Do you ever feel a sense of disconnect from this era or decade?

Gaze

Gaze

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MBTI
INFPishy
Although relatively young, i've seen technology and pop culture change significantly compared to 20 years ago. Sometimes, i'm not sure how to relate to most of what is produced in pop culture today. I grew up in a post 1970s, just getting out of disco era, where life was pretty much 1980s, Michael Jackson, 80s sitcoms, Flintstones cartoons, apartheid in South Africa, etc. When i was young, we had one television station which signed off in the morning, signed on in the afternoon, and signed off at night. There was a great deal of censorship in terms of program content and themes. It was a different time and i was in a different country. Life was vastly different from the way it was in the US.

So, do you ever feel as if your time is passing? Do you ever feel a sense of disconnect from the modern world?
 
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Yes. I grew up in the 1990s/ early 2000s, and things were even much different than they are now. As time passes, the music styles, fashions, slang terms, attitudes, and world events change around me, especially now, I'm starting to feel myself falling away. It's like I have a 'home' period of my life that I felt most comfortable with. I can also say that I probably romanticize the time between '96 and '04 because I prefer the way things were then to how they are now. I think it has something to do with getting older. There's a time when you feel 'connected' with the present day, and just when you start getting comfortable, the world changes and you end up wishing you were back in the good old days.
 
Jonathan said:
Yes. I grew up in the 1990s/ early 2000s, and things were even much different than they are now. As time passes, the music styles, fashions, slang terms, attitudes, and world events change around me, especially now, I'm starting to feel myself falling away. It's like I have a 'home' period of my life that I felt most comfortable with. I can also say that I probably romanticize the time between '96 and '04 because I prefer the way things were then to how they are now. I think it has something to do with getting older. There's a time when you feel 'connected' with the present day, and just when you start getting comfortable, the world changes and you end up wishing you were back in the good old days.
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Yup. That's it.
 
Res I've never felt completely connected. There was a short span of time I identified with the music that was being released during the early and mid nineties, but I was always pretty well anti pop culture. I found later in life that I could dig just about any time periods music if it fit the right mood or tone. I was a child in the eighties and a teenager in the nineties. I can remember asking my father at age seven if Russia launched their nukes at us if we could survive the nuclear fallout. This unease at the destruction of all life as I knew it was abated when the Berlin wall was torn down and with the fall of the Soviet Union. During my lifetime I've watched the steady decline of my country's manufacturing strength and its workforce continue to grow more towards the service and entertainment industries. At the moment it feels like we are more of a parasite draining the life slowly out of smaller countries that feed our greasy fat consumer needs each day.

I can't identify with the drive for greed and stomping on other people to raise my lot in life. That is the modern American way as I see it. Instant gratification for me and fuck everyone else. Makes me sick to my damn stomach to think of how many people this sucks the life out of each day.

In the end it is my country and my lifetime though, no matter how disconnected I may feel from society or this modern way of life. I keep waking up each day and trying to think up ways to make it better as I hope much more educated individuals are doing the same. We can either try to make it better or join everyone else with making it worse.
 
Nostalgia is a huge factor in making people feel disconnected because it can make one feel like the present moment will never live up to what was had in the past. This is a particular issue for INFJ's from what I have noticed. Our memories of the past seem much more strong and complete. There is this strange barrier with being unable to predict or make the present match up with the latter memory. Of course, this is just one possible explination for feeling a disconnection from this era.

Personally, I feel connected with it. I love the era of social networking and instant-access information. I personally feel like I have been able to filter out the nonsense and crap that frequently is paired with it to make it into something I can enjoy and use freely. I do miss the past, but it is mostly for social reasons and moments, not so much the era itself in the context of the markers that go with it.
 
IndigoSensor said:
Personally, I feel connected with it. I love the era of social networking and instant-access information. I personally feel like I have been able to filter out the nonsense and crap that frequently is paired with it to make it into something I can enjoy and use freely. I do miss the past, but it is mostly for social reasons and moments, not so much the era itself in the context of the markers that go with it.
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This was to the letter what I wanted to say.
 
I'm just over 30 - and I have always like all music, even the current most contemporary stuff. I don't feel nostalgia for the time of my youth - with one exception.

People were far more friendly and polite to each other back when I was young. I remember neighbours and strangers greeting each other when they passed on the street. I also remember great satisfaction in showing special honour and respect to the elderly in supermarkets or other places. It seems as though this culture of community kindness and respect has all but dissapeared.

I hate my current society for this.


As for culture and art - when you look at the monuments of past civilizations (litterary, musical, and visual) it makes me cringe at how poor we are culturally - but that's all I've ever lived in the midst of.
 
Maybe?

It just seems like there are so many things to entertain and amuse.. Needlessly, mindlessly. Even within the last decade.

Who needs a cellphone with countless aps... one being a star wars light saber app? It is almost as if people are terrifed to be alone for a moment with their own thoughts--or even having to face a loved one in conversation.


But instead just expect to have our time babysat by electronic gimcracks and gewgaws! It's cold.
 
I feel disconnected from all eras I've experienced or investigated so far, to be frank; but yeah, it's changing very fast. And I'm quite happy with the changes on the long run (in short periods, there are some negative fluctuations, of course, but they don't last).

It makes me think sometimes that life is about getting happier and happier ((: seeing all your great struggles and fears getting resolved as you go, with exponential speed.
 
I've lived in some big places for six months to a year at a time, but for nearly 30 years I've been in my hometown, population 90K. This allows me to maintain the memories of my past, but yes, I do feel somewhat disconnected from Society. I see it as a coin with two sides. One side is all the electronic goodies, all the great cars, restaraunts, instantaneous media and entertainment, places to shop, and extreme sense of independance. The other side of the coin is that we've become too busy for even properly maintaining ourselves. We don't seem to know what to do when we aren't on the go. Society has become like a rodent in a squirrel cage.
Some of this is definitely generational, and I think every generation is surprised and confused by the actions of the next generation. People seem to be getting jaded at younger and younger ages. The cynicism is becoming ridiculous. I can understand why, but it's still sad. I just enjoy life as much as I can, and do things the way I want to do them. I just think as we make our way down th path towards self-enlightenment we are able to accept ourselves more, and deal positively with however we see Society and the World.
 
Res said:
Although relatively young, i've seen technology and pop culture change significantly compared to 20 years ago. Sometimes, i'm not sure how to relate to most of what is produced in pop culture today. I grew up in a post 1970s, just getting out of disco era, where life was pretty much 1980s, Michael Jackson, 80s sitcoms, Flintstones cartoons, apartheid in South Africa, etc. When i was young, we had one television station which signed off in the morning, signed on in the afternoon, and signed off at night. There was a great deal of censorship in terms of program content and themes. It was a different time and i was in a different country. Life was vastly different from the way it was in the US.

So, do you ever feel as if your time is passing? Do you ever feel a sense of disconnect from the modern world?
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yes, i feel that time is passing and i am going ahead. Well, i was born in 1989, so i think i have seen two eras. One was responsibility which was 1990-2000. After 2k millennium i saw era of competition and race. I think, it is more about become achievement through potentiality. So this is era of responsibility+potentiality.

I don't feel i am separated from this era. Going to love myself and this world,too. :)
 
I felt disconnected between the late 1990s and early 2000s as everything suddenly became a lot darker - the music, the fashion, the attitudes. I didn't feel happy connecting with a society that was so dark and depressed.
Recently, it's begun to get a little better, still not good though, and I'm not fully connected. I more feel as if I'm being passed by and just watching things happen (sometimes watching things happen that I've already seen).

I like this world, but it's not a part of me - I think that's the best way to put it.
 
Jonathan said:
Yes. I grew up in the 1990s/ early 2000s, and things were even much different than they are now. As time passes, the music styles, fashions, slang terms, attitudes, and world events change around me, especially now, I'm starting to feel myself falling away. It's like I have a 'home' period of my life that I felt most comfortable with. I can also say that I probably romanticize the time between '96 and '04 because I prefer the way things were then to how they are now. I think it has something to do with getting older. There's a time when you feel 'connected' with the present day, and just when you start getting comfortable, the world changes and you end up wishing you were back in the good old days.
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88chaz88 said:
I miss the 90's. :(
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Same here.
 
Flavus Aquila said:
People were far more friendly and polite to each other back when I was young. I remember neighbours and strangers greeting each other when they passed on the street. I also remember great satisfaction in showing special honour and respect to the elderly in supermarkets or other places. It seems as though this culture of community kindness and respect has all but dissapeared.

I hate my current society for this.


As for culture and art - when you look at the monuments of past civilizations (litterary, musical, and visual) it makes me cringe at how poor we are culturally - but that's all I've ever lived in the midst of.
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I have to agree.
We have become a very course, impersonal society.

I guess there are aspects of every decade I still connect with just because I am a product of those times, and have the memories that go with them.
I kind of miss certain aspects the 70's when people were far less uptight about everything.

The 80's society was very self centered.

The 90's was a peaceful time overall.

With 9/11 and the financial meltdown, the last 10 years will likely go down as the most dispiriting decade Americans have lived through since World War II. I know I've been bummed out.
Plus we divided ourselves based on political party. Don't you know they are both the same and suck equally?

Now we are becoming more reflective on what is truly important in our lives. Getting centered again. Hopefully we will become less course and impersonal.
 
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I don't know if it's a sense of disconnect, but I'm involved in the Renaissance Festival in MN and I sometimes think I would have liked to live during the real Renaissance. But then I think about running water and heat/air conditioning and medical technology... and I realize that nope, I like our time pretty well. Maybe I wouldn't mind living in the future, though, provided the world sucks less than it does now. :)
 
I typically feel disconnected from my era, but can take solace in the fact that all past eras were really just as bad and the future is unlikely to be better.
 
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