Increasing in Complexity

By Ria Bulthuis

There have been so many fantastic video games out lately--Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nier:Automata, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild--take your pick. Graphics in games have come ridiculously far in the past twenty years, and there’s a lot less of the original Doom’s “just shoot things” mentality and a lot more focus on story as well.

My first console was a Nintendo 64 that my parents bought for the family when I was around 6. It came with games like Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Mario Kart, NBA Jam, and Banjo Kazooie. A large portion of my childhood was spent with them. In more recent years, I’ve moved on to games that are like the ones I mentioned previously, and I’m amazed at the differences.

We millennials grew up primarily with games meant to entertain. Technology was much more limited when we were younger, and the main audience of a lot of games was still kids. Because of these two things, gameplay was a lot more important--they had to be fun. It wasn’t a major goal of game creators to tear a player’s heart into tiny pieces, like a few recent games I could mention have tried, and occasionally succeeded, to do. Most of the storylines that I remember consisted of “the princess is in another castle,” without ever meeting the princess or having any knowledge of why we needed to rescue her other than the fact that she mentioned cake.

There are exceptions to every rule of course, but even complex stories from twenty-year-old games seem quite simple in comparison to the ones we’ve grown accustomed to recently. As technology evolves and graphics get better, it seems to me like they’ve been getting more cinematic with their storylines as well. The Last of Us is one example from four years ago, and some readers might know exactly what I mean. At the most basic level, it’s a zombie game. It’s a lot less about zombies, though, than it is about the relationship between a snarky teenager and her decreasingly reluctant caretaker. Not everyone cried at the end, but I happen to know a number of people who did.

What I’m saying is that we’ve reached a new era of video games. Gameplay is still important, but it’s no longer necessarily the priority. Creators have learned to use the technology to create relatable, flawed characters that a player can have relationships with.

Our Obsession with Everything Old School

By Noah Norred

Yeah yeah we know the Baby Boomers/Generation X messed up the economy (supposedly but that's economics and I am not here to chat about that),  and be influenced by them. What? I’m talking about the way we dress up, act, and find enjoyment the way they did. Ever swing by that basic blonde girl’s Instagram and see that “I was born in the wrong generation” poster with a background of a buggy or mountains? That’s what I am talking about. Now I am not saying we are all the stereotypical millennial, but we are Generation Y, and we do tend to look and do everything our parents did back in the day.

Kids, we take after our parents a little more than we understand. More often these days, we see the trends going back to the 70s and the 80s of rock and pop at their hey-days. We see kids wearing Converse more often than with the latest Air Force Ones. We take more delight in getting records and big speakers than throwing ourselves over for the new Apple bluetooth earbuds (if you have seen them, I don’t think anyone would). As said in an earlier blog post, we don't want to embrace the new stuff just yet. We want the bronco, the beetle bus, and old Mustangs back. We find favor in the minimal, low maintenance home decor with light bulbs and 50’s furniture styling.

We are so obsessed with these things, but why? Well we (generation Y, the cooler millennials) had a freaking good childhood. We grew up with parents that inspired us to live like them with the coolest toys (back when Nintendo was pulling the Color and the 64) and the greatest icons of the day such as Michael Jackson, Britney Spears (Pre-cocaine), and when MTV was still slightly good.

You woke up on a Sunday morning and went to church. Then you came back home and put on Cartoon Network. I’m talking Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, Sponge Bomb, Bugs Bunny, Flintstones. What is this Adventure Time crap? Now it's called Boomerang? We had it best with these classy, good vibe, save the day kinda cartoons. Now we have 12 year olds on Netflix watching Rick and Morty on a massive iPhone with those stupid Apple earbuds I mentioned a bit ago. It’s not that I care if some kid is watching adult swim at a not-so-adult age, it’s that the kids today are not stopping to check what generation X and Y liked back in the day. They don’t check out cartoons, they don't rock converse, and they don't even try the old school music we grew up with and adored.

This newer generation is growing up too fast. They are being influenced too easily to be set to the newest and best stuff. They do not care about the old stuff. They do not care what influenced this generation of (mildly) cool people. They are the ones who care for the newest pair of Sperry's, social justice, and whatever Kim Kardashian is wearing (if anything). Those annoying Snapchat discover stories that fill up more than half your screen? The next generation is clicking those. Girls are being given higher standards than ever. Boys are getting their priorities all wrong. They are being taught that complaining and pettiness is what gets them attraction. This is much different than the “get over it and suck it up” method we were brought up with (this doesn't mean all Generation Z kids are like this).

So this is the deal folks: we gotta start being better mentors. Generation Z is almost entirely influenced by social media. They basically use the camera lens of their iPhone as a second pair of glasses. Technology is how they see the world, and they connect through what we all hate the most: Social Media. Guess who is influencing people through social media? Buzzfeed and modern day MTV.

So let’s step it up and tell them what’s good. We have to get them off their phones and let them smell the coffee. There are kids walking around that never would bat an eye towards a Nintendo, VHS, or something without bluetooth, and would never dare just walk up to a girl out of pure confidence. We need to show them what the Gen X and the baby boomers did for us so we don’t have to deal with our “post-millennials” later.

Reading Technology

But You Really Don't Need to Pick a Side

By Ria Bulthuis

There’s a bookstore in the town where I grew up called the “Used Book Emporium.” I spent a lot of time there because my mom traded in old books that she’d finished reading for new ones. It was one of those cool old buildings with really tall wooden bookshelves, and dark wood floors that were all warped and creaky and still have the brass measurement markings from when the building was a hardware store.  When I was really young, I sat in this tiny rocking chair in the kid’s section and just read until my mom was finished.

This is my actual bookshelf. Thought you might appreciate that.

Books have changed a lot since then--ebooks have become a lot more popular and accessible. I’m the Chief Creative Officer who was mentioned in “Making ‘The Flip,’” because I’ve only ever had a flip phone. Since I don’t have a smartphone, or any other devices, I haven’t read a lot of ebooks recently, but last year I was reading them almost exclusively. Here are the pros and cons of ebooks, based on my personal experience:

Convenience

Libraries have a lot of books online that you can get without actually going anywhere. I discovered this great app called Overdrive, which lets you sign into libraries with your card number and download books from wherever to read on your phone. I actually read one on my laptop recently because I didn’t have easy access to a physical library. While I don’t actually recommend reading books on your laptop, considering the size and impracticality of it, apps like this are great on smaller devices. There’s also the fact that most people carry their phones with them, so taking a book along doesn’t require extra effort.

Weight and Size

This one is pretty obvious, but ebooks take up a lot less physical space than paper books. I have shelves full of my paper books, but if I wanted to read them all in a different country, I could download all of them and loads more without taking up more space than something I’m already taking with me. I’ve found this a huge advantage when I’m traveling. When I was younger--or, I suppose, when I was the same age as I am now--I’ve filled my luggage almost completely with books until I have very little room left over for “the necessities.” You know, clothes, toothbrush, all those things you don’t really need.

For people who want convenience, ebooks are probably the way to go. They’re more portable and easy to get your hands on, for sure. Even though I spent most of a year reading them when I actually had a device, there’s still something about paper books that really appeals to me.

Meaning

Reading paper books requires more planning and thought. Since you need to remember to take a book with you and think more about taking it out to read, it gives more meaning to the story, as well as to the action of reading itself. They can also be more immersive--there’s a feel to paper that a glass screen doesn’t have, and formatting is much more individual to the book--maps, pictures, and the decorations around chapter breaks all add to the feel of the story.

Other People

I carry a paper book with me most of the time, so I have something to do if I have five minutes to spare. This has resulted in multiple people saying to me that I inspire them because I read so much. Although this reason is rather shallow, it’s not likely that’s a compliment you’ll get if you read on your phone, since people will probably assume you’re doing something else.

Whether you read ebooks, or paper books, or both, reading is great. It can give you something to do if you’ve got any spare time, even if it’s only a few minutes. It can give you life experience from the sort of life that doesn’t really exist, so you don’t really need to go out and fight bad guys, do magic, or lose friends in order to gain very real experiences and lessons from those things. You can be waiting in line, or on a bus, or in an old, creaky bookstore, but at the same time you can be in a completely different, impossible world. All I’m saying is give books a chance, either way. It’s worth it.

Generation Identification

By Presence Massie

I am twenty-one, but call me an old soul. According to my results on this PEW Research quiz, I was born between 1946 and 1964 placing me in the Baby Boomer Generation. My dad, a Gen. Xer, is considered more of a millennial than I am, having received a score of 69 while I had a 32.

Do you identify with your generation?

Take the quiz, then comment below and give us your thoughts!

http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/how-millennial-are-you/