Basically a repost pf things I said in the mega, but anecdotally I’m hearing that sales of fiction read by men are dropping precipitously, and English and literature classes in colleges are now dominated by women. It seems like young men are not being exposed to literature in the same way that they used to. Like, when I was in high school and college, you could be a “bro” kind of guy and read Chuck Palahniuk, or Hunter S. Thompson, or David Foster Wallace. For decades, authors like Hemmingway and Bukowski found receptive audiences in young men, not to mention all the crime fiction, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy that men have traditionally consumed. The “guy in your English class who loves David Foster Wallace” was a stereotype for a reason. I read in another thread that music is less culturally important to young men than it used to be. It seems like younger men just straight up see no value in reading literature or fiction, or exposing themselves or critically engaging with art and music, because the algorithms just railroad them into Alpha Gridset world.
Am I wrong about this? Am I being condescending and out of touch, or is this a real thing that’s happening, where the whole “male” culture is turning into grindset podcasts and streamers?
Edit: Okay, so the impression I’m getting is that everything is worse but also kind of the same as it ever was, which sounds right.
I’m not of that age, but imo it’s more a technological thing than a generational thing. People, of any age, cannot put their phones down. I personally have to make the conscious decision to disconnect if I’m going to read something or watch a movie or whatever. I imagine that for people who grew up with smartphones, that’s like cutting off a limb.
You may get a “kids were always like that”
response, but before that happens, I want to remind everyone reading this that material conditions do change and having a monetized distraction machine in almost everyone’s pocket is a material difference from previous generations.
People have been complaining that kids are constantly on their phone as long as kids have had phones, but, from the perspective of someone who was in high school when high schoolers first started getting cell phones, the most text messaging addicted person in my peer group back then would be about average from what I’ve seen now.
I remember when adults first got their cell phones on a wide scale and had to make a performative big deal of being on a cell phone in public, including holding up a line while there’s people all the way out the door behind them, having to flex on the person being called.
“Oh hi. I’m at (place UlyssesT worked and was just trying to fucking survive). I’m on my cell phone. Where are you?”
Remember the wired earpiece guy? Guy holds up a finger and holds his other hand to his ear: “Yea sorry I gotta take this.”
I still fucking hate those devices because some of the most insufferable douches that got me in trouble because they “had to take this” were distracted by them while waddling to the front of the line. I used to call them “ear fedoras” because of how obnoxious they were.
bad vibes all around
From 100 WPM on a T9 keyboard to grandma’s addicted to FarmVille and candy crush in only a few years