Posted in Canada, Environment, Family, Music, Parenting, Political, Uncategorized

Dreaming is Free

Posted on by D. Parker

Are teens and young people at risk for dreaming anymore?

Dreaming has become very expensive…and I think you need an app for it.

pablo23

Boomers and Gen X were well-intentioned, wanting to give our children everything. Somehow it backfired and we’re leaving them with: a broken system, crumbling infrastructure, crippling debt, dubious morals, attention issues, a yawning wealth gap, a dying planet, corrupt governments and business.
Now in our defence, we also gave them: kittens on the internet, tons of fast food, and technology that might be destroying them.

pablo19

Yet I’m still hopeful. Why? Because they are.
Many young people still want to try. They want to change things.
The media gives us the impression that all young people care about is
their smart phones, that they don’t vote, they’re unmotivated, or joining terrorist groups.
But that’s because the news is pandering – sensationalism rules.
Saving the planet isn’t sexy.
Trillions in unfunded liabilities (governments are happy if you don’t pay attention to things like this) is boring and incomprehensible.
None of this has ratings potential. Rarely goes viral. But it should. We need to stop focusing on the negative and sensational.

Have we removed our children’s ability to dream? I hope not.1agenscrewed3
Maybe it would help if we stopped calling them things like, Generation Screwed. That’s uplifting.
Profusely unemployed or underemployed, many live at home longer or return home. Debt, especially from student loans, is weighing them down. They need to have hope.

Generations like Millennials and Gen Z, have been given/offered/shown so much.
Their expectations are high. A new smart phone in their hand, and often. Big TVs, little laptops and tablets, a “nice” or really “nice” car to drive, fast food, clothes, trips, and so much more.
Yet when they get out into the world to earn enough to have those things themselves, they hit barriers – no jobs, part-time jobs, low-income jobs, outsourcing, and even their beloved technology is plotting to steal their jobs.

They’re told to: lower their expectations; accept the new normal; the low-hanging fruit has been picked; and society has reached a plateau. Wow, way to motivate.

That should be a Graduation Speech:

Knowing that society has reached a plateau and all the low-hanging fruit has been picked, we’re all going back home to live with our parents until we’re 40 or 50 or until they’re gone. 1agenscrewed4
This is the new normal, having lowered our expectations of ever getting a decent job or a home.
We accept this is the way things are.
And in conclusion, please check out this viral video of a zebra that can paint its own toenails. Thank you.

Author:

Very me

66 thoughts on “Dreaming is Free”

  1. You’re right on the money with this. I also feel like dream selling has become a market, an Alladin’s lamp of online classes and expensive webinars. America used to have manufacturing, now we sell dreams.

    Like

    Reply

  2. So totally true! We offer them no jobs so they have to live at home till they’re 40! We have progressed to where we have eliminated all the jobs and given them to robots…brilliant 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  3. The more things change the more they stay the same. Every generation bemoans the downfall of society because of the ills that progress has created. I agree though that the current generation of millenials has a challenge, but then again is it any different than our generation before them? I do agree about dreaming. I’m a hopeless romantic that still dreams that any goal is possible. It would be in our and the worlds best interest to still sell dreams and dreaming. If people don’t dream of progress, greatness or the impossible nothing new will ever be accomplished.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Some things make us feel comfortable and secure, but sometimes they make us too comfortable and secure, they hide the truth. We want to believe that it’s the same and that everything will work out because it makes some of the choices we’re making justified.
      The hope is always that each generation will have challenges they can overcome and they will go better than the last…not really what the future holds for many Millennials.
      Progress is wonderful, if it’s not just for the sake of progress and the accumulation of wealth for the rich.
      Hopefully we can pull a rabbit of a hat and try to turn things around, until then we can keep trying to dream. 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  5. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs ~ future prospects aren’t looking to good. So what the heck, it’s incomprehensible how far we have fallen, doesn’t seem to be any breaks in slowing down this slow (and deliberate?) destruction of a once very fruitful nation. Fruitful here has many meanings.

    Like

    Reply

    1. I think the news makes it sound worse than it is, for effect, but it’s frustrating that too many governments and businesses care about power and money more than the present or future.

      Like

      Reply

  7. All paradigm shifts are painful. Perhaps the industrial revolution has run its course and its time to consider a return to the guild system.

    If the kids are finished with school and are all at home, unemployed, consider starting a home based business that uses their labor. They’ll join in or move out.

    Okay, maybe that isn’t a practical solution but neither is vegging on the couch, playing on line games and bemoaning the lack of opportunity while aging moms and dads trudge off to work, even into their retirement years.

    And, oh yeah, I am in that latter group. That’s my vent for the day. It’s 1 AM, time to go to work.

    Like

    Reply

  9. Awesome as always. I just want to point out as well how I often heard as an adolescent and early twenty-something, “Why would you want to study this? What’s that going to get you in life?” all in the name of finding high-paying employment after uni. In choosing to follow my dreams and passions, and with a bit of luck, I carved out a career for myself in a highly competitive field. I think many kids and their parents just give-up too easily . . . letting tech babysitters take care of them, if you will.

    Like

    Reply

    1. So much depends on situations, timing, abilities, choices…and money doesn’t equal success, happiness does. 🙂
      Glad to hear you’ve been able to follow your dreams and passions. 🙂
      Thank you and thanks for dropping by. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  10. I suppose I’m an early Millenial being born in the early 1980s. Yes I have worked an enjoyable, worthwhile but low paid job for the last seven years but I don’t think this is a bad thing. It has given me the chance to dream about what I really want to do, and provided me with the impetus to make that dream a reality.
    Having been in crippling debt I will never again allow myself to be in that position again.
    Dreaming is not dead, its just changed.

    Like

    Reply

  11. An app for dreaming… there we go. Maybe that explains why i rarely dream any more — i don’t have the app. That and the fact that I don’t sleep long enough at a time to dream.
    >Great thoughts, Donna. If they expect nothing, then that’s what they’ll likely attract.
    I’m not a big fan of his, but George Lopez said something once that resonated with me. He was talking about kids having unreasonably high dreams, but then he realized that was actually good. “Don’t just dream big,” he said. “Dream even bigger!”
    Mega-hugs my friend — and great big sweet dreams tonight.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Try to get some sleep, Teagan, although your sinuses aren’t being very cooperative, are they?
      Thank you…not a big fan of his either, but it’s true, dreaming is the brain’s way to process your day and if you have a good day, better dreams…and we should all think big when it comes to goals and dreams.:)
      Hope this day is good to you despite those nasty-empty-now-filled-with-yucky-stuff-holes-in-your-head. 😉
      Megahugs, Donna

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  12. 😀 “Dreaming has become very expensive…and I think you need an app for it.” Great post. Sad but humorous in your presentation.

    So true, this: “But that’s because the news is pandering – sensationalism rules. Saving the planet isn’t sexy.” Spot on.

    Like

    Reply

  13. I think your post is right. It will be a worse world for the upcoming generation– extended generation families will probably wind up living with each other forever like they did in medieval times– but the internet will give them “bread and circuses.” I don’t even want to think about aging Gen. Xers all having to live in compounds when we are 85 because we never made any money during lives of work! (So I am not going to think about it, lol!)

    Like

    Reply

    1. It’s not a pleasant corner we’ve painted ourselves into. Yes, the internet giving us “bread and circuses” is a sadly apt reminder of how twisted things are getting. I hope we can turn things around before it all goes too far. 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  14. I know, that you don’t live in Spain, but what you write here fits in for many young people here. There are no jobs, perhaps help for people between 25-35 and maybe also for people between 45-55 and then no more. Many companies close down, outsource or move to a more cheep country for producing. More import where mostly of it have a bad quality, you don’t know, if it comes from kids working etc.

    Many here live in big families with up to 12 members in one apartment. No one can afford to get a family or think to get their own place to live. We are going some hundred years back in time, the development the same here as many not developed countries and then they call this country European. It seems very different.

    Unfortunately we don’t leave much hope for the young people any where. It is very sad. I wish that I could help to change that.

    Great and very important post 🙂
    Irene

    Like

    Reply

    1. Irene, I’m in Canada and sadly, I think this situation to one extent or another is worldwide.
      It’s getting worse instead of better and if we love our children as much as we say we do, we have to help them fight for their future. 🙂
      Thanks for dropping by and for your insights, hope this day is good to you. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I think that you are right. I did my best with my kids, both got an education, one of them has a job now, the other is looking for one. We can only do our best and then give our kids hope and learn them, that they need to have dreams and help them with advices to live out their dreams.
        My day is okay thank you, still in need for energy.
        Wish you a happy day 😀

        Like

  16. I did my best with my daughter and she’s smart and a hard worker. I got laid off at age 55 and am a hard worker. We both are optimistic, Donna. You do the best you can and hope real hard, too.

    Like

    Reply

    1. I’ve been accused of being a hopeless optimist, but I’m also a realist, both help me want to keep going. 🙂
      I’m glad you’re an optimist, Mark, and I think having a sense of humour helps, and we know you’ve got that, in spades. 😉
      Hope this day is good to you and yours. 🙂

      Like

      Reply

      1. I’m good. I’m learning other social networks and how they all work together–my left foot is in a cast and I’m trying very hard not to grab something sharp and tear the cast off. I have to go back to Kaiser tomorrow to have it replaced because I got it wet—let’s see, what else–oh yes, It must be that time of month because I’m feeling highly illogical.

        Like

      2. Casts are cumbersome and itchy. And now that you said ‘my left foot’ I’m thinking of watching a Daniel Day Lewis movie. 😉
        Hope your recasting goes well. 🙂
        Social networks are a good thing to learn and due to immobilization issues, perfect timing. 🙂
        Hope this day treats your (and your left foot) kindly. 🙂

        Like

  18. A very thought-provoking post. so many good points you’ve made here and I’m betting that if we parents are honest with ourselves, we’ll see some harsh realities in what you’ve written..

    Like

    Reply

    1. You’re so right, my best memories of childhood are the ones where we were just being, learning to be, enjoying the moment, not stressing. Love #FridayFrolics – gotta spread the joy! 🙂 Hope this weekend is treating you kindly.

      Like

      Reply

  21. I like this share. My daughter is 21 and she is very aware in engaged in society issues and humanity in general. We joke that yes I told her she could do anything but life shows her otherwise but I am proud that she is not self absorbed regardless of all the gadgets at hand. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

    1. It’s always wonderful to hear when anyone of any age is engaged and informed, it would be a better world if everyone did their part. Thanks for dropping by, Mari, I hope this weekend treats you and yours kindly. 🙂

      Like

      Reply
  22. Pingback: Weekend Traffic Jam Link up! - Laina Turner
  23. Pingback: Traffic Jam Weekend Linky Party #70 | Epic Mommy Adventures
  24. Pingback: Traffic Jam Weekend Linky Party #70
  25. Pingback: Traffic Jam Weekend Linky party #70

  26. Though there is a lot of criticism of them, I’m not sure the millenials deserve their rep: demographics studies of both the Brexit referendum and the US election suggests the millennials want change. They seem to want a kinder, more tolerant world. & they are being screwed in elections by the baby boomers!

    Thanks so much for joining us for #FridayFriolics

    Like

    Reply

    1. Change is such a strange word, I think sometimes we forget it can mean good change or bad change. I think we also take things for granted and these days, people seem to have a notoriously short memory, of the good and bad.
      Love #FridayFrolics – a lot of joy there, we need more of that. 🙂

      Like

      Reply
  27. Pingback: #TrafficJamWeekend Linky Party 70 | Eclectic Evelyn

Please follow, like, leave comments. Thanks.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.