Once, when my wife and I were having lunch in the cafeteria, two young girls were sitting and talking at the next table next to us. Everything is according to the standard: some kind of pretentious food on the table, both have smartphones in their hands, and the interlocutors either eat while looking at the screens, then turn to each other and talk. In this case, the topic of their conversation does not matter (as usual - "And he is like that … And I am like that …"), but I drew attention to their intonation and their faces.
The intonations are not Russian at all! Speech is absolutely clear, without an accent, but intonation cascades, with stretching of part of the words, with unexpected increases and decreases in tone, are more reminiscent of English speech. Increased voice volume, while some kind of deliberately convex theatrical facial expressions, as if they are currently performing on stage, and not quietly talking among themselves! And this is not at all uncommon now - I have noticed such "stage-type" conversations within youth companies more and more often lately - rather, it has already become the norm. These intonations remind me a little of the accentuating Moscow dialect, but without swallowing the endings of phrases, but on the contrary, their lingering protrusion with the simultaneous play of the voice in pitch. It looks like a cheap show-off, only the folding is missing.
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What is the reason for such a sharp change in the tone of speech? In conversations with my peers, plus or minus 15 years, and with older generations, I did not notice this - we talk in exactly the same way, without fooling around. Most likely, this is due to a real sharp difference between the average psychological portrait of the younger generation from the psychology of people of all previous generations.
I have thought about this topic more than once, and have repeatedly discussed it with my wife, and she is a clinical psychologist in her professional activity. Quite interestingly, the 25-year-old niece of his wife, a journalist with a sharp inquiring mind and a tendency to observe and generalize information, expressed his opinion on this issue.
According to them, today's youth has several major psychological problems:
1) Inability to communicate with each other in person, face to face;
2) Strong narcissism;
3) Infantilism and attempts by any means to delay your childhood;
4) Setting on personal success and fear of failure in the eyes of others.
This seems to be true.
From early childhood, hearing how special and talented he is, unusual, beautiful and intelligent, the child is imbued with his exclusivity and tunes in for future success, an easy life and cloudless well-being. This is facilitated by the ubiquitous liberal propaganda, the introduction of unconditional tolerance to any perversion, as well as the idea of everyone's exclusivity pouring from the screens of cinemas, TVs and smartphones. Educators and teachers, instead of educating communication skills and transferring knowledge, are forced to simply lick children and adolescents, for money or under the threat of the sword of Damocles of various societies, activists, human rights defenders and tons of methodical waste paper, prohibiting not only using coercion or even raising their voices on "onyget" but even point out their flaws!
On top of that, literally from the cradle, the child learns to use various gadgets that his parents do not use well and his grandparents do not use at all, which indescribably elevates the child in his own eyes, and he involuntarily begins to treat the older generations with such a condescending disdain like “yes what can they understand, these unfinished old people ?! And almost until adulthood, before leaving the children's harbor to the Big World, it seems to boys and girls that the monkey's ability to press buttons is the main thing in their future life. Hence the strongest youth narcissism, expressed not only in the requirements for parents to buy branded clothes and prestigious gadgets (smartphones, computers, video and audio equipment, etc.) for their child, but also in games in the process of communicating with each other. The way they talk to each otherdemonstrates their play to the audience - intonation, antics and colorful poses.
The habit of communicating in various social networks, in chats and forums through smartphones and tablets, without seeing each other (and also sticking some Alain Delon or Cheburashka as their avatar) teaches them to video anonymity and, accordingly, to the inability to communicate face to face using non-verbal communication skills honed by people for thousands of years. They do not know how to read emotions from other people's faces, they do not know how to express natural emotions on their own faces - hence the complete lack of empathy, feeling for each other. A game, just a game of extremely infantile young men and women, psychological "onyzhey", in the sandbox.
A lot has already been said about the destruction of personality by the new "digital school". Here I would like to point out another important reason for the strong imbalance in the psyche of young growth - the almost complete lack of connection with nature.
For hundreds of thousands of years, the species Homo Sapiens has adapted to life in nature, sharpening its consciousness, mind and body, polishing reflexes and skills, for a fierce and irreconcilable struggle for its intraspecific and interspecific survival, for integration into nature, for a subtle perception and understanding of the world around it, and using it for your own purposes. Naturally, in the process of his general development and spiritual growth, rising above inanimate and living nature to a sense of the meaning of his existence, to the concepts of morality and ethics, to the Universe and to God, a person learned the harmony of the World and a sense of the integrity of the Universe.
And - everything collapsed. Instantly, over a hundred years. Lost in the concrete boxes of an artificial silicon-plastic, oil, electrical world, having lost the landmarks and goals of his path, modern man was thrown out of his niche, out of his dwelling, like a fish on the shore, and lost himself, lost the very meaning of his life. After all, you must agree, the meaning of your life is to consider a parasitic existence for the sake of a nourishing gruel, a cozy hole, a large carriage, green cut pieces of paper and ghostly "power" over your fellow tribesmen who hate you!
Well, and the most important thing is the mindset on “success”, understood in a society of general consumption as the need for a high “standard of living”, comfort and protection from “unnecessary” thoughts and any failures. From TV screens, smartphones and from the vastness of the Internet, the talking heads of "star" parties of various kinds of "elite" such as Sobchak and other gurus of "personal growth" continuously pour syrup into immature brains about the importance of individualism and free self-expression, freedom and individual self-expression, self-expression and free individuality, individual freedom of expression and so on, telling at trainings and coaching seminars in packed halls, "how to make yourself." Yes, I can explain to anyone for free - in order to make myself,you just need to be born into the family of the governor of St. Petersburg and become the goddaughter of the President!
And, subconsciously realizing that they are not at all exceptional, and feeling in the depths of their souls uncertainty in their strengths and in indispensable future success, in panic fear from the big and terrible adult world, where you may no longer be "wow, what a honey!", and no better than others, and where in a fierce struggle they will have to prove their worth to themselves and those around them - young people are struggling to delay the "exit from the harbor", delay their childhood, shirk responsibility for their own lives - hence the constant academic leaves, hospitals, sanatoriums, neurological clinics, additional education and permanent "training and development" centers, as well as various "searches for oneself" at the expense of their parents or daddy lovers.
The fear of failure, the fear of being not “creatively creative”, but an ordinary normal “non-elite” person, makes you withdraw into yourself or push the show-off, with inner dissatisfaction and pain realizing that this is just superficial, garbage, ripples on the water.
What should they do?
I do not know. Probably, after all, a terrible end is better than endless horror - I mean, it would probably be more correct to gain strength and look yourself in the eyes.
PS When, in a construction brigade, we returned from work late in the evening, and the palms of our hands remained twisted for several more hours, when, in order to earn money for ourselves and our girlfriend at a cinema and a cafe, we worked at night at the Sverdlovsk-Sortirovochny station, unloading 40-ton wagons, when we were on duty near shops on weekends to be hired to unload goods for 3 rubles per hour - we could not imagine who would come after us. And I say this not at all in reproach, but with bewilderment.
PPS Of course, the picture that I painted in this my thinking does not apply to all young people. There are many strong, intelligent, nature-loving, purposeful, fearless, not afraid of difficulties and not afraid of the life of young people. My bow and respect to such people - they are our future.
But the picture shown is a worrying trend.
Pavel Tserenya
