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I'm a solid GenXer, and as such, am a member of the generation that straddled the digital revolution...grew up analog, was in college and a young adult when widespread access to internet, various tech innovations really exploded for the general population.
What you say is true...however, while the "Millenial" generation has always had comparatively unfettered and effortless access to information, the other side of that sword is that loads of it has been unvetted/just plain bad information. The knowledge you obtain is only as high of quality as the resources from which you obtained it. There are few gatekeepers online, so the learning has built-in limits.
This, exactly, plus the tendency these days to silo yourself. Infinite resources are great but not if you only go to the same couple of wells all the time.
Really? Come to Austin, and see late 20somethings buying 500,000K condos on their own nickel.
I'm seeing a wildly successful generation.
On this subject, a Sunnyvale CA 848 sf "little cute house" just sold for $2Million to a single young techie guy...I find this obscene, but who cares what I think
Maybe I escaped becoming fossilized. College grad, 45 years of electronic hardware/software design engineering, very physically active (work out 3-4x a week at LA Fitness), active dating life, young friends, old friends, running a few sideline businesses, very involved in web design. In short I'm probably not your senior citizen. I don't rate people on age. I rate them on what kind of people they are, mutual interests, ability to carry on interesting conversations, friendliness. I'm also very socially outgoing. I can't go anywhere without taking up conversations with complete strangers, even make friends that way.
I think probably the reasons I see things differently is because I'm not your typical senior citizen. I have lots of friends and age just doesn't seem to be a factor. I like interesting and outgoing people and don't really care what age they are. I have just as many young friends as older friends.
Actually I think I'm enjoying the best of all worlds. I don't have blinders on and don't feel any requirement to select my friends from any age group. I'm probably not what this topic is about. I'm probably the exception.
I am almost 70 years old and thought I related to young people until recently. The following is my opinion as to why old folks can't relate to younger ones. At first, I thought it was me until I began to see the reality of being young these days. A lot of young people are living with their parents and grandparents. They claim there are no jobs available so they can't work. Okay, I understand that but, while they are living with relatives, I don't see much respect being given to those relatives. It seems to me that a lot of them blame the older generation for what is going on these days and feel that, somehow, the older generation needs to pay them back for "wronging" them. In my generation, it was a lot different. We didn't blame the older generations for what we didn't have. Most of us did not have a lot of material things and made do with what we did have. We seemed to enjoy life more with a lot less.
Youngsters today have all the current electronic items, nice clothing, etc. but most of them are not happy. The majority of them suffer from depression, anxiety, sexual orientation, etc., etc. They seem to me like they don't know which way to turn as there are way too many choices to make. They don't seem to have 3-4 close friends they can count on like we older folks do but, hundreds of "electronic" friends that are not "real" friends but acquaintances. I don't think those "electronic" friends can fill their emotional needs. They seem to be very empathetic towards others, which is good but, how many chances do they get to leave their electronic devices and actually help a "real" person. I feel very sorry for the younger generation. They seem to be lost in their emotional needs with nobody to help them.
This, exactly, plus the tendency these days to silo yourself. Infinite resources are great but not if you only go to the same couple of wells all the time.
On this subject, a Sunnyvale CA 848 sf "little cute house" just sold for $2Million to a single young techie guy...I find this obscene, but who cares what I think
Hah, our pre-kids "cute little house" here is of similar square footage just sold for I think $150K after doing some gutting. We sold it at $110K a couple of years ago. But the market is "hot."
Youngsters today have all the current electronic items, nice clothing, etc. but most of them are not happy. The majority of them suffer from depression, anxiety, sexual orientation, etc., etc. They seem to me like they don't know which way to turn as there are way too many choices to make. They don't seem to have 3-4 close friends they can count on like we older folks do but, hundreds of "electronic" friends that are not "real" friends but acquaintances. I don't think those "electronic" friends can fill their emotional needs. They seem to be very empathetic towards others, which is good but, how many chances do they get to leave their electronic devices and actually help a "real" person. I feel very sorry for the younger generation. They seem to be lost in their emotional needs with nobody to help them.
From a mental health treatment perspective, "youngsters" are far from the only population suffering from depression, anxiety," etc. Boomers actually represent a huge block of those seeking mental health care.
But they're seeking help late in the game, and mostly because any normalizing and breaking away from mental health stigma has been done by Gen X and Millennials (and also due to various legislation that has encouraged treating mental health as any other health condition, and covering more). Earlier in their lives, they were much more resistant to seeking treatment, so many lived for decades with terrible anxiety and depression, and are just now beginning to be proactive in their own mental health.
Mental health issues aren't confined to any one generation of people, though how different groups accept their existence and respond to them certainly varies. But going untreated doesn't mean the issues are nonexistent.
From a mental health treatment perspective, "youngsters" are far from the only population suffering from depression, anxiety," etc. Boomers actually represent a huge block of those seeking mental health care.
But they're seeking help late in the game, and mostly because any normalizing and breaking away from mental health stigma has been done by Gen X and Millennials (and also due to various legislation that has encouraged treating mental health as any other health condition, and covering more). Earlier in their lives, they were much more resistant to seeking treatment, so many lived for decades with terrible anxiety and depression, and are just now beginning to be proactive in their own mental health.
Mental health issues aren't confined to any one generation of people, though how different groups accept their existence and respond to them certainly varies. But going untreated doesn't mean the issues are nonexistent.
If Boomers are suffering from depression, anxiety, etc. my opinion is because they can't face getting older and think they "missed" something in their lives. Everything one hears about these days is looking younger, exercising, eating healthy, finding a boyfriend, etc., etc. Those things might prolong your life but, you are going to die anyway so you might as well enjoy yourself until you do. Just my opinion........
I'm a solid GenXer, and as such, am a member of the generation that straddled the digital revolution...grew up analog, was in college and a young adult when widespread access to internet, various tech innovations really exploded for the general population.
What you say is true...however, while the "Millenial" generation has always had comparatively unfettered and effortless access to information, the other side of that sword is that loads of it has been unvetted/just plain bad information. The knowledge you obtain is only as high of quality as the resources from which you obtained it. There are few gatekeepers online, so the learning has built-in limits.
Millennials are really quite bifurcated in terms of digital access. People born in 1981 are Millennials by some models. People of that age, especially those who grew up in small towns or rural areas, likely wouldn't have had much internet access before becoming legal adults.
I was born in 1986 and grew up in a small town in Tennessee. At school, we didn't really have much in the way of internet until I reached high school in the early 2000s. We had a few computers in middle school, but the internet was not mainstream then. We had access to the internet in high school, but it was relatively unregulated, unstructured, and only people who were really interested in tech did much with it. For the most part, local schools hadn't really integrated technology into instruction in the early-mid 2000s.
My uncle owned a small, tech-related company, and got my dad into computers in the 1990s, and he also enjoyed it as a hobby. We had a computer in our home by 1995/1996, and we were part of the local cable company's pilot program for cable modems in either 1999/2000. I grew up with technology, but that was really more from dad and uncle enjoying it as a hobby than the widespread availability you see today. Most of my peers were not nearly as digitally savvy as I was, and I'm probably more similar to younger people than I am to my own peer group.
I think having access to an iPhone in elementary school is basically a generational divider. The original iPhone came out in the middle of 2007. My uncle got the original iPhone, and I got the 3G the following year. The iPhone opened up another world as far as rapid access to virtually any data you wanted. I was able to make stock trades from my phone back in the financial meltdown. That was mind-boggling to me. If you grew up with that level of access, that's a big divider from those who didn't.
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