Sanctuary 
The Generation Gap that Spawned Somewhere in 1984
It has occurred to me recently that in Singapore, there appears to be a generation gap between the people born before 1984, and the people born in or after 1984. It seems that nearly everyone in the 2nd group has a blog. All my tuition kids have blogs. Yes, even the one in Primary 4 has a blog. It seems that of all the people born in 1984 or after that, not only do they have blogs, but all of most of their friends do. My brother who is born in 1983 doesn't have a blog, or he's concealing it really well from me. (I seriously doubt this is possible though, because he is a 3rd year medicine student, and is also addicted to WoW. But he may still surprise me.) I don't really know why 1984, but it appears to be that way.
Well, there are plenty of people born before 1984 who have blogs. But there appears to be a great difference between the blogs of these people, and those of the other group. For some reason, those in the latter group tend to treat their blogs like their online diaries. The older group tends to blog about their opinions on issues; if they blog about their day, it's more like as a collection of experiences than a merely a record of what happened. Of course there will be exceptions in either catogery. One of my tuition kids is a very good example. She actually blogs about her many opinions. I would link up her blog here except she would complain.
My friend (Malc, was this you?) once commented that we are in the Gap between diaries and blogs. My generation appears to be the type to dabble in homepages (yes, homepages, not blogs) and visit BBSes. Is it actually possible that we abandoned diaries for new technology? I know someone from that generation who actually typed out his diary entries and stored them on his computer. For his eyes only though. Perhaps we are in that Gap because we were more interested in learning about new technologies than about ourselves, and had the conservative Asian view that one should not tell the world about oneself.
So what exactly happened such that people born in the year 1984 and after blog diary-style? I suspect it's got something to do with personal computers (emphasis on personal) with internet access becoming only widely available to Singaporeans somewhere starting in the late 1990s. It would nicely coincide with the people from that generation growing up with computers, and having internet access at a time in their life when they are still young enough not to consider it that much of a new technology. Possibly after being exposed to the apparently barrierless internet, young Singaporeans became less conservative about sharing their lives with the world.
Actually, I personally have nothing against people telling others all about their day on the blogs. I just think it's boring. Yes, what I write is probably boring to practically everyone too. But at least it interests me and since this will still interest me in years to come, I am fine with it being up on the net for the world to see. However, I don't think what mundane occurrences in my day (like rain splashing all over me on my way to lab or someone making me mad) will be things I will be interested in 10 years down the road. Come to think of it, it doesn't even interest me now. And because of my lovely selective memory which can behave like an elephant's for choice situations, it appears that if the incident is of enough impact, I will remember it many many years later. I sometimes remember the most ridiculous things too. So I guess writing about my life for memory's sake isn't all that important to me.
But then why 1984 exactly? I have no idea. Weirdly enough, all the people I know born in 1984 that I can think of now are, to put it politely, bizarre. One guy tried to break me up with my then boyfriend, and it didn't matter to him that I was in uni and he was, well, in secondary school. (Yes, currently a guy born in 1984 isn't really all that young to me, but then the age gap was really huge. He didn't succeed, btw, and I didn't date him or do ANYTHING with him.) One girl I know has slept with well, more people than I have fingers and toes. Another one of them guys apparently talks to girls who have insulted him in some way or another in Chinese because he claims it irritates them. I wonder if he is doing that to me now. I'm not too sure why a Chinese person speaking in Chinese would irritate anyone (unless you are my brother or Licai, and then you BOTH know why >.<), so all in all it's very puzzling.
3 bloggers I know are born in 1984. One is the (in)famous Xiaxue, whose blog link can be found in this sidebar. The other 2 are people I know in real life, whose blogs are, well, not going to be linked here because heh, it's not worth it in too many ways. There are however, so many similarities between these 3 bloggers (at least those evident from their blogs or public posts) I'm wondering if there is a trend with those people born in 1984 that caused that Generation Gap. All 3 of them have publically claimed to be intelligent. Xiaxue and one of other 2 by announcing their IQ on the net (and in the case of Xiaxue, her PSLE score as well). The other has said she considered someone smart because he went to elite schools and made it to university, implying that she is smart because she herself has such qualifications. (Oh btw, Xiaxue, her PSLE score is higher than yours haha.)
[I sincerely don't know what hype there is about IQs and intelligence. What's better? Being able to accomplish everything you set out to do in your life with a low IQ, or having this beautifully preserved intelligence rotting away while you... hmm... have dreams you are never going to obtain? Is it more impressive to have won a Nobel prize with a lower or higher IQ? I think my parents are never going to be proud of me for whatever IQ I am supposed to have, but rather of what I accomplish with my life. ]
Well, back to those 3 bloggers, all 3 do write about their daily lives in their blogs. Not everyday like some people, but they do post about a fair amount of their lives. And all 3 of them have flammed on their blogs someone or other who has insulted them/belittled them/rubbed them the wrong way/mentioned their name in a way they don't like it publically in real life or on the net. Yes this online flamming thing has been going on long before blogs became popular, but it apparently is still frowned on by majority of the Singaporeans I know, who still think that feuds should be taken out in private.
I was actually inspired to write this post based on a site which showed what Xiaxue apparently did in her attempt to get back at someone she didn't like online. [http://xialanxue.blogspot.com/2006/01/xiaxue-expos.html]
It was rather amusing the extents some people will go to just to insult you publically over the internet, and yet pretend that they don't affect you in the slightest bit. I guess pretending to be someone else works until, God forbid, someone finds out about your evil scheme and tells the world about it! Some people don't even bother to cover it up; one of the other 2 bloggers said that the person in question (unnamed of course) wasn't someone she could be bothered about at all, and yet she wrote 3000+ words in her post whining about how she was being painted as a villian when she was actually the victim of the entire situation. Perhaps these people think that with their high IQs, everyone else must have a lower IQ than them and hence be totally unable to notice what they are up to. It's just so hilarious.
I still haven't actually figured out why the year is 1984. Maybe it's because of the bizarre people who were born in that year. Maybe it's because the wave of new technology at that certain time in the 1990s. At least I am comforted that there other people in 'my' generation as bewildered as me that all those people born in 1984 or after have blogs.
Well, there are plenty of people born before 1984 who have blogs. But there appears to be a great difference between the blogs of these people, and those of the other group. For some reason, those in the latter group tend to treat their blogs like their online diaries. The older group tends to blog about their opinions on issues; if they blog about their day, it's more like as a collection of experiences than a merely a record of what happened. Of course there will be exceptions in either catogery. One of my tuition kids is a very good example. She actually blogs about her many opinions. I would link up her blog here except she would complain.
My friend (Malc, was this you?) once commented that we are in the Gap between diaries and blogs. My generation appears to be the type to dabble in homepages (yes, homepages, not blogs) and visit BBSes. Is it actually possible that we abandoned diaries for new technology? I know someone from that generation who actually typed out his diary entries and stored them on his computer. For his eyes only though. Perhaps we are in that Gap because we were more interested in learning about new technologies than about ourselves, and had the conservative Asian view that one should not tell the world about oneself.
So what exactly happened such that people born in the year 1984 and after blog diary-style? I suspect it's got something to do with personal computers (emphasis on personal) with internet access becoming only widely available to Singaporeans somewhere starting in the late 1990s. It would nicely coincide with the people from that generation growing up with computers, and having internet access at a time in their life when they are still young enough not to consider it that much of a new technology. Possibly after being exposed to the apparently barrierless internet, young Singaporeans became less conservative about sharing their lives with the world.
Actually, I personally have nothing against people telling others all about their day on the blogs. I just think it's boring. Yes, what I write is probably boring to practically everyone too. But at least it interests me and since this will still interest me in years to come, I am fine with it being up on the net for the world to see. However, I don't think what mundane occurrences in my day (like rain splashing all over me on my way to lab or someone making me mad) will be things I will be interested in 10 years down the road. Come to think of it, it doesn't even interest me now. And because of my lovely selective memory which can behave like an elephant's for choice situations, it appears that if the incident is of enough impact, I will remember it many many years later. I sometimes remember the most ridiculous things too. So I guess writing about my life for memory's sake isn't all that important to me.
But then why 1984 exactly? I have no idea. Weirdly enough, all the people I know born in 1984 that I can think of now are, to put it politely, bizarre. One guy tried to break me up with my then boyfriend, and it didn't matter to him that I was in uni and he was, well, in secondary school. (Yes, currently a guy born in 1984 isn't really all that young to me, but then the age gap was really huge. He didn't succeed, btw, and I didn't date him or do ANYTHING with him.) One girl I know has slept with well, more people than I have fingers and toes. Another one of them guys apparently talks to girls who have insulted him in some way or another in Chinese because he claims it irritates them. I wonder if he is doing that to me now. I'm not too sure why a Chinese person speaking in Chinese would irritate anyone (unless you are my brother or Licai, and then you BOTH know why >.<), so all in all it's very puzzling.
3 bloggers I know are born in 1984. One is the (in)famous Xiaxue, whose blog link can be found in this sidebar. The other 2 are people I know in real life, whose blogs are, well, not going to be linked here because heh, it's not worth it in too many ways. There are however, so many similarities between these 3 bloggers (at least those evident from their blogs or public posts) I'm wondering if there is a trend with those people born in 1984 that caused that Generation Gap. All 3 of them have publically claimed to be intelligent. Xiaxue and one of other 2 by announcing their IQ on the net (and in the case of Xiaxue, her PSLE score as well). The other has said she considered someone smart because he went to elite schools and made it to university, implying that she is smart because she herself has such qualifications. (Oh btw, Xiaxue, her PSLE score is higher than yours haha.)
[I sincerely don't know what hype there is about IQs and intelligence. What's better? Being able to accomplish everything you set out to do in your life with a low IQ, or having this beautifully preserved intelligence rotting away while you... hmm... have dreams you are never going to obtain? Is it more impressive to have won a Nobel prize with a lower or higher IQ? I think my parents are never going to be proud of me for whatever IQ I am supposed to have, but rather of what I accomplish with my life. ]
Well, back to those 3 bloggers, all 3 do write about their daily lives in their blogs. Not everyday like some people, but they do post about a fair amount of their lives. And all 3 of them have flammed on their blogs someone or other who has insulted them/belittled them/rubbed them the wrong way/mentioned their name in a way they don't like it publically in real life or on the net. Yes this online flamming thing has been going on long before blogs became popular, but it apparently is still frowned on by majority of the Singaporeans I know, who still think that feuds should be taken out in private.
I was actually inspired to write this post based on a site which showed what Xiaxue apparently did in her attempt to get back at someone she didn't like online. [http://xialanxue.blogspot.com/2006/01/xiaxue-expos.html]
It was rather amusing the extents some people will go to just to insult you publically over the internet, and yet pretend that they don't affect you in the slightest bit. I guess pretending to be someone else works until, God forbid, someone finds out about your evil scheme and tells the world about it! Some people don't even bother to cover it up; one of the other 2 bloggers said that the person in question (unnamed of course) wasn't someone she could be bothered about at all, and yet she wrote 3000+ words in her post whining about how she was being painted as a villian when she was actually the victim of the entire situation. Perhaps these people think that with their high IQs, everyone else must have a lower IQ than them and hence be totally unable to notice what they are up to. It's just so hilarious.
I still haven't actually figured out why the year is 1984. Maybe it's because of the bizarre people who were born in that year. Maybe it's because the wave of new technology at that certain time in the 1990s. At least I am comforted that there other people in 'my' generation as bewildered as me that all those people born in 1984 or after have blogs.
posted by Shelly at 9:41 PM
1 Comments:
1983... the year was 1983 for me... Maybe because in my uni years I they are the ones that have blogs. =x
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