I spend a lot of time on the Internet, I binge-watch TV and have food delivered. Oh God I’m becoming a millennial. — HBO’s Bill Maher
In watching HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” over the weekend, the quote above stuck with me. Maher, a longtime comedian, actor and host of the show, made the remark while filming the weekly political show from his backyard due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This was the second straight week that the show has been done in his backyard. Typically, the show is taped live in front of a studio audience. He does about 5-10 minutes of comedy in stand-up fashion, then a 1-on-1 interview for about 10-15 minutes, then another 30-40 with a panel of 2-3 political guests from both sides of the aisle.
He’s very liberal and doesn’t hide it, and it usually shows in the final segment known as “New Rules.” Yet in a 1-hour time slot nearly every week, even a layperson can walk away with some new knowledge. And as a comedian, of course there are some blatant stabs at nothing but humor along the way.
Watching comedians both live and on TV is one of my favorite things. When Maher made that comment during his monologue last week, it made me think of something I've pondered ever since this pandemic began.
There’s no way to make virus, sickness, death, economy meltdown, pandemic, school closures and businesses either closing for now (or forever) sound positive.
However, if there’s any silver lining that I can see, it’s that maybe our youth — especially those who are school age and stuck at home due to mandatory shutdowns — will better appreciate that there’s still a big world out there when things do get back to normal. Whatever normal will look like.
With ever-evolving technology, children today are interacting much differently than I did with my friends when I was a little boy. Phones are simply handheld computers. And we have bigger versions, called iPads or tablets. Video games are far more sophisticated and now kids can play on headsets via the Internet in order to no longer be in the same room.
It all spells ease, yet it also spells isolation. It’s become commonplace for our youth to get out of school, go home and plug into some sort of device. My hope is that through this pandemic, they’ve begun seeing that maybe being in school wasn’t so bad. Perhaps the one 7-8 hour chunk of the day where there’s forced social interaction is a very good thing.
Easy to take for granted but, perhaps, not anymore. We are all getting a little stir crazy being told to stay indoors and avoid crowds, including simple social gatherings. It’s naïve to think we’ll flush the phones and tablets completely. Yet wouldn’t it be great, when social distancing rules are lifted or relaxed, to see kids out playing again? Perhaps this is our moment. Should it have taken thousands of people dying to get there? Absolutely not.
But it adds more meaning to what I always tell a teenager I see at a ballgame or social event buried for a long amount of time in their phone — “Look up from that 4-inch screen. There’s a big world out there.”
Or take it from Bill Maher, who in the same show said, “Young people live on their screens. Works well but not when it’s a directive.”
The other thing I thought when I heard the original quote listed (at the beginning) was, am I a millennial? If so I’d like to think I’m caught somewhere in between needing my technology in my hands via the iPhone and still yearning for daily interaction with those around me. The truth I can’t shake is that millennial just sounds like a bit of a bad word to me.
A simple Google search of “What are the age generations?” will result in different timelines. According to careerplanner.com, millennial, also sometimes known as generation Y or generation next, are those born from 1980 to 1994. The site says “Millennials were raised to think they were special and that they could become anything they dreamed of, and then after graduating they found that Boomers (born 1946-1964) had let millions of jobs slip out of the country, ‘iGen’ers’ have seen this, and are far more cautious and less optimistic and maybe less naive.”
The site identified an older group of millennials, known as Xennials, born between 1975 and 1985. Notice the overlap? My birth year of 1982 falls there.
Again, according to careerplanner.com, “The cohort known as ‘Xennials’ are composed of the oldest millennials. This is a crossover generation. Born roughly between 1975 and 1985 plus or minus a few years.
“The idea being that Xennials is more like the preceding Gen X than they are like millennials.
“According to Australian sociologist Dan Woodman, ‘the theory goes that the Xennials dated, and often formed ongoing relationships, pre-social media. They usually weren’t on Tinder or Grindr, for their first go at dating at least. They called up their friends and the person they wanted to ask out on a land line phone, hoping that it wasn’t their intended date’s parent who picked up.’”
I remember those days. Those who had their own teen lines were ahead of the curve.
Generation X is those born 1965-1979. So where am I? I suppose I’ll take the Xennial label while admitting to harboring Gen X tendencies. To read more on the “generations,” do a simple Google search. You certainly have time in this COVID-19 environment.
