Generations

I remember a line from the movie Clueless where one of the main characters makes the revelation: "So the way I feel about Rolling Stones is the way my kids are gonna feel about Nine Inch Nails, so I probably shouldn't torture my mom anymore" (or something like that).  Clueless is, in many ways, an excellent piece of satire, and it focuses a lot of its satire on my generation.  (I'm not sure if we are considered Gen X, clinging to the tail of this demographic as its last inhabitants, but from what I have heard, yes.  We are too old to be part of the Digital Natives, so we mid- nineties- high school grads get clumped into X.  It makes sense really.  We grew up loving John Hughes movies and playing Atari, after all.) 

But Clueless is also a good sort of time- capsule- ish movie.  I think it came out when I was a junior in high school or so, making me the same age, more or less, as the high schoolers it depicts.  I remember Contempo (or 'Contrampo') Casuals at the mall, and the short plaid skirt with the thigh- highs trend.  And then came the Birkenstocks with socks and fringey- bottomed jeans.  We listened to Radiohead and Coolio.  We said things like, 'As if!'  I think Clueless is funny because of the satire, but I also like watching it because it gives me a fun, secure sense of "back then."

A lot of the kids I teach have seen Clueless and have even referred to it in front of me, which cracks me up because they probably think it to be some really radical, almost Indie look at the nineties.  It's like how I felt cool for having seen Dazed and Confused.  But anyhoo, the kids seem fascinated with nineties culture because they were only toddlers (frightening).  They don't know that Alicia Silverstone was also in those Aerosmith videos (because some of them have never seen a music video-- ever), and perhaps more alarming many of them don't know who Winona Ryder or Shannen Doherty is.  It's inconceivable to me, but why would they when they have grown up with t- shirts depicting Team Edward and fan bracelets for Owl City.  It's funny how fast pop culture-- and really all culture-- changes.  Celebs go in and out, as do trends and music.  And we, too, forget things quickly, even though as adults we can look back and recall.

Observing this weird divide between my generation and my students' has gotten me wondering about what the hell will be cool or popular when Mabel's age group is in high school.  I worry that they will all be such tech junkies that they won't know how to socialize.  That they will all just be driving Smart Cars around and will have cell phones the size of pencil erasers but that are full- blown personal computers (okay, so it's not going to be like The Jetsons, I know, I know...).  But it's funny to think that their generation will be so separated from the one that is currently in high school.  I guess it's funny because I can't imagine things becoming any more futuristic than they are now, but of course they will be.  Mabel's age group will think Justin Bieber to be a lame has- been (which I pray happens soon :)), and they will think The Hunger Games to be an outdated fantasy series.  They will probably even scoff at Facebook and AIM (or will they?).

Things tend to come full circle, though, because for a while, I did think the Rolling Stones was a stupid band-- even if only because my dad was pushing it on us and how could ANYTHING my parents liked be even remotely cool?!  And then somewhere around 19,  I ditched Nine Inch Nails and the like for the Stones.  I said, hmm, these guys can sing, and every song is different.  No wonder they are the most famous rock n' roll band of all time.  And my kids are starting to see the huge cultural shift that the grunge music of the 90s created in our world.  They're like, "Wow, Eddie Vedder is awesome and I really wish that Kurt Cobain dude didn't kill himself back in the Stone Age.  And that Biggie guy, and also Tupac.  None of those Stone Age guys should have died because they made totally dope music." (Yes, old people-- "dope" as an adjective is all the rage now... again.  See? Cycle.)

So maybe one day the kids of Mabel's generation will be saying how much they hate Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber because they're just sooo lame, but then later they will be, like, hmmmm, no, the music is so inspiring.  Oh, gosh, scary!!  The precursor artists for Mabel's generation are not leaving us anything time- capsule- ish.   So, maybe, justtttt maybe, this whole cyclical thing will skip a gen.  I'd love it if Mabel started to listen to 90s rock, but I fear for her musical enlightenment if all we can give them is T- Swift and One Direction.  But my parents were probably saying the same about Nine Inch Nails, and that kid from Clueless had a point.