Quick my little snowflakes, reach for your twitter and moan incessantly about the outrage you feel. Or should that be “you think you feel” because as I seem to witness on a daily occurrence, there is a lot of young people moaning with outrage and I’m not sure why?
Wikipedia has the definition sorted for you. “Snowflake as a slang term involves the derogatory usage of the word snowflake to make reference to people. Its meaning has varied, but may include a person who has an inflated sense of their own uniqueness, has an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or is easily offended and unable to deal with opposing opinions”
I’m not in total agreement with this however. I don’t really think it is derogatory. Obviously, this has been added by a snowflake who was outraged in the first place by what followed afterwards. Let’s look at the main reason for why l am writing this.
I recently became incensed when I read about young people really not understanding the American sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004 and complaining that it was transphobic, homophobic, fattist, sexist, generally insensitive, no doubt full of animal cruelty because of the song ‘smelly cat’ and Ross once kept a monkey, nudistphobic (no such word but there was a neighbour across the buildings who would walk around naked) clothistphobic etc etc. Looking back and the list could go on forever. And if they think that’s bad then I’d hate to imagine what they would make of US hit comedy The Golden Girls!
The Twitterati took to social media to vent their outrage. Outrage that quite frankly isn’t there. You see we golden oldies enjoyed it for what it was. Six friends joking about the past, the present and the future. And that is what we have. Friends are often cruel to me for choices made in the past. I am often cruel back. Those friends are there for me in times of need. I am there for them. We laugh, we enjoy we get along and work things out. It seems the snowflakes of today can’t do that.
You see we never had this social media thing. If we were outraged then we would write to the BBC’s Points of View show. And if we couldn’t be bothered to do that we simply let it go because we simply were not outraged enough to be outraged by trivial stuff and couldn’t be arsed to keep picking at it like a scab.
I’m not saying people who are at my grand age of the 4th decade are not snowflakes themselves, it’s just that my generation can tell them to sit down, shut up and breathe. Or to use the write acronym STFU! Indeed only recently I told that to a good friend who got caught up in someone else’s drama and made it their own for no reason.
It is almost like we are now conditioned to be outraged at almost everything. Humans have become more and more angry for no other reason than the fact that we are told to be. Don’t believe me? Grab a coffee at your local cafe, sit outside and take a look at those going past you. I guarantee you that most of them are looking for the next thing to be outraged about. So outraged they vent it on social media and let their followers of varying numbers be aware that they are outraged hoping that it then escalates to others feeling the same. There isn’t much I see about people being happy on social media.
It seems we are not allowed to be happy these days. And this is where the conditioning comes in. The press has made you angry and outraged. Soap operas that we watch or listen to (I am an avid fan of Radio 4’s The Archers are full of outrage.
It’s rare to find a storyline that is a happy one.
There is lots of talk about square eyes and all of us looking at screens. These screens are full of information. Information literally at your finger-tips. You can access this all at the same time as drinking your morning coffee and taking a poo at the same time. It’s always around us.
I now make a point of leaving my phone outside the toilet. The risk of dropping it has come close several times. I don’t want information when I am dropping off last night’s dinner. For me, toilet time is a time to reflect. It’s a skill that has been forgotten. It’s my “me time”. It’s a time for to cut the crap from my body and let me think.
Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty to be outraged about like the recent shooting in an America school. That is a real problem. It’s just that the young generation, of which I do not envy one bit, don’t really have anything to moan about or at least shouldn’t be moaning but instead be living and enjoying the moment because before you know it, you’ll have real things to moan about.
I am only scratching the surface of this current crisis the snowflake suffers on an hourly basis. I don’t actually think I have answered the question I was set by my editor. There is a whole book on the subject and I am sure someone is writing it now. So I’ll sign off with the words of Michael Palin from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life “Try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
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Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you'd like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.