re: “Help Wanted”

quote:

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I saw users on the OT saying how teenagers these days don't care about driving or having a car.

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Too many people assume this is because "oh, those stupid teens are spoiled! They just want to play their video games and tik toks!!!!!!!"

The reality is a lot more complex than this. When boomers and gen xers were young, a car represented freedom. You could finally leave your parents' home on your own terms. You could finally do things without your parents watching your every move. You could meet up with your group of friends, which likely regularly gathered at a handful of meeting spots. Then, you and your friends could ride around in said car to visit the other meeting spots where they might run into some girls.

The motivation to have a car was:
1. to physically leave your home
2. to experience independence from parental authority, observation, and control
3. to socialize with friends
4. to meet and date members of the opposite sex

Let's examine how and why each of these purposes is no longer relevant for the zoomer.

1. To physically leave your home. Having a car is no longer necessary for getting out of the house unless you live in a really rural community (where car culture is still strong among youth). Ride share apps are far more cost effective to get rides to parties and social events than working 30 hrs a week at a job just to barely afford the gas and insurance.

2. To experience independence from parental authority, observation, and control. The smart phone, and to a lesser extent, the cell phone, destroyed this while I was a teen. You are just as trackable, just as reachable, and almost as observable by your parents when you are out and about in your car as you are at home in your room. The smart phone completely destroyed any kind of teen freedom. Parents can effectively lojack you and find you wherever you are if they care to do so. They can reach you at any time. As a result, the car just becomes a tool to do more chores, like a wheelbarrow is for yard work. Kids don't experience freedom by having access to a car, they just get access to a whole extra set of chore responsibilities.

3. To socialize with friends. Back in the day, cliques had set gathering places where they would meet up and then decide where they were going to go next. See, this was necessary because once someone was outside of the house, they were traditionally difficult to get a hold of in the event plans changed. So, friend groups gathered at the fountain in the mall, or the circle k parking lot, or wherever every friday evening before they decided where they were going as a group. Social media and smart phones have replaced that meetup place. People have a little device in their pocket that they can use to get in touch with their friends whenever, and they can even set it up so that they and their friends always know where each other are. So, there's no need to have a designated meet up. Then, during the pandemic, most of the spaces where teens and young adults would actually gather at once a plan was in place were completely shut down. So, even if there was a friend group that wanted to go somewhere, there was nowhere to actually go.

4. To meet and date members of the opposite sex. While women still prefer men with cars, it's not the big deal it used to be. Once again, ride sharing is a big part of this. Women, much like men, don't have those set gathering places any more. So "cruisin' for chicks" is no longer a feasible thing to do. The people you're looking for aren't just...there...in public...where you can talk to them...with your mouth. They're pretty much only online 99% of the time. They don't like random people they don't know approaching them to talk. They prefer to meet people online FIRST before meeting in real life. Once again, the places these people used to go largely don't exist anymore, or they might as well have not existed for the past 2 years.

Finally, games are not purely a lonely activity any more. Most games are now primarily multi-player online. That means that when folks are gaming, they're socializing with people all over the world. You know when they're actually NOT socializing with anyone? When they go and drink by themselves at a bar. You know why? Because there, they're actually alone. There's no one there with any interest in talking to them or being approached by them. Their friends aren't there because their friends are at home gaming. There's no women there their age either, because they're...who the f$%k knows?!

A car just straight up doesn't do for young zoomers what it did for older millenials, boomers, and gen xers.

As a result, our youth are completely disillusioned because the entire young adult experience has been turned inside out. The home is the center of socializing with the world. Public life is isolation. Cars are chore machines rather than tickets to freedom. Everywhere is closed or sad, every social interaction is surface level or "controversial", and everything is excruciatingly lonely, expensive, exploiting, unfulfilling, and sad beyond belief.