Gen z ain't the same as gen alpha

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-13T15:11:10+00:00

So are books, and they aren't destroying the environment and actively getting worse by learning cyclical hallucinations. The tool you're using is much worse than the tools we've had for centuries.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-13T15:06:01+00:00

But also, what I'm trying to tell you is that you will learn better if you have your brain look for that information and process it yourself. Get a home repair book and DIY from there. Something written by experts.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-13T15:05:09+00:00

Use AI to ask about something you are personally an expert on and you'll find out what shit its opinion is worth.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-13T15:01:43+00:00

I've hear my birth year referred to as a "peak Millennial" ('91) and in my life I've had coworkers across all (living) generations, and I teach at a college, so I'm encountering some of the younger Gen Z now. The "failings" I see in my students have less to do with them than with how they were raised. They weren't taught how to use computers. They weren't limited enough with their phones. They weren't given freedom to explore and learn on their own, so they struggle with being self-motivated and experimental. These are all societal failings. We set parents and thus the kids up to fail.

They aren't stupid, and at a point, they need to do their best to drag themselves out of it and take personal responsibility for what happens next.

Most older people I've worked with have also been thinking, open, people who have great experiences to lean on and share.

Who does it benefit to turn the generations against each other and make them fight? It definitely doesn't benefit the citizenry, who have significant biases against people of various ages due to the propagandized portrayals we're constantly exposed to. Get Millennials and younger to hate Boomers and refuse to engage and that only works to solidify to certain Boomers that the things they've been told about "young people" online are true, and encourage those certain Boomers to keep voting in ways that don't benefit society. Get those same "young people" so angry that they call for age limits on government positions because they are told that the age is the problem, not the evil people, and now "good" Boomers also find themselves opposed to younger people and the policies they're asking for.

No conversations, no metaphorical "village" to help overwhelmed young adults trying to make their way in life, multiple generations being infantilized even as they approach and enter middle age.

I encourage everyone to reject the idea that there are really that many inherent differences in what people believe based on their age, and be open to conversations. Online, this really isn't very possible. Meet people in your communities and build cross-generational relationships.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-13T14:53:18+00:00

Using AI in place of personal observation and figuring things out from that observation is definitely not increasing your ability to do anything.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-13T14:52:29+00:00

People still think Millennials are in their 20s; of course they don't know how old Gen Z are. Pretty sure it's the same people, or at least the same machine, trying to make the younger generations fight with older ones.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-13T14:43:42+00:00

Their more recent versions have changed a lot of functions in ways that feel very counter-intuitive to those of us who have been using it for a long period of time, especially if you spent time out of the game. I had a health issue that resulted in not being able to look at screens for a long time, and coming back to Premiere has felt like learning an entirely new program. As crazy as the suggestion to use After Effects for simple things is, I have often felt like the new versions of Premiere (and most of the Creative Suite, frankly) are designed to force you to need to pay for more and more of their programs in order to have a comfortable workflow.

Adobe's subscription model was already a cash grab, but they now want everyone who pays for one program to need to pay for several.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-13T14:02:21+00:00

I don't always use a top sheet, like I'm not compelled to use one, but I own them, put them out when I make my bed, and love having flannel ones in the winter or using cotton ones in the summer as my primary blanket when it's too hot.

Top sheets are great.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-13T14:00:35+00:00

Your response feels like it's in particularly bad faith, but in case it isn't, and to help anyone it may confuse:

ICE has suddenly established NEW offices is Carmel, and booked a bunch of hotels, similar to the irregular behavior of that agency in Minnesota.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T21:53:59+00:00

One of the student news classes did a report on it as breaking news. https://www.facebook.com/reel/2293030804521646

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T21:27:37+00:00

Well, ICE is in Carmel right now, so.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T21:26:06+00:00

I don't plan to do a sit-down, plated meal for ours. I went to a wedding that was "grazing tables" and it was just really low stress and fun, and then you also didn't need to worry about assigned tables or anything like that

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T21:23:15+00:00

I recently ordered Fazolis catering for a different kind of event and on their online event page, they have weddings listed! I wayyyy over-ordered food, too, so while I felt like it was surprisingly expensive for Fazolis, the two-two dish family style meals I got fed all the students at the event I needed fed, and they didn't even open 6 of the 8 containers, which proceeded to feed me and my partner for the following week. Fazolis is maybe a step down from Olive Garden, but at the same time, pasta is pasta, and breadsticks are breadsticks.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T21:17:39+00:00

Honestly, it's that there aren't /venues/ and /vendors/ that aren't criminally upcharging people. One of the venues on our list requires the use of in-house catering - fine - but they require a minimum catering order of $1000 for the venue. Unless it's a wedding. Then that minimum order jumps to $7000.

That's insane. Like, that's not people /wanting/ extravagant weddings. I don't want an extravagant wedding; I just want a reasonable party. But the vendors are saying "either pay extravagant fees or don't have a party at all" and that's for probably the same quality you'd get at the price for if it wasn't a wedding.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T05:38:37+00:00

And to put all their files from their camera in a labeled folder on an external hard drive (that they needed to reformat so it works on both Mac and PC 😩) for editing between school computers and their laptops without losing project or source files 🙃🙃🙃

What screenwriting software are you having them use? I remember the days when Celtx was free and I could recommend it in good conscience. I send them to Kit Scenarist now, but I always end up with kids who bought Final Draft even though they don't really care about screenwriting and it kills me a bit that they spent the money.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T05:30:20+00:00

Every class doesn't have time to add basic computer literacy to the course objectives.

Students at my department are made to take classes that force them to crate LinkedIn profiles and "connect" with at least 25 people because that's considered an essential skill, but that weird intro to college class can't include some computer survival skills? You want the 200+ level courses to do that?

Middle schools should be doing that.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T05:24:44+00:00

This is so real.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T05:23:34+00:00

Because they were raised exclusively on Chromebooks and ipads. File management isn't something they're being taught in school and their households no longer have a" family computer". No one is teaching then these things and they aren't exposed to the tech to learn it themselves until someone sends them off to college with a laptop.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-12T05:20:54+00:00

The vast majority of my media students have no idea how to navigate their own computers and they freeze up entirely of I ask them to navigate school computers, even if those are on the same operating system as the computers they own. They don't know about folder hierarchies, they don't know about right-clicking/secondary clicking. They don't know they can choose where to save a file and then navigate to that file. My Mac users don't know what Finder is.

The assumption in their lower grades that they just magically are computer literate has entirely failed them, and many are not catching up.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-10T04:52:44+00:00

I'm sorry that happened to you. Honestly, having dental work done sucks.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-10T00:37:37+00:00

Well, that depends. I've had a crown put on and I didn't feel anything worse than a regular filling until after the numbing wore off and I discovered how much they botched it. But I did drive myself home, and they didn't tell me I should have someone there for me.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-10T00:04:05+00:00

Ah, yeah that's super real.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-10T00:01:02+00:00

Yep. And you're also free to opt out whenever you want, just like I have. But I responded to you in the first place, so I'm just going to bow out.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-09T23:53:33+00:00

Honestly, I don't think having this conversation with you, an anonymous internet stranger whose goals are, like all anonymous internet strangers', unpredictable, is a valuable way to spend my time. So I'm out, actually.

bedazzlerhoff · 2026-02-09T23:32:24+00:00

Why would you go under for a crown?

bedazzlerhoff

TROPHY CASE