Further thoughts on the generations:
Last week I posted on this blog I video I had found on Facebook:
I suspect you've seen it already, because it seems to be all over Facebook. Or at least it is among my circle of friends.
This video is becoming so popular that it's been popping up in my workplace discussions. A co-worker (someone roughly the same age as me) was referencing it yesterday, and we were chatting about it.
As I said last week, I generally find the video interesting, but I have some questions.
First of all, am I a Millennial or not? Most people talk about Millennials as if they're early 20 somethings, by which definition I am not, but the definition is sometimes expanded to mean anyone who came of age in the new millennium, by which definition I kind of am (I graduated college in 2000).
However, one of the most discussed characteristics of the Millennials is that they grew up with the Internet and social media. Which isn't really me at all. (The Internet was still in its infancy in the 1990s, and for all intents and purposes was nothing like the Internet as we know it today).
...And yet, I still have a huge problem with Internet addiction. But in the video, the guy says that Internet addiction is a problem because people relied too much on the Internet for positive feelings during their formative teenage years. Which wouldn't have been true for me.
Of course maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm an outlier.
Anyway, I found this article today (on Facebook, naturally) which addressed the concerns of my generation specifically--people born in the late 70s and early 80s. (That's me exactly).
Why '80s Babies Are Different Than Other Millennials
There's nothing particularly earth shattering about the insights in this article. It's not written by an expert or anyone with any psychological insight, and it pretty much runs through the predictable paces--it's basically clickbait based on nostalgia.
And yet, it's accurate as far as it goes.
It makes the point that my generation is in a weird place--sharing some of the characteristics of Generation X and some of the characteristics of Millennials.
We remember the days before the Internet, and yet we're pretty much just as addicted to the Internet as our younger cousins. (So true, in my experience).
Can't help you with generational definitions -- depending who you ask I'm GenX, the last of the Boomers, or some combination thereof -- but I have to wonder if this guy's analysis of Millennial social skills is as solid as his sales pitch. Social skills are subject to enormous transition in a person's 20s, no matter what your upbringing or the technology you were subjected to as a child. Good advice about phones, though -- something Boomers are just as guilty of as Mills, I'd say.
ReplyDelete>>>but I have to wonder if this guy's analysis of Millennial social skills is as solid as his sales pitch. Social skills are subject to enormous transition in a person's 20s, no matter what your upbringing or the technology you were subjected to as a child.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was thinking the same thing in the back of my mind as I watched this. Of whiccourse I have very little basis of comparison, so it's good to have you confirm this.
>>>>Good advice about phones, though -- something Boomers are just as guilty of as Mills, I'd say.
Yeah, which indicates it's not just a generation thing then, huh?
But, yes, agreed, it is very good advice about phones. I'm thinking about showing this video to some of my classes. I'm really getting sick of phones being out all the time.