My Gen-X Files – Embracing Uncertainty

I have the feeling that Generation X is also the last generation to understand and embrace uncertainty. I don’t support a life of planned ignorance, but until the invention of the internet, we could be comfortable with not knowing the answer.  Or we could accept how uncomfortable that feeling can be.

I remember a conversation I had with my son about the life of a celebrity.  I can’t remember which, but I knew and interesting background story and as I was telling him, he had yanked out his phone and was already checking the validity of my story. I didn’t need the assist.  I knew what I was talking about.  But for him, the internet is there to back up or dispute bullshit.  It’s pretty amazing.  However, aside from the fact that a source can be wrong, the important thing is that we were sharing a moment together and it was ruined by some other dipshit who wrote the Wikipedia article or the IMDb page.  It’s not important if we get the details of the stranger pitch perfect.  Communication is more about conveying an idea.  There’s a bonding there.  You have to let go of a few things like being correct all of the damn time. 

The world is turning into a bunch of nerds?  Maybe that’s too far. 

I had plenty of nerd arguments in the 80s.  Movie lines, music lyrics, interpretations of books and media and lessons in school.  I was right a lot.  I was wrong a lot, too. But the point was the interaction I had with my friends, even if I didn’t understand that at the time.  That reminds me of urban myths.  You can debunk an urban myth within two minutes of research now.  I remember when they were actual, modern-day myths.  Your job was to figure out if you believed them or not and call bullshit if you felt the urge.  You can’t kill a guy that way.  Mikey didn’t die from eating Pop Rocks.  I don’t want to even address Rod Stewart.  It really doesn’t matter if any of it was true.  It was fodder for fun.  Now, they are conversational dead-ends.

There was also uncertainty within relationships. I guess there always is, but I mean the fact that we didn’t keep tabs on each other. If you had a girlfriend and she had some crap to deal with on the weekend and you didn’t see her, then that’s what happened. She didn’t have a phone to call or text and neither did you.  You had no idea what she was doing. She didn’t know what you were doing. Maybe that developed trust over time?  Whatever it was, the thought of checking in every hour or so was inconceivable at the time. You had to live with that.

I also got to miss people. Family, friends, everybody.  The downside was loneliness, but that was also an opportunity for growth.  I didn’t get that, but many understood that life continues whether or not anyone is paying attention to you.  When I reunited with my girlfriend or my friends, I appreciated them all over again. Plus, we had news to exchange and stories to tell.

With the lack of information that the internet would eventually bring, plus loose parenting, you got a generation of people who had to try things out.  Gen-X had to experiment and learn the hard way.  That is inefficient as hell and a lot of time could have been saved with a YouTube video.  But that skill set is something that will be lost.  There is no excuse to not have all the possible answers and prurient information before you set on your task.  It’s amazing when you think about it.  For anything you want to do, at least one capable person on planet Earth has accomplished that very thing and uploaded information about it on the internet.  You have at least one, if not thousands of bits of data to work with. 

In junior high, half the guys wanted to be archaeologists because of Indiana Jones, and the other wanted to be fighter pilots because of Top Gun.  Fifteen minutes of reading about those jobs on the internet could have saved years of wasted time.  I had no idea what it took to go to college, or pay for it, or what a college education could do.  When I eventually jumped in, I just hoped I was doing it correctly.  I mean, that’s my dumb history.  There were counselors and professors to talk to.  But how much easier would had it have been if I could just look it up in bed on a Saturday morning.  When I was thirteen instead of twenty-three? 

Were we brave?  Were we the last of a pioneering spirit?  Were we bold, or did we have no other choice? We just…you know…did it.

You still don’t know what will happen or if you’re making the right decision.  No internet page can gauge that.  You still have to consider the odds and try.  Now you can get better odds.  You can prep for life’s biggest risks years in advance.  But you still have to take the risk.  We accepted that.  Begrudgingly, and with a mountain of sarcasm and bitterness, but we accepted that.