Something changed after 2018

[00:00:00]There's a crazy phenomenon with our generation where it seems like everyone just collectively agrees that life peaked at 2018. It just seemed like every aspect of life was just the best it had ever been and then it slowly but surely went downhill after that. And I was thinking about it and I was like, what is it about 2018? Because even if you talk with someone that's like 3 years older than you or a couple years younger than you, 2018 is the year. So the level of responsibility, I think that's the easy answer. Oh, you know, life just got more serious cuz you you got older and you had more responsibilities. I don't even really think that that's what it is. I think there was something about the culture at the time in a sort of the mass psychology of like humans where everyone was just enjoying life.

[00:00:51]I think about things like video games, right? That was like Prime, Fortnite. Uh that was just back in the day where you would get home from school and you would just try to clear your schedule cuz all you wanted to do was play video games.

[00:01:05]Music was peaking. I think 2018 was Astro World. I think like and it doesn't matter if you're into like that specific demographic of people, but life just peaked on all fronts. You know, that was sort of the very end of the cool movies being made. Now everything just feels like a rerun of the movie's past. The best way I can describe it, and I don't understand why it is, is that culture was progressing up until 2018 and then it started regressing and it started to repeat itself from the past. If you pay attention on social media, it seems like every six months or so, there is a new trend that goes popular, but the trend is just some something that happened in the past, right?

[00:01:53]Recently there was this huge trend a couple months back about like uh 2015 2016 like that one Rio de Janeiro uh filter that was on that everyone was posting Instagram on and just like the the vibes of that 2015 2016 era the music you know it was this whole trend and then you have the trend like the fashion trends everyone's trying to go back to Y2K it just seems like we all collectively and intuitively are like desperate to go back to that time period. And I think what's happened is life has gotten so shallow specifically because of social media where everything has been seen, it's been done, and it's been done time and time again. I feel like content, at least for me, the type of content that I consume, it's really just repurposed the same versions of everything else for about the past five, six years of my life. like the the talking points are, you know, starting to get repetitive in these videos and it's kind of rare that you come across a truly unique idea and like I fully understand that I am a part of that myself. Like I've definitely made many videos making similar talking points as something that was said years ago, you know, but it's just what we've done is this desire for something new has is exactly what has stopped us from creating something new.

[00:03:21]Like when we saturate every single aspect of life and capital like make everything about making money and like the trends just they they they're different trends but like ontologically it's kind of the same thing that just stopped after 2018 and I I don't I don't know what it is but like sports for example sports peaked in 2018 that was like the Cavs versus Warriors finals Um, you know, I'm from Chicago. That was the Cubs 3 to1 comeback and I'm not even a Cubs fan. I'm a White Socks fan. Um, it it was just like like music. I mean, dude, that was when X dropped uh Question Mark, which is one of my favorite albums of all time. That's like that was like prime Soundcloud day. Like everything was peak. And that's sort of like the the things that I was interested in that time. And maybe you're listening to this and you're like, "Oh, I don't even get those references." But you probably have like whatever you were into at that time. It just peaked. Life was still, it just felt like there wasn't a weight on your shoulder like you had to be doing something with your life because I think social media and everything advanced to where you just see people winning constantly now as opposed to having fun.

[00:04:38]No, honestly, that's the difference. I'm realizing that right now. In 2018, that was the last year where the priority was have fun. And now it's how can you just capitalize off of every moment of your existence and just optimize optimize optimize. That's all it is, bro. That's all it is. But yeah, it's like we we crossed a line and it's like a psychological or metaphysical line, whatever you want to call it, where technology really stopped serving people and it actually started to control them.

[00:05:10]you know, like back in 20 that 2016 and 2018 era, like yeah, we had phones. I think I don't I didn't even have a phone at the time. I had like an iPod, so it didn't even have, you know, reception or or like cell service. And it's like, bro, we would go out and bro for me that was I would go to the mall every Friday. This was like a like basically religiously would go to the mall. It was the first time I was talking to girls. Like life was a blast, bro. Like I I would just give so much to have that back and I think it's just we care too deeply about everything now. And in I feel like the word performative is overused and I don't really like using the word but back then people were like genuine about what they did and it was just once again it was about fun. 2018 was the last year of fun and then after that it just we slowly got worse and worse where like everything feels like you're trying to prove a point to someone.

[00:06:11]I I don't know. And then once 2020 hit and and we had the pandemic it was like you know isolation increased as a whole dramatically. Um problems that already had existed were like amplified and basically put in the spotlight because we had nothing to do. So we were all on our phones and that was really the turning point of man. It was, okay, we're just stuck in our room. We can't do anything. What am I going to do? I'm just going to go online and I'm going to like watch um Tik Toks and I'm going to do this. Like, what's really interesting and how I know that I've grown a lot as a person is when in 2020 when the pandemic first hit, there was a TV show that was very popular with my with people my age. It was called Outer Banks. You pro like if you're watching this video, you probably know what I'm referring to. And dude, that when that first season dropped, I mean, I think I watched it like three times in a row. I had nothing else going on. I thought it was banger. I had a huge crush on uh that Derek Cameron chick and the show, everything. And then, you know, as the years have gone by, I just like don't even care to the point where I don't think I've seen the most recent season and I think they're coming out with another season and I'm not going to watch that. But I think that's like the perfect personification of like how we've sort of just we started to like focus on things that are so so much more serious now and like we need to be productive and we can't enjoy things, you know? Like I said it before, but um I really don't watch much TV at all anymore. Like in my free time when I eat and stuff, I'll just go on YouTube and I'll just try to like scroll videos on YouTube and you know I watch like the main guy that I watch is Moist Critical if you guys know who that is. And it's like I just kind of want to dumb myself down when I am eating or trying to relax. I don't want to like indulge in something super intellectual because that's what I do a lot um as like a hobby. So it's like you kind of want a break from that. But that's just like that's just a perfect representation of what life was after 2018. It's oh it's serious or you know I'm just going to like the media is just mass-producing this like our generation calls it slop and I don't even call it slob. It's just like repurposed stuff.

[00:08:25]You know all the movies are reruns. All the new music is like once again trying to like replicate the vibes back in 2016.

[00:08:33]And yeah I don't know bro I don't know.

[00:08:36]I can't outside of the World Cup in football because you guys know I'm a Barcelona fan. I never watch sports.

[00:08:43]It's just not like as it's not nearly as interesting, man. And what we need is like a um an alleviation of some of the pressure as a whole as our society is facing as a whole. Like the political tensions are growing. Uh tensions amongst different groups within the world are growing. It seems like there's always conflict. People are constantly, you know, they want to fight each other. They want to get out all their angst. And it's like, bro, 2018 wasn't that deep. Like, I just felt like we weren't like tripping that much about that stuff. But granted, maybe it was because I was so young. Like, I didn't like I didn't even know who the freaking president of the United States was in 2018. Like, obviously, I'm being dramatic there, but like you get what I'm saying. And oh yeah, now all of a sudden it's like boom, all the world's problems are all on us and our generation. And now we got to solve all these issues and if we don't confront them, then we'll be consumed by it. And it's like, dude, I just want to go in my car, middle of the night, windows down, beautiful, like summer night, vibes immaculate. I'm listening to some Drake on the stereo. You know what I mean? The aux is going crazy. That's just what I want to do, bro. That's what I want to do. In 2018, me and my friends, I had um friends that lived in this very like uh this neighborhood that just had a bunch of trees and it was like very lowkey, like you couldn't really see into it.

[00:10:11]And they bought a golf course. It was very or a golf cart. It was illegal, but we would drive the golf cart around everywhere and we'd just be playing whatever fire song was going on. That was 2018, bro. Blast. 10 out of 10. a 100 out of 10 experience. And it's like I was, it's funny. I was talking to my friends and I was like I feel like everyone what they're trying to do now is like you're just desperately trying to revert back to that feeling that you had in 2018, you know? Like that was the that was the last time it was good, bro. But now it's like, oh, you know, I have car payments. I have um to figure out what I'm going to do with my career. You know, what what is my purpose in living in life? It's like, dude, why do we just can't have fun anymore? And that's just I don't know. I think it just like kind of hurts deep down because when you're a kid, you're like you you just kind of think that when you're an adult, it's like being a kid but with freedom and then you become an adult and then it's like nope, you just can't really have fun anymore. So, don't get me wrong, you can absolutely go out and have fun. But I think you guys get the point I'm trying to make.

[00:11:12]It just it just doesn't feel the same.

[00:11:14]It doesn't hit quite the same. Anyways, thank you guys for watching.