I heard a PBS radio interview of two young pop stars and began to count the number of times they said “like” in their conversation. There was at least one, maybe two likes in most sentences. Previously, I used to count the times “you know” was a filler word in radio or TV chat, even by the broadcaster host. Now I find “like” is even more common.
Word meister Richard Lederer has also noticed the constant use of “like” in teens' and 20-somethings’ language. A teacher mentoring Helix High students was asked if she had, like, a pencil. The response was, "Do you want a pencil or something like a pencil?"
"Like" gives a person a pause to choose what to say next. Whatever its purpose, I find the repetitive use of “like” and “you know” to be distracting. Here is a typical example: “It’s like totally awesome.” How many times a day do you hear that one?
Professor Mark Hale of the Harvard University Department of Linguistics believes the use of “like” is a badge of identification for members of a certain generation, according to Lederer. Its universal use stirs his concern about the state of our English language.
This is not the only concern we elders feel for this younger generation. The aging population here and abroad will be the burden of the younger set when they reach middle-age maturity. Aging America creates deferred maintenance on roads, bridges and water systems. These obligations will be forced on the under-40 age group. Newsweek called it the “screwed generation.” Robert Samuelson preferred “squeezed generation” in his column in The Washington Post.
How did this disparity happen? The simplest answer is people live longer and retire earlier to enjoy the fruits of their labor. That option is shifting today because of the recession and the boomer generation’s lack of adequate savings to retire.
One bright spot for the younger generations is the mass retirement of the boomers that began in this decade, leaving job openings and demand for the technical skills of younger workers. In the meantime, the unemployed college graduates and laid-off workers tend to return home and are tagged the “boomerang generation.”
Demographics have shifted dramatically since federal programs were created in the last century. The ratio of workers to retirees in 1960 was 5-1, and in 2010 3-1. It is now projected at 2-1 in 2025. That is not enough payroll tax to cover federal programs assisting the elderly.
Despite the incredible wealth generated by the boomers in the explosion of technology, not many in the upper-middle class will have much left over for their children. Extended credit and the urge to acquire lavish playthings, combined with the cost of sending kids to college and paying for health care, have kept that generation on the brink. After they finance their golden years, the estate might be insolvent.
That means members of the squeezed generation can’t count on inheriting a nest egg from their parents to supplement a federal retirement subsidy that is also in jeopardy. The “greatest generation” of the Depression era saved for the next rainy day and did benefit from a legacy from their parents who likewise were savers and did not tend to outlive their resources.
On a related subject about youth, celebrity columnist and commentator David Brooks wrote in The New York Times about the boy crisis — a most amusing view of why schoolboys are not doing as well as their girl classmates. He lays the blame on an education system too dedicated to the ordinary student that discards the unusual misfit, presumed to be mostly male.
Brooks imagined the rambunctious young Henry V, as fashioned by William Shakespeare, going to an American school. In nursery school, the teacher would be sending notes home that Henry was disruptive during circle time. By grammar school the teacher would recommend medication to calm him down. Many boys are on it and find school easier, the experts claim.
By high school Henry has decided school culture is for wimps and begins to withdraw to violent video games and aggressive music. But the real Henry V was a king that became a national hero despite his youthful transgressions under the mentoring of an amoral Falstaff.
The boy crisis has been studied for decades to understand why boys account for three-quarters of the D’s and F’s. Why are 11th-grade boys writing at the same level as eighth-grade girls? Women make up 60 percent of college students, and even fewer men graduate.
Brooks believes educators cannot turn Henry into a reflective Hamlet just by feeding him meds and hoping he will sit quietly at story time. Schools have to engage people the way they are. The system needs to teach how to win and how to lose with programs that work like boot camp, not friendship circles.
Little Prince Hal has a lot going on inside him. He does not fit the modern education mold and creates a discipline crisis. He probably wants to be, like, innovative and become a Steve Jobs.
Ford is a freelance writer located in San Diego. He can be reached at johnpatrick.ford@sddt.com.
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