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From my facebook notes....

A while ago in my Anthropology of Aging we were talking about old people and how they often complain. This is called complain discourse. A couple days later, facebook released its new layout design and on came the complaining. This got me thinking, why are we limiting complaint discourse to the elderly?

Well first I guess you gotta figure out if its the same in any age group, and that's easiest to do by figuring out why we complain. The more and more I thought, I realized we all complain, and we complain a hell of a lot, but why? Well in my Anthropology of Aging class we said it was because the elderly do it to show appreciation. When someone complains its to show that they are not taking the care or company or help or whatever for granted and that they could do easily do with out it, so they complain to show that they do not need it.

I am not expert, and have not done any research on it, but from experience I find that to not be the case. In my own experiences I find the complaint discourse is based off change, the fear or distaste for change. Old people have a lot to complain about here. I also do not think this is universal, there are some elderly I have found that do not complain at all, and some that complain a hell of a lot. I used to work in the kitchen of a retirement home, I would know!

Okay, so lets say we complain sometimes because we want to be modest, and sometimes because we hate change. Why else do we complain? We also complain because we want recognition do we not? We love to be heard and recognized, and one of the ways to stand out is to complain. Do the old people not do this as well? I would think as I grow older, Id feel less and less recognized and I could see myself complaining to get recognized by those around me.

Any other reasons to complain? Yea of course there are but I think I have enough foundation here to show, at least in my own assessment that we complain for the same reasons as the elderly a lot of the time, and this idea that complaint discourse is something we get when we get older does not seem fair to all us complainers out there.

Every where I look on campus, on facebook, at home, at the mall, etc etc, you can over hear people complaining. Is complaining just human nature? Do we all complain? If so do some just complain more than others, or are some only making it heard? Do we complain on the inside?

Well lets say, for sake of conversation that it is universal. Some may wonder like myself why that is is limited to the elderly. Well this is very simple, at least in my experience. We are always looking at others and not our selves, we always put people into groups and label them. We are a very us vs them, at least in western culture, society. So its easy to see old people complaining, and we never stop think that maybe that is not too much different than us.

So what does this mean? I dunno, I just was thinking out loud. All I know is people complain, a lot. Maybe there is some difference between the age groups on why they complain, of course there is a difference of what they complain about. My grandma does not complain about facebook layouts, thankfully. I think that maybe if we understood ourselves better we can understand why we do them. And who knows, maybe we will understand why everyone around us does them, realizing we are all not that different in the process.

In the end, I think we all could complain a little less, be thankful a little more, and who knows maybe come together a little more too.

If you have anything to add, agreeing or disagreeing, feel free to comment. I always enjoy other perspectives and so should you.

We are all not that different.

This is where I introduce myself right? I will in time I guess. This a blog not a biography, and I feel that Ill have opportunity to talk about myself and introduce aspects of my life over time.
Ive always wanted to start a blog, but I wasn't sure what to write about. To that point I am still not sure what to write about. I guess I feel my life is starting to come together and Im getting a chance to make decisions that put me closer to what I might wanna do with my life.
I am currently a senior at Northern Kentucky University and have am two classes from graduating with a Major in Computer Information Tech. and a minor in Computer Science. I love computers, but recently I have been questioning whether or not I would wanna sit behind one for the rest of my life.
This semester I decided to take four upper level Anthropology classes on hunch that I might like that more. So far I do like them, and today I talked to an advisor about declaring a second major. It looks that with some summer classes I can graduate with both majors in spring next year, which is pretty good in my opinion.
Ill go into more details later and decide how often I want to post etc.
-Tim