"OK Boomer" Retort

lvvcsf
Wed, 13 Nov 2019 14:22:12 +0000

“I’ve always found these labels - Boomers, Gen X, millenials, etc. - pretty dumb.”

I second or third or whatever this. I think a lot is lifecycle stuff. Each generation is brought up with the expectations their parents and what ever media creates. My parents were brought up by those who went through the depression and WW2. I was brought up by parents who came of age in the 50’s and 60’s where the great fear was communism and nuclear war but overall a time of optimism, low unemployment and a sense we could accomplish great things. It was also a time when the racism was overt and systemic social change occurred. I grew up in a time relative peace, with many of the systemic social changes having occurred. It was the beginning of the computer age and the huge technological changes that would ultimately occur. My kids grew up in an age where information was instantly available and communication was at once easier and more private but also easier to disseminate and harder to protect.

I think as we age we tend to judge others (our parents and grandparents and they us) by the standards they grew up with. I’ve imparted my kids with many of my own values but they have grown up in a different world and see both problem and opportunities with different eyes. There values are their own. Just as my parents complained about the television that they embraced when programming was limited and regulated I complain about the communications technology that made sense to me in it’s infancy but I often perceive as being out of control and intrusive today. My kids have far more comfort in this area and I’m quite sure someday there kids will annoy them as well. I think the differences we see in generations are really our own biases. If we can have conversations about these differences then ultimately we will work them out. If we relegate ourselves to name calling then we will only become more divided.