File this under "B", for "Boo Fucking Hoo"

[Razgovory]

I find this case surreal.  I am a failure at life.  But when my parents dragged me to Canada, I experienced a change from high school to university, from HK education culture to Canadian education culture, from a Cantonese to English medium of instruction within weeks.  Add that to all the changes about living in an entirely different country.  Was it even remotely conceivable for me to say variations of "I needed time to adjust", "I needed help", "I am burnt out", "I am suffering from [mental illness of the week]", "I am not doing well because I left all my friends and the culture here is unwelcoming", "I wanted to discover myself/see the world/have fun at university/party/get a girlfriend", "I want to study what I want to study, not what the job market wants me to study" etc? 

The real world is sink or swim.  So is university.

People only suffer burn out when they have something to burn to begin with.

[Oexmelin]

If you're right (and I'm not entirely sure if you are or not) then things have really changed since my day, at least in High School.

I can only offer my appreciation as a college professor today. Make of that what you will.  My understanding is indeed that things have changed. Hence the growing chasm between what students hear about college from their parents, and what they experience.

[mongers]

If you're right (and I'm not entirely sure if you are or not) then things have really changed since my day, at least in High School.

I can only offer my appreciation as a college professor today. Make of that what you will.  My understanding is indeed that things have changed. Hence the growing chasm between what students hear about college from their parents, and what they experience.

Well thanks for your posts Oexy, I found them informative, though somewhat depressing.

[derspiess]

K thnx.

Actually this is probably a BLM plot.

See how many more strawmen you can set up.  Don't hold back!

[MadBurgerMaker]

I mean, I probably would have just taken a semester off to relax and maybe changed my major if I was certain I didn't want to continue with engineering.  Cutting off normal communications, wiping out the bank account, and moving in with some random artists seems a tad excessive.  Seriously: why the burner phone and new bank account? 

Whatever, not my life. 

E: Her mom wrote something too: http://nypost.com/2016/05/29/reuniting-with-my-daughter-was-awkward-after-she-cut-me-off/   

[Razgovory]

K thnx.

Actually this is probably a BLM plot.

See how many more strawmen you can set up.  Don't hold back!

Just following your lead, here.

[derspiess]

Now I think we need an article by her new and ex-roommates.  And maybe one each from the cops that found her.

[Valmy]

Now I think we need an article by her new and ex-roommates.  And maybe one each from the cops that found her.

Maybe you and I should write one Spicey. 'Why this stunt by this teenager is so very very important.'

[Tamas]

NINE pages of people reading a story which is clearly not painting the full picture (for better or worse), and then drawing wide and overarching conclusion based solely on filling up story holes with their own personal experiences and views.

[Berkut]

Students in competitive universities arrive having been groomed, cared for, thoroughly trained for performing at college, where everyone keep telling them they are invested in *their* success. Their dreams have been hemmed in by pressures to perform, and their notions of the Good Life are wholly informed by landing high paying gigs at the best possible firms, whether those are pharmaceutical, biotech, WallStreet, etc.

the same time they operate within a culture - which may include their parents - that lauds college as a great time of partying, having fun, finding yourself, finding love, etc. And yet they are finding an increasingly corporate, bureaucratized environment. One of the recurring problems mentioned by students where I teach stems from their disappointment at finding an atomized social environment that fall short of their expectation of self-discovery.

I think their aspirations are slightly misplaced - for I think they are expecting that this self-discovery will happen like everything happens in a "school environment" these days: with people telling them how to get there, with clear goals, and seminars, and clearly delineated boundaries. I think ascribing that to "kids these days" is moronic: we have made this world for them. They are only expecting what we told them should be the only thing to expect. The peculiar alchemy that made colleges a place of socialization seems to be undone. I am sure some soulless Mono clones will laud and applaud the death of any and all aspirations beyond that of performing to make money - and while there are some students who enthusiastically sacrifice their souls in such a way, we should not be surprised that others want to run away. See the discussion between CdM and Mihaili in the "basement" thread.   

Great post.

One thing that always annoys me about any "Kids these days..." or "The Greatest Generation was..." sort of things is how selfish and lacking self awareness such observations are - the reality is that "kids these days" are *exactly* what their parents and society has made them, to the extent that they actually are any different at all from "kids of previous days".

If they have some kind of systemic issues, it isn't because of THEM it is because of US.

[Berkut]

NINE pages of people reading a story which is clearly not painting the full picture (for better or worse), and then drawing wide and overarching conclusion based solely on filling up story holes with their own personal experiences and views.

That is how discussion works - it's starts with a  basic premise or topic, and then expands out to related topics, and sometimes ends up on things that have, at best, only very tenuous connection to the original subject.

Why is this a bad thing?

[Valmy]

Kids are basically the same as ever. Everybody said the same shit about my generation. We were slackers who never wanted to do shit and were entitled. Every new generation is entitled and does not want to work...because we were just kids a few years before when we got shit and didn't have to work.

[Tamas]

Kids are basically the same as ever. Everybody said the same shit about my generation. We were slackers who never wanted to do shit and were entitled. Every new generation is entitled and does not want to work...because we were just kids a few years before when we got shit and didn't have to work.

Yeah. Oex's post was indication of this: Colleges were special places of self-growth and socialisation in my time, they are soulless makers of money-earners now!

[The Brain]

Wtf is a "social learner"? A moran?

[Phillip V]

Kids are basically the same as ever. Everybody said the same shit about my generation. We were slackers who never wanted to do shit and were entitled. Every new generation is entitled and does not want to work...because we were just kids a few years before when we got shit and didn't have to work.

No.  Work is measurable.  Kids today are working less (or "differently") than previous generations.  Whether that is good or bad can be debated.