Generation Cracked
Are you frustrated with young folks? Do you find them flighty, irresponsible, and possessing the attention span of a gnat? Don’t get mad. It’s not their fault. They’re just on drugs. Even when they are not, they have learned to act like they are.
I came to this stereotype by observing the young adults that I teach at a local community college. Overall, they are bright, witty, respectful, and charming. Likewise, they are cynical, apathetic, and have a problem getting things done.
Now, every older generation will complain about the young ’uns. But there is something different about this latest batch, something more extreme in the oscillation between wit and sloth.
After-Cracks
I realized I had seen all these traits in abundance before, when I was in the party scene, especially at after-hours with people over 25 years old.
We called them "after-cracks." Most of the attendees were hopped up (or, in popular clubspeak, cracked out) on any number of substances. The most sparkling, entertaining, and attention-deficit were those on crystal meth. More often than not, it’s fun to talk with witty people on meth at 4 AM. But it is unwise to make plans with them the next day or week or so.
Please do not take this as approval or disapproval of people who do meth. It is about observation, not moral judgment.
I see these very same traits in my students, most of them between 18 and 20 years old. No generation in my experience is brighter, and none is more ill-equipped to go to college. They learn with lightning speed, but have a real problem starting tasks, and even more difficulty finishing them.
Kiddy-Meth
The high levels of intelligence and sluggishness in a significant number of my students were frustrating to me as a teacher. I knew they were capable of great things, but were somehow disabled. Then I looked into medication for Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). Much of it is stimulants that are chemically similar to methamphetamine.
Look at some of the most popular medications for youngsters. Ritalin, Metadate, and Concerta are amphetamine methylphenidate. Dexedrine is dextroamphetamine. Adderall is mixed amphetamine salts. Desoxyn is dextromethamphetamine. Vyvanse is lisdexamfetamine.
Popular medical folklore frames attention-challenged and hyper kids as being unable to focus, not because their minds are moving too fast, but because their minds are not moving fast enough in the right direction, like children who need a nap. But rather than sedate ADHD youth into a stupor, it was determined that what they need is a proper stimulant so that they could focus. Kiddy-meth, if you will.
There are no reliable estimates as to how many students are given kiddy-meth while growing up. When I ask my students, they say thirty percent. Or fifty percent.
Nobody really knows. It would be naïve to think we could determine the number by prescriptions because kids share them with their friends. Or sell them. Or get them from street venders.
Prescribing stimulants to help kids concentrate works, but only short-term. If a child is hyperactive, certain stimulants may indeed calm that child. Once the body-mind adapts to the drug, however, there is a good chance that the body’s ability to regulate neurotransmitters has been modified for the worse, that the child is now even more psychologically dependent on something other than naturally-produced neurochemicals to achieve inner harmony and to function successfully as a student.
It’s Never "Just the Drugs"
There is a place for ADHD medication. But the current American pharmaceutical lifestyle too often encourages kids to go on medication, and it’s not just the pseudo-medical drug-pushers hired by the pharmaceutical industry.
Lack of parental guidance, the stress of living in two households because of divorce, the splendid variety of sugar-based products that give them short blasts of chemically-induced energy, the omnipresent distraction of computer and cell phone talking/texting/IM/twitter, models for interaction presented on television and movies that privilege rapid-fire exchange of verbal virtuosity rather than meaningful information exchange, and the supremacy of style over substance in kiddy-folk-heroes such as Miley Cyrus, Lady Ga-Ga, Perez Hilton, Eminem, and Kanye West, all take their toll.
Our society constantly pushes our young people’s collective awareness to the surface and leaves it there stranded, abandoning them to a perpetual state of veneer, instilling in them an unwillingness to explore things in depth for fear that they may find nothing of worth. Or even more dreadful, fear of being left out of the incessant, glittering chatter of their fabulous peers.
Cracking On Responsibly
But don’t give up on them. Our children of the crack may be strung out, but they are not stupid. They are proof of the resiliency of the human race.
There appears to be a learning curve with kiddy-meth. I have heard that when kids first get on ADHD medication in grade school or middle school, they go through a wild phase where they just ride the buzz all day.
But by the time they reach high school, they settle down and use their drugs more strategically, such as before a major exam. This behavior follows them into college. It doesn’t mean that they quit using their Ritalin et al recreationally. Many kids learn to grind it up and snort it while still in high school-they just make sure to save some for Finals Week.
The Silver Lining
We do not need to treat our drug-addled kids as pathological. It won’t do them or us any good. Rather, let’s accept them as normal.
Even those who do not do the drugs will still ingest the sugar, follow the hype, and are grafted to technology as their more psychochemically-adventurous peers. And, as in any society, it is often the adventurous who set the pace.
Besides, these kids are not so different from prior generations who gres up in the information/drug explosion that has been accelerating since the 1960s. They are faster, wittier, and better informed than we were at their age. If we mentor them on their terms, they will be even better equipped than we are for what is to come, and better able to teach the generation that will supplant them. And they will thank us.
We must learn to imitate the rapid-fire verbal virtuosos of after-cracks, but without their vices. If we don’t, if all we do is freak out, I have confidence the people of this generation are strong enough to succeed without us.
Ultimately, we risk being the losers, not them.
