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Generation Gap

Do you see your generation as better, stronger, tougher than the one after or before you?

When I was a kid I always heard the "back in my day" from my parents/grandparents. People would complain about Gen X (my generation) being lazy, entitled etc.

Now I hear people constantly complaining about Millennials and Centennials being lazy, entitled, not as smart, etc.

Are we as humans really getting worse and worse or is it just a symptom of older generations not adapting to change well? Thoughts/comments?

Crimson67 8 Jan 23
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34 comments

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3

Not sure if they are lazier but having so much technology at your fingertips that wasnt available before might create that illusion.
By the way I walked uphill in the snow to and from school

2

This is a complicated issue for me. I'm incredibly immature for my age.

what makes you say that?

@btroje I've been told often that I have a youthful spirit. For some reason I think its funny to say this instead. I would feel wierd telling people I have a youthful spirit.

Hi Peter (Pan) join the club.

Or should I call you after Hugh Hefner - playboy?

3

I'm a Gen X'er too, and while I had a lot of fun in the 80' and 90's there was some pretty messed up stuff going on in the world.

Well, isn't that always. Before the sixties information was limited because there was hardly TV and radio does not show pictures.

1

I think they call that spoiled, however, I have to say my kids are working harder than I did...

4

Excellent question, and I think the answer is both... there's always been some really dumb and dependent people, and there's always been some old people who struggle to adapt to change.

0

I find the generations after me less independent, less ambitious and more apathetic.

0

The ones that are younger. I see a big flaw that, not all but a lot of them rely on modern devices. If an IMP etc. would take out a satellite. The internet is not going to tell them what plants to eat or other basic survival skills and Bear Grylls can only tell you so much until you do it yourself it is a tough job surviving.

2

“Back in the day” in this USA is code. You never hear any oppressed people from back in the day refer to the good ol days. Every generation is more inclusive, more tolerant and smarter than the last. This new generation has the tough task of pulling this country’s head out of its ass after this desperate white GOP and evangelicals have raped our constitution.

1

As a gen x-er I hear people complain about millenals a lot . I find them sensitive,hard working and creative,as a general rule. They're facing all sorts of challenges previous generations did not. I think there's also the nostalgia effect coming into play. We tend to remember our youth as better than it really was.

0

Geeze... I just don't know.

0

As a GenXer that often manages large teams of millenials, I find them to simply have a different attitude about work. For most of them, work was simply a tool. They put in their time, did great work, and wanted to get out of the office as soon as they were done. They put focus on work being a tool to make funds to do the things they loved. It was a pleasure to manage teams that worked together and had pretty simple needs.

3

Which generation you referring too? I'm 66 so a teenager in the sixties, my parents experienced ww II , I don't think that todays generation would put their lives on the line for anything

I have that feeling too, looking around me and see the only motivation for whoever is money, and the will to become enslaved to be able to consume. On the other hand, the group of engaged youngsters has always been quite small. Only the hippy-generation has been exceptional big (in my eyes). Still if I talk to the youngsters nowadays, they are still full of hope of a nice future, with marriage and children and as little problems as possible.
But the fact that I regularly see quite big groups of youngsters at the airport that signed in for military duty is quite big. I wonder if that is based on the will to put their lives on the line for freedom or that it is for the benefits the government grants to them for study and career, not realizing that they can be killed to fight for the commercial interests of the rich.

0

The generation before me fought WWII; so, no to that one. My daughter, her husband, and their friends, at least the one's I've met, are so much smarter than me, I'd have to say no to that, too. I just see us all as different, insofar as any generational strengths or dominant characteristics.

0

I think that there are people that might not fit the trend that many other people in their generation set, but I think things started to go down hill after the generation "Greatest Generation."

3

I'm a Millennial. Back in my day, I played outside or read books in my free time from homework and school. We didn't have cell phones.

1

Technology breeds laziness.At 66years of age I think each generation becomes lazier,and has it easier than the generation before .My grandfather had it harder than my father ,my father had it harder than me and my daughter has it easier than me . But as intelligence goes all the same .

0

Sure I see things different than the generation of my children. I have more experience and they have less. My memory of experiences goes back to, let's say, 1961 (I was 10 than), they were born in the eighties. In the seventies I experienced a lot of what was going on than. I'm of the Woodstock generation, but than in the Netherlands. But why should I bore my children with "back in my days". They have to build their own experiences. They are still young and that has surely benefits, I'm old(er) and have more experience. So what. When they will be 66, they will have just as much experience as I have now. I'm just ahead of them. The thing is of course, image of social life (and I don't mean church-community life) is so different. Luckily I experience a lot of youngsters that are involved in the world. Thinking of justice, social roles, etc., etc. Not my kids though. My son parted from us and my daughter lives a pleasant life. Surely social with her group of friends, sporting and other activities. I can't have a good conversation with her, most likely because she had a quite hefty puberty and we clashed a lot at that time. Things are okay now, but still we both try to prevent to converse about differences of opinions. She is just as stubborn as I am, but not so good in argumentation.
She's a girl of her time, but not lazy, smart enough, has a good job, doesn't even play computer games, although she has her smartphone always within reach. A girl of her time as she should be. Why should I do what I hated from my parents?

Gert Level 7 Jan 23, 2018
0

The generation before me were the young adults during the Great Depression. They were tougher -- had to be, but not wiser. They were the people of the 1960s and 1970s who saw their world changing so much, and tended to reach back to the certainty of the past, including religion and southern racism. My generation -- the late Depression and early World War II one -- became the one committed to personal success and few deep commitments.

The generation after me -- the baby boomers who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s were both stronger and wiser. They began to care about social issues and bettering our country and society and to become activists in pursuit of those issues. They took chances for something other than simply themselves. If their momentum could have continued for another decade, this would be a different and better country.

Let me add. I find two things that trouble me about today's young people. First, it concerns me that these young people spend so much time fiddling with electronics and texting instead of face-to-face personal contact -- and that they even seem to prefer the safe distance of electronics. Second, I don't really see any commitment among many of them to do anything to make a difference. I hope I am wrong.

1

I was kinda hoping my generation would just die off so that the world can have peace. I don't want to go back to ANYTHING. Telephone party lines, forced work, forced religion, lack of technology. I hope that each new generation is more tolerant and peaceful than we are. The entitled ones I know are the ones getting multi-billion dollar bailouts without having to do a damn thing except be born into riches.

Goat Level 5 Jan 23, 2018
0

. Baby boomers seemed more enterprneurial. They were the former hippies who were creative and wild. Till they became parents. They moved to the suburbs and became yuppies. Our children are grown now and some having their own children. We are always adapting to change.

2

I think it's a combination of things. Part of it is just that the older generation doesn't understand the younger generations, so there's some innate resistance to all of the weird things kids are doing. And I think with age comes a measure of wisdom for most people, but we forget how foolish we were at that age and judge younger people more harshly through a lens of maturity. But there's a legitimate side to recent criticism, too, I think: I've seen in the last few years a serious uptick in workers just entering the workforce — early to mid-20s — who lack experience yet expect to be given high-profile jobs immediately, who don't do the work they're assigned, and who need constant validation that the work they (sometimes) do is awesome. This isn't a blanket statement about 20-somethings, as I work with a lot of really talented, hard-working people in that age range, but this is a trend that I hadn't seen before. And it's literally just the last five years or so that I've seen it. I'm perplexed by why this mindset has suddenly become so pervasive, but it doesn't seem to be going away. Fortunately, it still seems to be a minority (from what I've seen) who feel so entitled.

We did just have a generation of kids raised by helicopter parents... this was a new thing; so I think your observations are correct.

1

When you read a lot of old books you're likely to discover that every generation grouses about the one that follows it. It's been going on since the ancient Greeks.

The specific complaints may vary a little, but the basic mechanism is the same. It's nothing new.

Values evolve as old generations pass into history and younger ones take their places. So the frame of reference moves.

I am concerned about the influence of technology on social development and dynamics, attention span, etc. I've see it at work with my 12-year-old cousin and it's worrying.

Then again, they used to say the same kind of thing about novels, so...

0

I have mixed emotions about this. As far as technology, you all have it much easier but I would not want to be a young person with all the social media today. We witness so much bullying and body shaming its really sad.

0

"A Progeny Yet More Corrupt"
In Book III of Odes, circa 20 BC, Horace wrote:

Our sires' age was worse than our grandsires'. We, their sons, are more
worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more
corrupt.

1

It has been proven that humans are becoming dumber with each generation and yes I think they are babies

@witchymom I would like to read that too. I question if that is a fact, and if so, what are the scientific arguments pro and con.

There are so many here are a few

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