Do you ever wonder what people will say about us in 500 years…or even 100 years from now? Will our generation be criticized or praised? Will they talk about how advanced we were or how behind we were? We spend so much time learning about our country and world’s history and talking about all the changes that have been made. We spend so much time congratulating ourselves for being progressive. We spend so much time comparing the past to the present. What we don’t realize is that the present could never exist without our past. So how will future generations see us? As thoughtful and progressive? Or as uninformed and neglectful?

Will we be known only for Snapchat and Instagram? Will the future learn to cut back on technology use, or will they become even more technologically advanced? I want to hope that people in the future will notice how detached technology causes us to be from one another, and use that information to take a step back from tech. However, I know that is not realistic and that it’s rational to assume that people in the future will become more technologically savvy. Would people of the future criticize us for all our technology use, or will they praise how advanced we are for our time? When I think of people 100 years ago, and where they were in terms of technology, all I can think about is how behind they were in contrast to the present. I cannot imagine a time when people did not carry around cellphones all the time. I cannot imagine a time when instant messaging was not a thing. I tend to spend most of my free time on my iPhone or on Netflix, and I keep wondering how did people entertain themselves back then without these things?

Will we be known for our different movements like Black Lives Matter, or March for Our Lives? Or will our time be known for the other side of these movements? Will we be known as the time when police killed innocent people, or when people shot up schools? Will our movements eventually impact real change in the future? We still praise similar movements of the past. The civil rights movement, which only happened about 60 years ago, still has so much impact today and it helped us make great strides towards equality in this country. However, I cannot believe that some people had to live through segregation or Jim Crow Laws; but the people of the past fought hard to get us where we are today and they deserve to be recognized. So, will all our protesting and publicity lead to stricter gun laws and more equality for minorities? I think that future generations will continue our work and will eventually get the changes that we are working towards now.

Will the future thank us like we thank those who fought for our present, in the past? Or will we just be known as the generation that voted for a dead gorilla, as a joke, in the presidential elections of 2016, just to watch the joke completely backfire? I already envision studies being done on the generation who did not take a presidential election seriously. Will we be known as the generation that had a president who blocked people off his twitter account whenever he was offended? Will people ridicule our choice of presidents. What will be said about us? Are we fighting hard enough for our future? Are we being active enough? Addressing our problems? Or are we passively passing our problems onto our future generations? What do we want to be known for 500 years from now?

– Ayatt