Last March, I crossed the carefree twenties and hit the
tense thirties. Today, I complete my first year of being tense about my
thirties. There is a reason I chose to use the adjective tense. If one were to
draw his or her life’s parallel to sport- being in your 30s is like batting on a
90s score in cricket, which is often referred to as the nervous nineties. My generation referred to as the 90s kids in
pop culture, would distinctly remember every time Sachin hit the 90s mark- the
nation would become nervous. Hitting those last 10 runs mattered to everybody.
After all, a century was what was really counted and remembered, which
invariably went a long way in making the overall team’s fortunes. Likewise, if
there was a nervous decade for the sport called life, I’d argue it would be the
30s. For what one would build in this phase of life (relationships,
friendships, career, wealth etc.) would be a defining factor for what one would be
remembered for.
It is in this time period most adults get married, get to
know their partners strongly, start a family, buy a home, get to define
themselves at work with some amount of expertise, move up in the career ladder
and in a way truly become independent- financially and emotionally. This decade
(2018-2028) is quite scary yet exciting for anybody to hit the 30s age group. Scary and
exciting as in taking the world’s fastest roller coaster ride. Let me explain
why.
The decade of the 1980s & the 1990s:
The decade of 1980s was when I was born and my father hit
his thirties. Doordarshan was the only channel yet and getting to watch the Sunday
evening movie without power cuts was like winning a free Netflix subscription. You were lucky. Life was simple and Salman Khan made films with
scripts. Things largely seemed under control- you knew where you were heading.
My father’s 30s went
in establishing his career as an accountant and saving for his children’s
education. The wants were limited and his life goals too, which led to
contentment. In the end he made sure he did what he set out to do in his 30s.
Liberalization & the Internet Boom (The decade of 2000 & 2010):
The democratization of internet post the Cold War is by far
the most defining moment of humankind’s history. One can hardly find a parallel event which would have such a widespread impact on people’s lives for
times to come. The guttenberg printing press made Christianity the most popular
religion in the world, the steam engine revolutionalised transport but I’d
argue did not have such behavior changing, era defining impact as the internet.
Come to think of it, the printing press invented by Guttenberg in c. 1440 has
become a 3D printer in 2019, the steam locomotive invented by George Stephenson
in c. 1812 has become a bullet train in 2019, but the internet which most people
could only start using in the 1990s has become everything that one could
possibly imagine- even a virtual human being poised to take over the real human
beings.
The decade of 2020 and after:
The internet has made everything seem smaller and doable.
This most often makes life seem smaller. You finish a hard day’s work and get a
pat on your back from your boss and are ready to leave office with some
contentment. Just as you book a cab with surge pricing to go home, you open Facebook
to see that a friend whom you met at a weekend party some 6 months ago has been
nominated by some magazine’s 30 under 30 list. You feel it is a big deal
compared to your desk job. You start feeling small. You feel there is a lot to
do. You forget what you were happy about, just a while ago. You go home to do
nothing. Your life seems smaller. This
is induced not necessarily by envy but by too much
information that the internet constantly brings to us.
The decades to come next will only aggravate the crisis if
you are not looking at the brighter side. Our generation is the richest
generation in humankind’s history from a per capita income, access to earth’s resources
and collective human knowledge standpoint. The reason why I refer to this phase of our
lives as scary yet exciting is because we stand at a crossroad without knowing
which way to go. The next 3 decades especially is going to define much of
humankind’s future. Will the growth of artificial intelligence prove to be
inversely proportional to growth of human intelligence? Will we stop
comprehending simple tasks like how to make an entry in a diary, write down a
phone number because a virtually intelligent machine will always do it for us? Is
there an end to this?
My own study and understanding shows that all growth will
one day plateau and humans will find a balance. Will we the 90s kids play a
part in finding that balance for our next generation? I believe our legacy will
largely be defined by what role we chose to play in these defining times- my yearly birthday reminder.
Eager to know your feedback if you are in the same journey in life as me. Leave a feedback in the comment section below.
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