I’m writing this editorial as a somewhat goodbye to Critic. Next week is my final issue as News Editor, so this guest editorial was subtly forced upon me (thanks, Josie). It took me more than long enough to decide what to write about. I considered multiple topics, but when you have been staring at a computer and have only eaten Monday’s leftover nachos (it’s Thursday), thoughts get rather blurred.
In order to get the creative juices flowing, I took a late-night walk to the supermarket. The entire way I listened to the best TBT of all time — All Saints, “Never Ever”. I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life, but if you don’t remember that classic, then you’re doing it wrong.
Anyway, it got me thinking (progress). I had a few too many with my flatmates on the weekend and we spent a good hour reminiscing on how our generation had the best girl bands in history. Spice Girls, All Saints, Atomic Kitten and probably half of Westlife and NYSYNC. So many of you will disagree with me, but all of your arguments are invalid.
Every generation seems to think that back in their day everything was much better. We did things better than they do them now, and the generation before us did things better than us. No one ever looks at the things their generation did wrong; we seem to wear these filtered lenses that show that everything was peachy.
I was scrolling through my newsfeed this morning (as our generation does), and I saw that Sinéad O’Connor called Kim Kardashian a c*nt for being on the cover of Rolling Stone. Are you serious? I don’t think there is a situation that could ever justify calling someone the c-word that rhymes with lunt. Someone could literally slap my mum in the face and I could still never call them stunt with a c.
“#AGenerationIsBeingGroomedAndSilenced,” tagged O’Connor.
Once again, it’s the generational debate. I’ve heard our generation called selfish, narcissistic and self-absorbed. As Kanye once said (lol, speaking of narcissistic), “they don’t make them like this anymore”. I don’t know if that lyric is actually related to what I’m saying, but that song is a #classic.
The world is changing, and it always has been. We adapt to our surroundings; these surroundings are different with every new generation. A robot just killed a man, two robots got married recently and, craziest of all, my mum has got a Snapchat. Sometimes I look at the world today and I just think, wow, we are definitely doing some cool stuff. So did the generation that raised us, and the generation that raised them.
Every generation is going to say that they were the best. Especially ours, we’re extremely narcissistic. It’s always great looking back and shedding a tear that the Spice Girls broke up, or that actual musicians used to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. However, the things we can achieve in the future are unbelievable. I’m only 19, and in my short life I’ve seen so many things come and go, and I am so excited to see what future generations will get to experience. Looking back is fun, but looking forward is even better — maybe one day my laptop will write my editorial for me?!
Anyway, we are about to go to print. I’ve listened to “Never Ever” about 12 times and eaten about 900 calories of chocolate while giving you this poorly formatted lecture, so I hope you made it to the end.
Also, if you’re looking for some more tunes, “Pure Shores” by All Saints is #2 best TBT of all time.
Much love,
Laura xx
