the sociology and senselessness of twenty-sixteen

Edit:  I have many worldwide readers, however, this particular post mainly pertains to American cultures and subcultures.  I'm a huge lover of globalization and will post plenty on that, promise.  However, to recap an entire year for a country that I've never seen first hand is a bit difficult.  53% of my blog readers are American, but I love my 47% equally!

  2016 has been quite the year.  Natural disasters to major celebrity deaths to hit movies to dumb people to new waves of technology - 2016 shaped us all. 
 
  One common theme for the year has been "2016 ruined us all", but, truthfully, I see this as a diversion of blame.  We mess ourselves up.  If we ruined our year, it was our fault for doing so, and not the years.  Father Time isn't sitting up in a pedestal somewhere laughing at Gen-Z and Millennial running around terrified.  No.  As a culture, we are going through major shifts, and this particular year has shown some ill effects.  In sociology, there are five ways in which a culture can change, and I believe that our Western culture has changed in all five.  Allow me to explain. 

  1.) Discovery

  Essentially, paying attention to something that we never knew existed.  On a menial note, Joe Biden has existed since 1942, yet he did not hit popularity for Gen-Zs and Millennials until this year.

   Yet, on a more serious note, we truly discovered the ills of natural disasters, such as Hurricane Matthew on the East Coast and the wildfires in Virginia/Tennessee/North Carolina.  But that's depressing and serious.  Have some more memes. 

  2.)  Invention

  Oh my, do I even have to elaborate?  We are in a time of technological invention!  Ironically, even though most of us find ourselves constantly surrounded by technology, if we were to be submerged into a past time, we would be of no help because we don't understand how any of it works.  What a strange time that we live in. 

  3.)  Diffusion

  Our clothing styles from overseas, our music, television, and movie culture rapidly adoring the Brits (okay, but seriously, why are so many of our things British?).  Anime and Hentai (gulp) are huge.  We are adopting the ideologies and becoming more global.

  4.)  Acculturation 

  See above.  Can you name more than three members of One Direction?  Yeah, I'm ashamed, too.

  5.)  Assimilation

  Although I believe that we have failed to reach this point, between immigrants and expats, we are approaching this point.

   I wish I could make some drastic ending point to make my English teacher proud, but honestly, I'm just going to conclude this post with some more memes.  Because, you know.  Memes.

 

"they don't know how good they have it,"

  I stood in line anxiously awaiting my Mini Shredded Chicken Quesadilla.  I could see the Taco Bell employee from where I stood - lost in the world of her iPhone.  I sighed and took in the situation around me.  A little girl bounced behind me, begging her mother to buy her more of the crunchy cinnamon fry things (no idea what they're called but they were a highlight of my childhood).

  It wasn't until I heard, "they don't know how good they have it," that I noticed the conversation of two men to my right.  One was a veteran.  One was an emergency responder from New York City.  Here they stood, in the same Taco Bell as I, waiting on the same employee to cook their food (it's worth noting that my total wait time was 22 minutes.  Just sayin'.)

  "These kids today.  They complain when they can't speak about their genders, but when I served, people would be blown up just for their genders."

  I grabbed my phone from my pocket and stared at the blank screen, eavesdropping on their conversation.

  "I guess it isn't their fault, they've never known a struggle," the New York native responded, "but, isn't that what we've been working towards?  Their right to know innocence and not of the war?"

  My respect for these men grew.  Rather than the "those Millennial kids!" or "always in an iPhone!" they admitted that we didn't raise ourselves.  This is all that we know - innocence.  The older generations have fought for our rights to know screams of laughter and not screams of pain.  They aspired for us to choose our exposure levels as consenting adults, not have it forced upon us as children.  Yet. it seems as if that is forgotten.

  I feel as if they read my mind.

  "So many complain that they're spoiled, but we made them that way,"

  I wanted to hug these guys.

  Their conversation shifted to Obama and Trump and I broke in, it wasn't long before one of the men had their order called and they parted.

  This conversation gave me hope for my generation.  Not everyone thinks that we are spoiled little brats, we are, in fact, naive.  Is it because we are young?  It's too early to tell.  We need to know what we have not seen.  This is one reason that I believe globalization is essential for us.

  I may only 18, but the conversation I overheard with random men in Taco Bell has made me chosen to become aware of my surroundings.  I will be aware of the children dying in the streets and the men dying on the front lines.  I will know how good I have it.  And I will use the platform wisely.