Crunch Time

Nouns and verbs for a New Year

The New York Times ran an op-ed piece visualizing the significant cultural dynamics of the last decade (00's):

 

Notice the bottom two categories: nouns and verbs.  Words matter and can succinctly sum up cultural moments and collective consciousness.  Looking ahead to the next decade, here are some of my own nouns and verbs (along with definitions) that I believe will be key signifiers in the years to come:

NOUNS:

Joy: The smoldering internal ember that refuses to be extinguished despite repeated external attempts to douse it.  Happiness is embedded in our constitution and is a protected right.  Yet happiness is fleeting in our attempts to capture it.  Joy, on the other hand, captures us.

Scola: This is the Latin word for "leisure" and the root of our English words for "school" and "scholarship". It is not used in the sense of nursing an umbrella drink while lounging in a hammock.  It means to have unencumbered time to explore a topic or idea deeply and thoroughly.  Ask any teacher today and they will tell you their classroom is the farthest thing from leisure you can possibly find.

Frugal: To enjoy the fruits of one's labor in such a way that their value is intensified and their good effects multiplied to everyone. It has little to do with consumption and everything to do with contentment. It is a nasty and debilitating word to our consumer culture.  You watch - it will be attacked and squelched at every turn.

Bipolar: I am hearing this description used more and more in reference to our cultural situation. Listen for it as we attempt to describe the extreme oscillation of change we will continue to experience in the next ten years.

Hypers: This is the moniker I have bestowed on the youngest generation alive today (born after 2000). Though not everyone will agree, I think it aptly describes the metabolism of our contemporary culture and the subsequent challenges that commitment and contemplation will pose for them.

VERBS

Contract: In my training on generations, I use a "c" word to describe the formative themes of each age group. I am using this verb to describe the formative theme for the Hypers (see noun above). The last ten years has seen a steady contraction of perceived freedoms and assumptions that we in the West once enjoyed.  The youngest generation is going to be defined by the restrictions placed upon them by emerging global realities.

Beautify: This is the process whereby aesthetic improvements are undertaken to refurbish decaying infrastructures.  Not only is the infrastructure of many of our urban centers in need of beautification, but the infrastructure of our souls as well.  I predict that artisans will become more relevant and sought after as producers of meaning and beauty.

Pornify: This is the saturation of our culture with the graphic images and demeaning values of an oversexed population. It might even be the reality of an undersexed populace devoid of the intimacy that gives sex its depth and worth.  You watch how this dynamic increases the personal loneliness as we relate more and more on a digital level. This might inspire an earnest search for beauty.

Obviously these nouns and verbs are by no means exhaustive or definitive, but they are on my mind as I look ahead at the changes that await us.

Parents who stalk their children

Here is an hilarious video highlighting attempts to connect across the generation gap. Enjoy:

Great Eargasms

When I was teaching High School, I learned a whole lot about contemporary slang.  The particular phrases and peculiar turn of a word my students used in casual conversation made me laugh and cringe.  I used to quip with my students that as soon as I found out the nuances of their slang, it had lost it's street cred and traveled its arc from hip to lame. It couldn't be cool.  How could it?  A guy my age inevitably is a late comer to street level language.  Yet, given the speed of communication and many links of social networking, the life of slang is now shorter than ever.

"U.C.L.A. Slang 6" is a recently released compendium of student colloquialisms providing what it calls "eargasms" since 1989.

Some interesting insights from the book:

"Schwa" — a synonym for "wow" — exemplifies the rarest approach to slang creation: pulling new words out of thin air.

"Destroy" means the opposite of what you would think: to do well on something like a test, according to "Slang 6." And the phrase "dropping the kids off at school" (which I knew) has a scatalogical rather than an educational meaning.

The lingo of texting provided such visual entries as "QQ," an emoticon similar to a smiley face that, in this instance, stands for the verb "to cry." (clever!)

Rhyming helps phrases like "sisters from another mister" and "brothers from another mother" — slang for friends so close they seem like siblings — catch on and spread.

Abbreviation is another gold mine. Clipping — cutting a syllable or two from a commonly accepted word — produces words like the verb "presh," short for precious, and the adjective "bellig," which rhymes with fridge and is short for belligerent and drunk.

Older generations will be happy to know that"Cool" is still in there. "Cool" is one of those words where everybody knows the word, but still thinks it's slang.

Here are a few of my own eargasms.  Let's start a viral progression of their usage in our culture:

"No returner" or "norer" refers to a person who never answers emails or returns voice mail.  It could be used as, "Don't even bother with her anymore, she's a total "norer"; or "a 'norer' is an annoyer".

"Epixalated" refers to our increasingly digitized forms of entertainment.  It could be used as, "I never read books or newspapers anymore, I'm too "epixalated"; or, "why go outside when I can epixalate inside".

"rat a tat" refers to a person on Twitter, Facebook or any other social media site who focuses extensively on how neat and wonderful their life is. The constant barrage of updated minutia that accentuates the narcissism is called "rat a tat". For example, "Whew, that person's wearing me down with all their "rat a tat" on Twitter. 

And finally, there's "schnooky ray dooky" referring to deep desire in our fast pasted world for rare, but much needed, and valued rest, "I can't go out tonight. I'm getting some "shnooky ray dooky".

Aba dee, Aba dee, Aba dee, that's all folks!!

How 'bout you, can you add to the list?  Let me know and I'll compile them for a later post.

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The lens of youth culture

For years I have subscribed to the Hedgehog Review: critical reflections on contemporary culture.  Published by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, each volume is always intriguing and worth reading cover to cover.  The following is taken from the introduction for the Spring 2009 issue focused on "Youth Culture". The quandaries it explores and the questions it raise need to be explored by all of us.

The radical and rapid transformation taking place in America and global culture are keenly seen when viewed through the lens of youth culture.

Take technological changes, for example. Young people are at the forefront of the use and adaptation of these developments, and their day-to-day experiences--their modes of being, if you will--have been markedly transformed. The way they interact with their peers, and present themselves to others is unlike that of any generation that came before them... How have these technological changes affected what it means to be human?

The cultural changes of late modernity have produced pressures to adapt to, and succeed in, an increasingly complex social sphere. This is felt acutely by the young, particularly in relation to their academic achievements...  In an effort to cope with the world around them, young people are taking more and more medications. The increase in the use of medications to negotiate these demands affects the way young people see themselves and the world around them. How does a young person understand what it means to be human or to be good when she views her struggles through a medical model?

Changes in the meaning of adulthood in contemporary life is in a state of confusion... Once a stage of life towards which to aspire, adulthood has come to be seen by many as neither inevitable nor necessarily desirable...What happens to a culture when people don't want to grow up?  What does this say about our ideals for what it means to be human and for what it means to be good?

Young people are often the first to adopt to new cultural forms, and we often express our anxieties about those new cultural forms as concerns about the young... They are the ones ultimately who will reap the benefits or the deficits of how we negotiate the cultural changes of contemporary life.

Relating in the ecotone

We see examples of it all the time.  The transitional zone between ocean and land, forest and grassland, sidewalk and yard, even hairline and forehead.  The area of transition between two adjacent communities is called an 'ecotone'. It is a fertile place, containing species characteristic of both communities as well as species occurring only within the particular zone - ie, head lice and bacteria.

There are five generations alive today in the United States.  This has never happened before in the history of our society. As such we find ecotones in offices, classrooms, families, churches, and other places that contain not two, but five different species of human beings.

These transitional zones are fertile generational communities that require behavioral nutrients for them to thrive in healthy, dynamic, and organic ways. Work them in to your daily life:

Revisit Assumptions: You need to be in constant vigilance of your stereotypes. We all have them (blondes are dumb) but are they accurate? Constantly test your assumptions about other generations by prefacing your interactions with, "Help me understand".  It is a precursor to rich conversation and understanding.

Relax Control: Life is messy. Relationships are tough. Managing is stressful. 90% of the problems middle managers and above face are ambiguous. It usually is not clear what the problem is or what the solution should be.  So lighten up with one another. As that great philosopher of our age Jimmy Buffett intones, "If we all couldn't laugh we would all go insane".

Return to core values: You are who you were when. That is to say, the values that shape your behaviors, attitudes, and expectations were set by the time you were a sophomore in high school.  Some cultural values change over time, but what about you personally? What hasn't changed?  What are you really all about? What are your 'nos'?  Clarify your values so they aren't muddled for others.

Model the highest standards: This behavioral nutrient interfaces closely with core values. Behavior is ten times more important than words in building respect. Does your behavior align with your core values? In other words, how is your brain, mouth, and hand coordination?

Engage the other: This is easier said than done. It requires you to stretch and expand your behavioral repetoire. By expanding your engagement across the five age groups you become more effective across a larger number of situations. I always say everyone has the gift of eating. Invite someone younger or older than you to lunch today.