The Emotional Issues with Gen X and Gen Y

I'm not a psychologist, and I feel that qualifies me to talk about emotional issues.  Hey, Oprah and Maury Povich do all the time, so why not me?  Before I get into the topic at hand, I should start by saying this: I should never eat lunch alone, especially when I'm taking cold & allergy medication; I think that may have been the cause of this post.

Now on to the topic at hand.  It dawned on me the source of the emotional problems in my generation.  While I grew up in an age with MTV, rampant violence in entertainment, broken homes, overly high - or overly low - expectations, academic pressure and rampant materialism, I don't think that's the problem. No, I blame The Oregon Trail and the Choose Your Own Adventure book series.

"Seriously, ReallyAsa?  Oregon Trail and Choose Your Own Adventure? These were great learning tools, getting kids interested in learning history and decision-making skills."  True, they did teach those things, but they taught a whole lot more.

Let's start with The Oregon Trail.  The player, some eight-year-old in Mrs. Padenska's Red reading group, finishes his assignments early and gets to play on the computer for 1/2 hour.  He chooses to be the doctor, since he starts with the most money, and names the travelers after Gramma, PopPop, and his baby sister.  During the course of the game, he hunts and trades...and watches the entire party die of a high fever, dysentery and starvation.  Wow.  Some eight-year-old killed his entire family, all because he earned computer time for finishing his vocabulary worksheet early.

Onto Choose Your Own Adventure. That same eight-year-old rushes home with his latest installment from his book series. Mystery, intrigue, treasure - what's not to like?  It's like the other stories he's read, but he gets to be the protagonist AND gets to dictate the story by the choices he makes. It's like an arcade game in printed form. He chooses his path through the house, he navigates his way....and BAM! "You died."  What?! He goes back and tries again - same result.  Wow.

This post is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but there are some serious undertones.  While these tools taught problem-solving skills, the stakes portrayed were high and the decisions were left somewhat to chance.  There was little in the way of learning to weigh the options; it was more of a lottery approach.

Fast forward to high school, college, employment, marriage.  The lessons taught may have inadvertently paralyzed some from making decisions.  What if my college choice is a dud?  What if I choose the wrong career path?  What if someone better comes along?

We need to be cautious of the educational and entertainment choices we select in Choosing our Adventure of life.