This makes sense, and I imagine I'd have the same feeling if I went back.
The stakes may or may not have been lower, but they felt lower. Today's world is one where if you make a mistake at 18, you're stuck with it for life, and it's not because the university administrators will be out for your head (they probably won't be) but because the internet never forgets. The regulatory apparatuses we need to put between employers/governments and all the information (unreliable as it is) about us that's out there is... 20 years, at least, behind where it needs to be. You can't burn down your past and create a new story anymore, and there's a sense among the young that every minute not spent "hustling" (whatever the fuck that is) is a minute in which the competition is getting ahead and they aren't.
The change of attitude is definitely noticeable. Whether it's a change of social actuality is leass clear. The thing is, bad things still happened to young people who made small mistakes, if they were of low social class. They just disappeared and fell (back) into regular working-class oblivion. And today, the rich kids are still invincible because they'll hire PR firms to fix up their reputations if things go against them. The "feel" (for lack of a better word) of our society is distinctively more oppressive, but I'm not sure if the thing itself has actually changed that much over the past 30 years. I suppose I'd need more data.
The stakes may or may not have been lower, but they felt lower. Today's world is one where if you make a mistake at 18, you're stuck with it for life, and it's not because the university administrators will be out for your head (they probably won't be) but because the internet never forgets. The regulatory apparatuses we need to put between employers/governments and all the information (unreliable as it is) about us that's out there is... 20 years, at least, behind where it needs to be. You can't burn down your past and create a new story anymore, and there's a sense among the young that every minute not spent "hustling" (whatever the fuck that is) is a minute in which the competition is getting ahead and they aren't.
The change of attitude is definitely noticeable. Whether it's a change of social actuality is leass clear. The thing is, bad things still happened to young people who made small mistakes, if they were of low social class. They just disappeared and fell (back) into regular working-class oblivion. And today, the rich kids are still invincible because they'll hire PR firms to fix up their reputations if things go against them. The "feel" (for lack of a better word) of our society is distinctively more oppressive, but I'm not sure if the thing itself has actually changed that much over the past 30 years. I suppose I'd need more data.