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DPMC Moderators: tryptakid
Why drugs are no longer cool: teenagers are internet addicts while their parents...
- Thread starter neversickanymore
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MyDoorsAreOpen
Bluelight Crew
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- Aug 20, 2003
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- 8,542
^ Thanks, SJ. It always used to shock me to look at old class photos from decades gone by, hanging on the wall at my elementary and high schools. The students from the 50s, 60s, and 70s all look serious and ready to face the grown-up world. The ones from the 80s onward gradually look more and more like naive kids, both with the way the dress and the postures and facial expressions they carry themselves with.
With the notable exception of kids who grow up under great poverty and hardship, I think a case can be made that American kids are just not forced to grow up in a timely fashion anymore. (Yes, I know this article is about Britain, which I've never been to and can't speak for.) I once read a book on cat psychology, which stated that domesticated and well-treated cats essentially live in a mental state of indefinite kittenhood. They'll get torn to shreds if ever forced to live among feral cats. I wonder if the post-industrial internet-wired first world is essentially doing the same thing to human beings.
With the notable exception of kids who grow up under great poverty and hardship, I think a case can be made that American kids are just not forced to grow up in a timely fashion anymore. (Yes, I know this article is about Britain, which I've never been to and can't speak for.) I once read a book on cat psychology, which stated that domesticated and well-treated cats essentially live in a mental state of indefinite kittenhood. They'll get torn to shreds if ever forced to live among feral cats. I wonder if the post-industrial internet-wired first world is essentially doing the same thing to human beings.
TheRapperGoneBad
Bluelighter
Thats some deep shit dr
This whole thread is full of interesting post, gotta agree with the couple above mine that alot of americans arent mentally grown and while I dont think its a bad thing to hang on to some idenity you gotta handle your shit.
MyDoorsAreOpen
Bluelight Crew
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- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 8,542
If the average human lifespan gets extended significantly beyond its natural bounds, I can foresee people with adolescences that stretch on for decades. While those born into families who can't afford life extension, or give it a thumbs down for religious or ethical reasons, will be forced to grow up faster than ever, and probably live with a seething, low-level resentment for all the world's carefree man-children who were just as devil-may-care in their great-grandparents' day. Brave new world a-comin, folx.
While we're at it, I wonder if the endpoint of this delaying of drug-trying due to the delaying of growing up will be a cohort of people who see recreational drug use altogether as crude and obsolete. Who needs the side effects, health risks, and unpredictability of drugs, when you've got multi-player interactive virtual worlds with ever more sophisticated degrees of sensory immersion and verisimilitude?! Imagine if recreational drugs became thought of as low class escapism for the mortal masses who can't afford the fees for technology-based immersion experiences. I can imagine someone developing a virtual space and experience that closely mimics the sought-after effects of pretty much every drug we currently know, especially if direct stimulation to the CNS (with targeted micro magnetic fields and the like) becomes part of it.
OK, I'll stop now.
I think the reason some folks here find this article squares with their experience and some don't, has to do with local cultures based on location and social class. I just read a New York Times article on how there are large but concentrated social circles and scenes in the US where cigarette smoking is as prevalent as it's ever been. I think that's true, and will always be true, for all things people put in their brains in the name of fun. Even during the peak years of reported drug-taking in the US, I'm sure there were social circles, demographics, and local areas that were almost devoid of it.
While we're at it, I wonder if the endpoint of this delaying of drug-trying due to the delaying of growing up will be a cohort of people who see recreational drug use altogether as crude and obsolete. Who needs the side effects, health risks, and unpredictability of drugs, when you've got multi-player interactive virtual worlds with ever more sophisticated degrees of sensory immersion and verisimilitude?! Imagine if recreational drugs became thought of as low class escapism for the mortal masses who can't afford the fees for technology-based immersion experiences. I can imagine someone developing a virtual space and experience that closely mimics the sought-after effects of pretty much every drug we currently know, especially if direct stimulation to the CNS (with targeted micro magnetic fields and the like) becomes part of it.
OK, I'll stop now.
I think the reason some folks here find this article squares with their experience and some don't, has to do with local cultures based on location and social class. I just read a New York Times article on how there are large but concentrated social circles and scenes in the US where cigarette smoking is as prevalent as it's ever been. I think that's true, and will always be true, for all things people put in their brains in the name of fun. Even during the peak years of reported drug-taking in the US, I'm sure there were social circles, demographics, and local areas that were almost devoid of it.