Millenial Distraction?

          As I, and I'm sure all of my peers, have experienced before, one of the biggest complaints from our parents and just general older people in our lives is that the Millennial and Generation Z kids are constantly on their phones and computers, cycling through all the pointless media that is, according to them, making us brain dead. While there is truth in their statements, and I have to agree that it is disconcerting just how much time I and all my peers spend on our various devices, I can't help but excuse myself at least a little bit knowing the motive behind it. For me at least I think that part of the reason I spend so much time wrapping myself in online entertainment is that it just completely takes my mind off of all of the messed up parts of my world. We're constantly surrounded by pressures from our teachers and parents and even our own expectations, infuriating and disappointing news stories, problems in our friend groups, and anger at the way our government has rapidly deteriorated. A way that we young people can escape from all of the stress and negativity is through online media. Whether it be watching a YouTuber, tweeting about our problems, or even just liking someone's picture, the Internet and access to an entire world of distraction is such an easy way to take our minds of all the horrible parts of our lives.

         Growing up in this day and age, while definitely better in many ways than previous times, has become so incredibly difficult with the increasing competition in getting into college, worrying about all the problems like global warming that the generations in power keep screwing up more and more for us, but that we currently have very little say in, and just the amount of schoolwork we have preventing us from leading a normal teenage life. All of these difficulties that we face paired with growing up alongside the expansion of the powers of media and the Internet, have driven us, in my eyes, to rely heavily on the distractive forces of being online. You can escape into other people's lives, immerse yourself in completely new worlds where everything in your regular life is irrelevant. What makes us constantly glued to our phones as all the older generations claim we are, is how hard it is to put down our entertainment when all that does is shove us back into our world of sadness and stress. Yeah, I could be writing my term paper, but it is causing me so much anxiety, so instead, I could just watch a show on Netflix. And yeah, I could read the newspaper and learn how Trump is finding new ways to ban people from our country, or how more college girls are getting sued by their sexual assaulters, but wouldn't it be so much more relaxing to listen to music and take a BuzzFeed quiz? The sad part is that once you get involved you can't escape. All the pressures in our lives push us to use media as a drug to distract us from our problems, but that is just causing us even more problems. Our parents and elders have a point, being constantly submerged in a world of online entertainment might be making us lazy and brain dead, but for me, I think that it is my way of escaping the negativity of real life, and maybe that's enough of an excuse.