How the "young and fashionable" invented the communal apartment, the cellar and the post, but they themselves do not know about it

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The fashionable joke "millennials invented" is spreading across the Internet. Its salt is that the generation of thirty, fashionable and ultra-modern are discovering things that were part of the life of Soviet people or even have existed for many hundreds of years, and come up with names for them, because they do not know that these things already exist. Here is a far from complete list of millennial inventions that will make anyone who grew up in Russia in the eighties and nineties feel like a person well versed in current trends.

Millennials invented thrift

Some time ago, generations of hipsters discovered and began to teach the world that it is generally a pity to throw out a thing that has fulfilled one function, when it can perform some other function - firstly, because why throw out strong beautiful things in vain? secondly, because reuse reduces the amount of garbage on the planet, and thirdly, because reusing an old thing allows you to create your own world.

In general, if you make an organizer for stationery from milk containers or alter jeans for a backpack, then this is called reus and is part of the concept of conscious consumption and environmental awareness. What can you say, there were entire sections in Soviet magazines completely devoted to very unexpected and useful practices of reus.

Millennials have discovered fasting and austerity

Recent trend: to refuse food at all on certain days, or to limit oneself these days to a very small set of foods. This allows you to feel the taste of life the very next day, and to enjoy the most ordinary food.

This practice can be expanded by abandoning public transport on certain days in favor of walking around the city on foot, simplifying the daily wardrobe, dosed use of games and TV shows, and so on. In general, to limit yourself in what is convenient and pleasant in order to receive benefits and a heightened sense of pleasure in return when you allow yourself this or that.

Such practices have been used by mankind literally throughout history, only they were called fasting and asceticism and, since environmental awareness and other complex terms had not yet been invented, they had to be justified either by the desire for closeness to the people, or by religion.

Millennials invented apartments and communal apartments

Remember, if a young man or woman had to travel in the eighties and nineties, then it was necessary either to have relatives in the desired city, or to look for a "registration" - an apartment where you would be allowed for household services or just spend the night for several days. The thing is that, depending on the decade, hotel rooms were available only by pull, or not for an ordinary person. So, the search for a list is now called couchsurfing (literally "finding a place on the couch"). The only difference with the way it was before is only in some automation of the process: there are now online services to search for lists and express readiness to accept registrations.

Another step towards environmental awareness that millennials propose to take is to recognize that we use the kitchen and bathroom for a very small part of the day, and these rooms for one person are a waste of the urban environment and, if the house has heating, then energy. They propose to unite and live according to the principle of coliving: to live in one apartment without a frame, taking into account the fact that everyone has an individual room, and everyone has a common living room (to save energy, you can sit in it with a laptop or watch a movie with a neighbor, and everything under one common light bulb, and not under several different rooms). Since it is assumed that some of the residents are freelancers, it is obvious that the schedule for using the kitchen and plumbing will be different. In short, millennials have invented the communal apartment.

Millennials came up with a cellar and a Khrushchev refrigerator

Another step forward in environmental features: if you build an underground room from materials that do not allow heat to pass through as much as possible, then you can store things that need to lie in the cold in it without wasting electricity for a refrigerator. And if there is a need for freezing, put a separate small freezer at home.

In addition, a small camera under the window or outside the window allows, in cold winters, again, not to waste precious electricity even without a cellar, keeping food as environmentally friendly as possible for several days. This all sounds familiar, right?

Millennials invented artels and manufactures

Crafting and hand-made, that is, everything that is made with living human hands (with a little automation), and not in a soulless factory, is a great hobby of those who once grew up on stamped factory items without a hint of originality. Manufacturers of a wide variety of goods, from cakes to patterned glass beads, tend to rally into small groups - it’s more fun to talk while talking. This is called a teamwork. Now. For less than a hundred years, such a production was called an artel, in addition, the organization of labor of this kind strongly resembles the manufactories known for centuries.

Millennials invented postcard exchange and board games

Do not indulge the frantic run of time, advises the generation of progressive. The rhythm of city life is tiresome. It is worth doing something unhurried for the soul, aimed at the interaction of people, teaching people to wait for the result in order to get it all the more joyfully.

For example, you can send postcards from different cities by mail. This is called postcrossing, a fashionable hobby, but, by the way, not so recent - it has been in fashion for ten years now. In general, it is almost a tradition of the twenty-first century. Imagine, just write a couple of kind words and send a nice postcard instead of exchanging any information. Cool!

How about having board evenings instead of online games? They are more unexpected due to the human factor (someone messes up, someone cheats, someone makes a good joke), they go at their own pace, do not overload the nervous system with vivid visual images. Never tried it?

Millennials invented subbotniks and walks in the woods

Fashionable entertainment is to show environmental and civic awareness not alone, but with other good people. Agree, for example, to go out for the weekend and clean up in a local forest park. Or on the beach. In short, what we called subbotniks are now eco-promotions and flash mobs. Yes, and a walk in the forest is trekking along an eco-trail. Much cooler than wandering around the city, it turns out.

It also looks like millennials invented practical jokes - In the footsteps of "Amelie": the stolen garden gnome returns home with an album of his travels.