HOW THE NEWER GENERATION THINKS

[hsguy]

Disparaging the younger generation is the new sport among my generation, those of us who produced and raised that generation, shame on us, we need to accept and acknowledge our unperceived failing. All of the professionals I interact with, medical, legal, financial etc. are younger than me and I appreciate their dedication, knowledge and compassion afforded me. I have reached the point I rather more enjoy the company of younger folks than my generation, the constant complaining and judgmental attitude among many of my peers is very bad for the soul. Moving to a "senior" community" is my worst, wake up in a sweat, nightmare. I am very happy how my children and grandchild are contributing to society, but your experience may certainly vary.

 

[raljr1]

For the record, the staff sargent son I quoted in post #2 is only 40...he is a gen xer himself.

For my part, managing manufacturing companies, i worked with many under 35 year old who i would be completely comfortable turning the keys over to...

Robert
SWCA #2906

 

[LVSteve]

One thing I noticed with late wife #1 and her family, they were always trying to get back to Mayberry, The Brady Bunch and the SoCal of the early 60s. This didn't work too well in the late 90s, and it really didn't work after 9/11.

Our generation does hold a good amount of the blame for the increasingly vicious place planet Earth has become since about 1970. As that screw has turned tighter, can we be all that surprised that many of the young have no wish to contribute to another twist? Resets of Western societies since WWII have been mostly peaceful if economically ugly. Now we seem to have a hardcore of mostly young folks who do not accept that economic woes come and go and you have to roll with the punches as best you can. They either want an app to fix everything or they are going in for direct action in ways I don't recall in my lifetime. Naturally, that could be a symptom of how filtered the news was in the past. These days it happens and it's on Twitter, FarceBook, or TikTok within minutes, for good or bad I cannot say for sure.

I'll end with this thought:

I agree that every older generation thinks that the younger generation is going to lead us to our doom. But even if we had proof positive that this was the case, what could we actually do to stop it?

(I suggest you don't try to answer that on this forum.)

 

[zeke]

Every older generation makes sport of mocking the youngest, and vice versa. If the younger generational members i don't know starts showing some respect, or earning it, they will get some in return.

 

[johngalt]

Disparaging the younger generation is the new sport among my generation, those of us who produced and raised that generation, shame on us, we need to accept and acknowledge our unperceived failing. All of the professionals I interact with, medical, legal, financial etc. are younger than me and I appreciate their dedication, knowledge and compassion afforded me. I have reached the point I rather more enjoy the company of younger folks than my generation, the constant complaining and judgmental attitude among many of my peers is very bad for the soul. Moving to a "senior" community" is my worst, wake up in a sweat, nightmare. I am very happy how my children and grandchild are contributing to society, but your experience may certainly vary.

Another point: the parents of the current generation are also frequently belittled. They were taught to be parents by which generation....

 

[Azav8or]

To quote David Byrne: "same as it ever was."

You can't legitimately claim that this is the same thing happening now. "Not standing when Elders come into a room?" I have been involved in education for decades. If it were that simple, this wouldn't be a conversation. Students as young as fifth grade are doing drugs, joining gangs, shooting people, poisoning teacher's drinks, swearing at teachers and staff, and refusing to participate in class. This happening in affluent as well as poor districts.

Do I believe this is the kids fault? I do to certain point but the ability to continue this behavior is the result of lack of parent participation and accountability.
Teachers have been neutered. There are a lot of good schools, but the good teachers have no power to do much to change the attitudes of students when they get no backup from parents or administrators.
I am not a "this the end of the world" kind of guy but to say there is no problem is folly.

 

[sigp220.45]

Lastly, maybe it is just a different world here in cornfields and cows country where I live, but I have never heard or heard of boomer, as refers to the baby boomer generation, being used by "young folks" or anybody else, in a derogatory way.

You've never heard "OK, boomer"?

Its actually worse than derogatory - its dismissive.

 

[Rustyt1953]

The floor is no longer ours.

 

[Golddollar]

I never had any children, so I am not going to opine as to the attributes of younger generations. The best thing I figure I can do is follow along with my dad's saying of "If the older generation didn't pass along its knowledge to the younger generation, we'd still be living in caves." Funny how those words are coming out of my mouth now. I've been an improptu living history exhibitor, and when my successor in the job I quit in 2002 suddenly died, I went back to my old employer for a couple days to teach the people there from my 38 years of practicing law in title insurance and real estate titles. I figured I owed that to the profession.

Sure, maybe they can figure out the deed plotting program on the computer, but learning about legal descriptions from someone who learned to plot legal descriptions using a protractor, compass and scale is necessary for knowing what to do with the computer program. And I am happy to share my knowledge.

 

[Beemerguy53]

...You can go back to the Code of Hamurabi to find complaining about the next generation.

On Sunday, February 9, 1964, just before my 11th birthday, I stood transfixed as I watched the Ed Sullivan Show and witnessed the beginning of the British Invasion. My father, who was then 39, was aghast: "Look at that hair! They need haircuts!" You'd have thought the world was coming to an end...

Ten years later I began my fire service career, and worked with the Greatest Generation...who all thought we were a bunch of worthless hippies who would never amount to anything. (And they weren't shy about saying so!)

As I aged, I too complained about the younger generation entering the fire service...until I remembered that at their age, I was exactly like a lot of them...

Now, at age 69, I'm 18 years into my second career, and something very interesting has happened. I'm far and away the oldest guy in my office, and many of my co-workers are young enough to be my children. They are smart, talented, hardworking, dedicated, and always willing to help an old man who knows more about rebuilding the carburetors on an MG than he does about creating a PowerPoint presentation.

Maybe it's just the optimist in me...but I think we'll be okay...

 

[chief38]

On Sunday, February 9, 1964, just before my 11th birthday, I stood transfixed as I watched the Ed Sullivan Show and witnessed the beginning of the British Invasion. My father, who was then 39, was aghast: "Look at that hair! They need haircuts!" You'd have thought the world was coming to an end...

Ten years later I began my fire service career, and worked with the Greatest Generation...who all thought we were a bunch of worthless hippies who would never amount to anything. (And they weren't shy about saying so!)

As I aged, I too complained about the younger generation entering the fire service...until I remembered that at their age, I was exactly like a lot of them...

Now, at age 69, I'm 18 years into my second career, and something very interesting has happened. I'm far and away the oldest guy in my office, and many of my co-workers are young enough to be my children. They are smart, talented, hardworking, dedicated, and always willing to help an old man who knows more about rebuilding the carburetors on an MG than he does about creating a PowerPoint presentation.

Maybe it's just the optimist in me...but I think we'll be okay...

I hope you are right - I am just more concerned about how their cognitive skills work in general. I find they are not capable of identifying the real problem, they are easily swayed by their peers, they can't seem to think for themselves (deductive reasoning) and worst thing of all is they get sucked in to believing falsehoods and don't even recognize them as such. They do not seek out the truth or facts because they believe what they read on social media and take that for fact. I suppose we did as well when we were younger, but we knew how to learn what was true or not - they just keep parroting the same disinformation, believing it to be fact because they are not able to figure out a true or false statement. I never before though of "thinking" as a skill - but now I do.

In my mind, three of the most important things in life are mathematics, history and the ability to think on your feet. They are many times the key to success and find that in general younger adults do not excel at those skills. Yes, they might be great on a computer - but that is also what they rely on for their daily life's information. They can't usually figure things out without a computer. Most young people I know can't read a map - if their GPS stops working, they are reliant on others to get somewhere. Not to say they can't make money with computer skills - absolutely can but there is more to life (at least to me) than spending your life in front of a screen. One should not have to use a cell phone or an iWatch to figure out a tip, gas milage or who your State Senator is. Relying on fact checks from online services is like asking an inmate if they're guilty. Mechanical issues - forget about that. The times we used to take something apart and figure them out for ourselves is a thing of the past. If Youtube doesn't have the video they're screwed - then what?

Maybe I am just an old fart and a Dinosaur - that's aways a possibility.....

Again, I hope you are right and I am wrong - I just haven't experienced that.

 

[s&wchad]

This is getting far to contentious and delving into banned topics.

Cleaned up and closed.