Generational differences are becoming more and more apparent. It seems to be some sort of ripple effect where those who are more stagnant are not growing as rapidly as the world around us is changing. We have generational names that names, that become common household vocabulary, and the shift we need as millennials are only trickling.
The Discord research session sent me down a rabbit hole
I joined a journaling Discord group today. You know, casually went on to do and joined a public group to see what the world is saying about journaling. All in the name of research.
A lot of it was artsy and hobby like. Not really my cup of tea. I like the philosophy.
I like the ‘save the day’, kind of journaling that leads me to the depth of emotion and then claw out of it. You can’t go over, you can’t go under it, you HAVE got to go through it, kind of journaling.
So, the age options for this group were under 18 and over 18. You had to pick an emoji to identify your age.
Anyway, I clicked on my bunch of flowers emoji, to identify as over 18 and the next question was about my personality type. I did a little online test and thought why not, a refresher test from my last job application could not be the worst thing.
I was a protagonist, ENFJ. Not many scenarios in my life where being a protagonist bothered me, so, I felt okay about the result.
The blog then took me through a thread about the kind of person this personality type is. Traits, how we are with colleagues, the kind parent I would be and more.
I skimmed through them, somewhat interested.
It felt like going through Bliss magazine in my teens, but we would have been going through our star sign readings and star alignments. Who matches who, who can love who the right way? The start signs that make the best friends.
It got me thinking.
The generational discussions we depend on while we sip red wine.
I often find myself in discussions where we talk about them and us when talking of the new generation. What they have that we didn’t.
What they make of life and how we never had the resources or access to information the way they did. I was lucky to be within walking distance of a library, and I had an encyclopaedia that my hardworking parents paid for.
I was from a working-class background, a refugee and an ethnic minority in a city where being a minority was somewhat okay. We had to go and learn about things that were not taught in our households.
Our abundance of information compared to the generations before us was obvious then and lifestyles were set in a person’s early years and seldom changed.
We would have had to do personality tests, on paper, in interview rooms to establish our employability. Now, it seems it is being done online to make friends.
It is safe to say, that we have had to change our way of learning, learn how to settle for more and not accept the lifestyle that may have been sprung upon us through traditional methods of learning.
In comparison, the younger lot are wiser way earlier than we were. Though young, and arguably immature, the ‘new’ lot coming up, are coming up quicker than us. There is a clear generational wealth gap that means, and the new world we live in requires skills that come more easily to those who are raised after us.
They are using personality tests, to establish friendships and understand that wasting time and energy on people that they are not like to mingle with. Quicker to eliminate and they are more realistic about these relationships.
They are not as emotionally exhausted with external relationships. They may not achieve this in their teen years, but can you imagine the amount of time they would save as adults? Even if it is to unlearn the emotional reasoning and dependency we normalised?
The lower end of their standards is way higher than mine was around the age of 18. Innovation is applauded and creative problem-solving is non-negatable.
Are we outdated?
This leaves me with a few questions. Are our standards outdated? Do they out date as we relearn and catch up, leaving us to relearn again? Are we keeping up? Are they running faster? Are generational differences now less important? And with 'age' being less of an issue, are we now are now differentiated by our ability to keep up with the ever-changing world?
My father always said staying young meant getting to know those who are younger and accepting that they are doing things quicker, easier, and better.
Staying stagnant was something that not many of us can afford to do anymore, and if the Gen Z, or whoever comes after them, are growing at rates we never had to chance to live with, why are we not accepting the role reversal (willingly), and learning from them?
Going by my father’s logic, I should hang out in discord and see what the upcoming youth find interesting. However, I have one additional input, there are always gaps in knowledge when thriving to learn fast. The world's vision is changing on many things, and a lot of what the 90s and early 00s stood for, do not have much validity today.
Except of course the academic, research-based stuff. How we use the research has evolved, but not the studying of it.
But knowledge is still a key factor and experience are still key to implementation. We are still a necessary part of the full cycle.
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