How on Earth did this generation get so technologically out of control?
"OK boomer!" There...I said it.
The #Millennialgeneration. They drive us Boomers crazy. Why won’t these kids answer their phone? How can we tear them away from their video games? Don’t they see that they aren’t helping themselves when they behave the way they do?
“ It looks like their phones are just an extension of their arms. Well, the truth is…they didn’t just happen. Their behaviors were molded into them. And it was us Baby Boomers who made them the way they are.”
In order to understand how the Millennial generation got to the place where they drive us crazy, we need to understand a little about their Baby Boomer parents.
A large part of that generation went one of two ways. They either were part of the “turn on, tune in, and drop out” #Hippieculture of the #sixties or they tended to stay rather conservative.
Neither side understood the other. Well, it didn’t take too many years for those in the Hippie camp to figure out that there wasn’t a pot of gold at the end of their rainbow. By the early eighties they had joined their conservative peers and became the foundation of American business. Times were good economically and there were lots of opportunities to prosper. They became known as the #Yuppies (Young Urban Professionals) with high paying jobs and fashionable lifestyles.
This is where the Millennials come in.
As the children of these successful people they were born into a life of large two-story homes on cul-de-sacs in upscale neighborhoods. Their parents took them wherever they wanted to go in one of their two (or more) Lexus vehicles. These parents wanted to shield their kids from the hard things they went through growing up; wanted to give them all of the things they could in order to make them feel good. Just as it sounds, most overcompensated.
They did everything for their kids and gave them everything they wanted.
There was a lot of competition among the kids and none of the parents wanted to be the one whose children didn’t have what everyone else had. About this time, #modernpsychology came up with the concept that “we just need to make sure our children feel good about themselves”.
“It was more important to make them feel accepted rather than learn how to have the right life skills to be successful.”
The kids grew up with the understanding that “it is all about me”. Now, compound that with the advances in technology, particularly in smart phones and on-line gaming. Parents used computers and gaming as #digitalbabysitters. Kids learned to build stronger connections with cyber people than with real people. They learned to communicate through #socialmedia instead of face-to-face. We also told them, “Just go to college and everything will be good”. It wasn’t. Student debt smacked them right between the eyes.
They entered the workplace as the most highly educated generation ever.
However, they frequently had expectations beyond their ability. Their lack of confidence in the more seasoned members of the workforce showed through. They distrusted leaders and balked at traditional business ways. They were merely responding in the way they had been taught all of their lives. Unfortunately, #BabyBoomers and #GenerationX’ers in the workforce (those who had grown up with strong traditional work ethic) saw them as insolent, non-caring, selfish and feeling entitled. In a lot of cases, this was true. But there were still many of the Millennial generation that were willing to work to be successful. We just like to group them together.
So you see, the behaviors that we stereotypically associate (and detest) with the Millennial generation were taught to them by us Boomers and X’ers.
The next time you want to complain about them, remember that they are the way they are because of us. Let’s look for ways to help them instead of chastising them. “Everyone’s a learner and everyone’s a teacher”. We can all help each other.
ON SALE NOW
Comments