<p>I notice a large generation gap in my family, but it is due to cultural experiences. My siblings and cousins are the first generation to be born in America. Our parents moved to America to get degrees. Although, they did experience the “college life”, it’s still considerably different from growing up in America.</p>
<p>Can’t believe I’m saying this…but I agree with post 7 from Miami.</p>
<p>I think part of reason there are ‘countless articles’ on any number of topics is due to the internet. When I was in h.s. or college there was no internet or instant communications, you read the newspaper of watched TV for more input which was not realtime. The editorial page was the only place to post an opinion.</p>
<p>Now with the internet, there are tons of blogs/forums…etc. as well as true media websites where virtually anyone can post an opinion no matter how bizarre or irrational it might be. It is certainly more timely, not sure if that always makes it better. The fact something gets discussed a lot in the media, to me, is more a reflection of the nature of electronic communications nowadays…rather then implying anything specific about one generation vs the next.</p>
<p>Funny fight on the Socrates attribution— the age old problem</p>
<p>newayz----- I think we can all agree that both youth and age have their ups and downs, and that the entire thing is a multidimensional problem that can hardly be explored with a few paragraphs. But I’ll say something some would find interesting from my own personal experience (having had a relatively unique history with “adults” from age 0 to now, 25).
I never had a father figure and never had basic encounters with adults (especially any “educated” ones) other than teachers and police until going to prison at age 19. I was in maximum security prison and surrounded by men mostly 30+
I taught in a GED classroom for some of the time, and I can tell you that those men had trouble passing a test I could have done in sixth grade. They were usually impulsive and short sighted, aggressive (if not predatory) and defensive… Men 50 and 60 years old whose same faces I saw amidst the special ed classrooms in high school.
These days I have professors whose age and understanding make me question my very value as a youth, hoping deeply I’ll have a fraction their breadth at their age.</p>
<p>Naivete, foolishness, and wisdom are characteristics present at all points of the age spectrum, and we would all do well, young and old, to heed what points to modesty if we want to understand it.
The wisest man is the one who admits he knows nothing, as a aforementioned wise man once said!</p>
<p>ObliviousPrime: Interested in your story. Please elaborate.</p>
<p>ermmmm… I was talking about Socrates!:-P</p>
<p>Or were you wondering about prison food? it was terrible. Or what I went for? Grand larceny. Or… er, I didn’t get raped there, either, since some ass always wonders.</p>
<p>I applied to Cornell months before being released, having worked in libraries and classrooms the entire time from 19 to 24, and having been a student in classes for the Cornell Prison Education Program in Auburn Correctional Facility and was miraculously accepted, now as I was then happily studying a wide range. I’m a very fortunate person!</p>
<p>I literally NEVER sat and spoke with an adult before being wrangled by corrupt police into a jail cell in a drunken stupor, and the very diverse pool (white, black, latino, rasta, muslim, blood, crip, latin king, muslim, white supremacist/black supremacist, rapist, murderer, hood, country, student, library customer, civilian employees and guards working for the Department of Corrections, Cornell Professors, graduate instructors, class peers, and friends interspersed between almost all of these groups) from which my adult experiences draw lends me an unusual look at the “generation gap”, which leads to my tentative conclusion which is a formula: age contributes to wise understanding times (X) the circumstances of person’s inherent ability, specific experience, and whatever is in between. </p>
<p>Or, “we’re all a sort of fool, some worse than others”. You can quote me on that one</p>
<p>I worked 30-40 hours a week while I was in high school and college. I was eager for any job, which includes fast food. Summers before old enough to work, I read books, did puzzle books, played with other kids. TV was limited. We did not have Netflix or such. However, I never held doors for my elders or other such things. I guess if they asked, but there was no blanket respect for someone just because they are older. </p>
<p>These days, kids are enrolled in busy camps every summer, and busy activities the entire school years long. People cheer and go on and on if they do one little thing. Most teens do not even work. Oh yeah, before I could work a paying job, I did a volunteer job. </p>
<p>My 18 yr old does not even work. It really bothers me. He is going to have no spending money this fall in college. I know he is going to be upset, but how else is he going to learn?</p>
<p>I see some parents posting here that they will pay whatever it takes to get their children the money for the college they want, even if it is beyond their means. I think kids often have little concept of saving and planning for the future. This entire country expects some big bailout.</p>
<p>My parents, especially my dad, often complain about our generation. Their biggest complaint is that we spend too much time on the internet, which I find very frustrating. Why do they have to think that technology=bad? I’d get it if I were the kind of kid who spent 8 hours on social networks, but I’m a nerd. I read about genetics, AI, and cognitive psychology, not my Facebook feed 
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<p>I guess it’s just that older generations must complain about younger generations and vice versa or else they’ll probably die or something :P</p>
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This had me laughing!</p>
<p>Also, we are in an age now where everyone is entitled. Maybe it was that way when I grew up, the 70’s and 80’s, but I grew up in and out (and back in, etc) foster care, so, I didn’t have the chance to be entitled. I know that entitled kids really upset me back then. I still vividly remember a girl using the phone at the high school. She was screaming at her mom and ordering the mom to drive her to the mall and so on. I wanted to tell that girl not to treat her mom that way, she should be grateful her mom is so good to her. My mom hated me and I had to work every step of the way for every single thing. I would have loved to have a mom who loved me as much as the girl’s mom in the office that day.</p>
<p>So for me, it might not be a generation gap. And at my house, my husband is the one on the internet all the time. We both agree that the whole college thing is easier. I worked 30-40 hrs a week because I had to. That money paid for electricity, rent, etc. My husband, on the other hand, worked about 30 hrs a week, for spending money. </p>
<p>I do see, in the generation gap though, when I was growing up, all teens had jobs. Whatever the reason, everyone was eager to get to work. We grew up as latch key kids and were very independent. These days, parents have to do so much. Honestly, the school made me sign papers to have my children in anything. I have to attend mandatory parent meetings. I often wonder what happens to those kids with no parents to attend these meetings…are they left out? They probably are. I would have been more screwed in this day and age than I was back then. </p>
<p>And I think all this, plus, a 10 times more competitive environment for college, has led to kids not being able to handle things themselves, and not have to handle things themselves. Kids usually do not have jobs where we live. Kids are in day camps and classes every spare minute of the day. They don’t get to think for themselves, nor do they have to.</p>
<p>Yes, there is always that generation gap, but there is also the change in life style gap too. My parents had such a different upbringing, environment, family, everything than what they provided to their children, that there was that huge gap right there. And the way i was raised, Dh was raised is quite different from the way our children were/are being raised. The circumstances are completely different. That contributes a lot too. But one can see this gap, even in families where the circumstances are very comparable because even then the issues, fads, conventional wisdom, all evolve over time.</p>
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<p>I was taught to hold doors for anyone coming right after me because it was a nice thing to do. I think it’s particularly nice to do for the elderly or anyone who might need/appreciate the help due to physical constraints, whether or not they ask me. Some doors are heavy! I know I’ve always appreciated it every time it was done for me.</p>
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<p>I’ve often thought the same, but is that really true? I think it’s quite possible that I believe that because I grew up in an environment where most people had very modest family incomes. It might well be true that in our generation not all teens who lived in affluent communities worked or felt any desire to do so.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to respect all people, regardless of age. I don’t necessarily believe that elders deserve a different kind of respect- they deserve the same respect as everyone (and yes, I hold open doors, too… it’s just polite). </p>
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<p>I asked my parents about this because I was curious. My dad grew up in an affluent community and he said he didn’t know anyone with a job… My mom grew up poor and said that many people had a job their senior year working part time at the factories and then went full time when they graduated. </p>
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<p>Where I grew up, most teens did have jobs… until the economy tanked. They are still desperately needed though. Now that I live in a nicer community, less teens have jobs but it’s not rare by any means.</p>
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<p>exact thing i heard last night. ouch. I want to try hard for a university, well it seems that I’m daydreaming to some people</p>