Posting selfies, endless scrolling, and swiping right is no way to go through life.
Dean Wormer would be proud of this 2025 version, similar to the 1970s quote when he famously castigated Flounder, who was about to get expelled from college in Animal House.
It’s time for my annual birthday post, where I reassess my life and the current cultural environment. This year’s blog concerns today’s young people. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re great. They are certainly more socially aware, drink less, and are better humans than my cohorts and I in my prime years of 1982-1986.
Despite this undeniable fact, something’s missing.
We experienced rather than documenting things. Your five senses decipher reality, not some app purposely designed for full-out addiction.
My friends and I did some pretty crazy stuff, hijacking school buses, getting chased by druggies with knives, and climbing on 10-story ledges in the middle of winter to cut the Keg line. Luckily, there are no physical records of these events. Still, they are seared into my memory because I was living them in the moment and not worrying about any social media engagement rate.
Jerry Thornton of Barstool Sports sums this up succinctly:
It was an analog, tactile world where you experienced everything with your five senses, not apps like the one you’re currently on. You looked your friends in the eye and talked to each other. You called someone’s house phone to get hold of them. Not to speak so much as to make plans. To decide who was picking up whom, and where you were headed for the day.
To meet a girl, you had to be in some social situation and have the guts to walk up to her and start a conversation. If you pulled her digits, you had to face your worst fears, call her house, and have no idea who might pick up. Her rotten little brother. Her hard-of-hearing grandma. Her father, God forbid. Yes, it was a million times harder than texting or swiping right. But it turned you from a boy into a man of courage and action who saw what he wanted and went after it. Dating was a meritocracy, then. And fortune favored the bold.
Young people today don’t have the opportunities to experience these rites of passage, and I feel bad for them. Living in the real world and being present instead of slumped over and staring at your phone is a super food for mental and physical health, both of which are spiraling downward for today’s young adults.
Don’t get me wrong; 2025 is an excellent time to live. The good old days often involve omitting all the bad stuff, making them seem much better than the reality of the times.
As the late, great PJ O’Rourke put it, “If you think that, in the past, there was some golden age of pleasure and plenty to which you would, if you were able, transport yourself, let me say one single word: Dentistry.”
It would be nice to bring some of the crazy stuff from 1985 into today’s world. Making all the world’s problems into your own helps nobody.
I recall reading about recurring carnage in the newspaper in college. Algorithms don’t feed the print media, so I initially felt sad. Shortly after, I wondered whether we were having a Pasta Bar that evening in my Dorm’s dining room. Doom scrolling didn’t exist in 1985.
Nothing is permanent, and we are all connected in some way. The trick is paying more attention. I had it pretty good. My only wish is that today’s young people feel the same way.
Don’t let others fool you. The best investment is living your life in the moment. There are no replays.
If you’re too young to understand what I’m saying, look at this, and you’ll get it.
I wasn’t even alive in 1985 and this video made me cry 😭
Was it really this great? pic.twitter.com/0B3eQKQw5T
— Based Bandita (@MissVega8888) August 10, 2025
