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Guys, do you think you are one? Ladies, would you date one?
What was a renaissance man? He was a man alive in the renaissance period. He embraced and embodied the ideals of his time. A modern man, then, is a man alive in modern times. A man is defined by the era he lives in.
As males, we’re good at doing what we’re told to. Society has given us a role throughout the ages. Traditionally, we were the hunter gatherer; we put food on the table. We solved all of life’s scientific mysteries. With the advent of feminism, we’ve seen the patriarchal society slowly dismantled. We’re on an equal pedestal with women - despite what a few extremists may argue. Throughout history, women have had little freedom. They are now embracing it. We have seen our role in society reduced. The carpet has been pulled from under us and we’re unsure how to respond. The modern man is unsure. He no longer has a role in life given to him. We’re given a choice from an early age: ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ Man now has the most freedom he has ever had. There are doors open to him that were shut for his parents. He can have whatever he wants, but he doesn’t know what that is. He doesn’t understand himself.
The majority of us are approaching the end of, or have already left, our teenage years. Mozart had written a hatful of symphonies by now. Rimbaud retired before twenty-one. I’ve sat a few exams, have a graffiti tag on a dispenser in a public toilet and have no idea where my degree is taking me. I know many people who are the same. Is our lack of productivity the result of an increased freedom given to us by society? If we were without the distractions of modern life, would we have achieved more?
I identified one great modern phenomenon as the root of my failings. I came to the conclusion that Facebook was to blame for my lack of productivity, so I gave it up for a month. I got more done in those four weeks than I have in four years, but that wasn’t down to Facebook being some evil force trying to throw me off course. I realised it is a trait of the modern man to blame other things, to blame other people, for his own failings. It is this lack of self criticism that prevents us from analysing ourselves. We’re at University to learn. Not just our chosen subject, but about life. We’re here to shape and define ourselves. There are people our age with children, with mortgages. Ghandi was married at thirteen. He had a child by fifteen. What did we know of the opposite sex when we were that age? University affords us an extended adolescence in an environment where the young get older and older. We’re independent enough to consider ourselves mature, but we’re dependent enough to be able to run back to our parents if times get tough. Men throughout history were long defined before us, many through no choice of their own. We should make the most of this freedom. We can study the works of Shakespeare for three years, or the laws of mechanics, and we’ll leave here quasi-intellectuals, but what we really need to study is ourselves.
In my particular case, it wasn’t Facebook itself that was taking over. It was my desire for information; my desire to connect. This desire is not just a trait of the modern man. It is the never ending quest for knowledge. Man has been the same throughout history; a cock and a conscience. The times change, but man does not. We still have the same fundamental problems and struggles relevant to our respective societies.
Then what are we, the modern man? We’re not men at all. Not yet anyway. Men don’t define themselves by how much they can bench, how quick they can down a pint and how many girls they’ve slept with. The modern man is discovery, more so in our case. We’re just boxes of information, filled with random pages of experience and emotion. They’re not in any coherent order. We’ll collect them one day, form a story, read it and learn a little from it, but we can’t really call ourselves men until we do.
These are my pages.
As a side note, I really missed Facebook. I can’t imagine how the great minds of our history lived without it…
http://coolmaterial.com/roundup/if-historical-events-had-facebook-statuses/
Good piece, though it doesn't need to be said that some people at York in the student age group are very mature, and that "it is a trait of the modern man to blame other things, to blame other people, for his own failings" and therefore not impossible to deliberately and purposefully grow up 
This is a great article. I feel so insignificant now (even though I'm not a guy, this all applies to girl's too I guess), but I suppose we can't all be Ghandi! And well done for giving up Facebook for a month - that would drive me crazy, as sad as that is!
I love the message of this piece - that to be a modern man is to be free, especially if you're privileged enough to be in the position to benefit from university etc.
" We’re on an equal pedestal with women - despite what a few extremists may argue. "
Hmm I won't slip into lecture mode here, but it is certainly not an extremist position to argue than women are not necessarily equal to men in all areas of our society (if we're focussing on the UK or the west; if we're going broader, women definitely aren't on an equal footing).
I'd go as far as to say that it is partly thanks to feminism (the 'extremist' position you referred to) that it is possible to say "Man now has the most freedom he has ever had," since a great deal of feminist effort is spent unravelling rigid and unsatisfactory gender roles for men and women.
Otherwise, a very interesting take on the modern man.
Philosophy on The Yorker? Whats happened to seduction tips? Readers don't know how lucky they are. The writer is actually a pro.
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