[Sundae]

I know this is drifting, drifting..... But.

Something I've noticed about my niece and nephew's generation is their immediacy.
They're not really MTV generation (at least not in this country and not in their house) but they know so little about what happened before they became aware of the world. Although in their particular case I'm not sure they even are aware of it yet. I'd be super-surprised if either could name one member of the Cabinet.

Trivial example - We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel came out when I was 16. I didn't understand all the references (it is skewed to American headlines after all) but I got at least two-thirds. And they started over 20 years before I was born. I mean that's nothing; I didn't consider it history. But in conversation with the younglings (I now work with people of Ab's age at the weekends) they've never heard of the Falklands, the miners' strike, the poll tax riots or even The Troubles.
At least the kids I work with will say, "Really? OMG, I didn't know that. That explains [xyz]"
But then maybe they're humouring a crone like me.

To Abs and Sam I might as well be talking about the Norman Invasion as referring to some sort of seismic shift that happened in society ten years ago.

Sorry, the above sounds like I get all Speakers' Corner on them. If I was ranting I could completely understand their lack of interest. I'm only referring to things which occasionally come up in conversation.

They just seem so...
blinkered.
Surfeit of information maybe? I had to go to the reference library to look up the Marquis de Sade. They know they can do it in a heartbeat, so don't bother. It's old stuff after all.

I might have to drag my weary bones to another thread to explain my waspishness (there is a reason I'm cranky).
But my point still stands.