "hmm.".  What may be more interesting is the commentary, with people of various ages arguing about how alien teens really are.  And of course there's Mr. Stross' reaction.

Is it a bad sign when a noted SF author shows signs of culture shock?  maybe even Future Shock?  Admittedly, the whole list is an exercise in Future Shock, a prose version of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Light the Fire".  So Mr. Stross may be playing along.

Still, I'm wondering if in a couple years, somebody will find him huddling under his living room table screaming "It's here!  the Singularity is here!  And it left me behind!" 

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

He's not a noted SF author, he's just a cranky ex-sysadmin.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Well I noted him.

[mithriltabby]

If a Hugo Award doesn’t qualify as “note”, what does?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

A note from his mother?

[mithriltabby]

I don’t see future shock there at all. He’s looking at upcoming trends and figuring out how to make a living when his target market includes people who have different cultural references. If anything, it looks like he’s inoculating himself against future shock.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I do that to a degree as well, but mainly I do it by listening to the radio and watching youtube.

Really, there's something about the whole "look at what those kids are doing now" element that really gives a feeling of isolation, since I don't really see there's so much a youth culture as a "today" culture to which people participate in to varying degrees. Of course bear in mind that the most technophilic people I know are in my age range.

Part of it is the list of course: I was looking at it and going "well, I do that", and "So what's so strange about that?" to far too many of the items. SO looking at either the technology ort the behavior as odd just strikes me as a warning sign.

[mithriltabby]

Where does Stross look at any of that behavior as odd?