Why the Concept of "Generations" Is Ridiculous

Started by Shiranu, August 16, 2018, 01:08:30 AM

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aitm

I would imagine the real definition of "generation" is family specific. A new "generation" is born every fraction of a second to families. Humans tend to group behavior in decades as it relates to specific times in their lives that most easily relate to the pre-determined age related standard behavior patterns.

I just re-read that and have no idea what I said.....must be a generational thing.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Shiranu

#16
QuoteI would imagine the real definition of "generation" is family specific.

This.

I was raised by a 1st generation German-American man born in 1922 who fought in three wars and a Scottish-American grandmother born in 1942 and sheltered from the hippy movement by her parents who had an arranged marriage set up for her that last until she was about 40. Until that time she was essentially just an isolated servant and baby producer/caregiver who, for all intents and purposes, had no life outside of her kitchen and the trailer home (while her husband was serving overseas).

I was raised in the 1990s by those two people, and we lived right along the poverty line for essentially my entire life until my dad died and we started getting checks from the military. We lived on a farm with about 40 cattle and some chickens, a rotary phone well into the late 1990's, 20 minutes from a town of less than 2000 people where I went to school and borderline fundamentalist Lutheran church. I went to a "private" school (Christian fundamentalist home school some woman ran with her bipolar abusive husband [divorced half way through my time there] and three sons) where I basically didn't have to learn anything for 4 years other than, "God is great. God created everything. Praise god!". My world, until my 20s when I moved to New Mexico and was exposed to a whole new world, was barely influenced by the media of people of my age and instead much more focused (in my free time) on old sci-fi, the "Classics" books (Shakespeare, Poe, Wordsworth, Plato) or video games. My social life was dominated by "god, god, god" or completely isolating myself from the world after my dad died, and experimenting with alcohol and weed by the time I was 11.

I could go on, but I think the point was made long ago and I just selfishly kept on writing... my childhood is not the "norm" for a millennial, and that is because there is no "norm" for a millennial. We all have had different experiences, different cultural backgrounds, different religious upbringings, different experiences with authority, different experiences with the opposite and same sex.

All it is is stupidly accusing all the people of a certain age that they must be like the rest, and that is not a good thing, because the literal only thing you know about them is their age. From that moment on every argument they put forth you have no interest in even considering, regardless of what experience or knowledge they might actually have.


Imagine if I believed that and interacted with people with the assumption that everyone here who was born between the mid forties to mid sixties is a narcissistic, spoiled brat who thinks themselves special because they were living of the economy their parents built for them after the war and really are just a bunch of bigoted, crybaby snowflakes who had no self-control and want to paint their flaws as being a thousand times brighter on everyone else who came after them.

That is literally what you are doing when I hear this "millennial this, millennial that" bullshit that pops up fairly frequently on the forum, and it's annoying af.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Cavebear

Quote from: Shiranu on August 16, 2018, 08:56:26 PM
This.

I was raised by a 1st generation German-American man born in 1922 who fought in three wars and a Scottish-American grandmother born in 1942 and sheltered from the hippy movement by her parents who had an arranged marriage set up for her that last until she was about 40. Until that time she was essentially just an isolated servant and baby producer/caregiver who, for all intents and purposes, had no life outside of her kitchen and the trailer home (while her husband was serving overseas).

I was raised in the 1990s by those two people, and we lived right along the poverty line for essentially my entire life until my dad died and we started getting checks from the military. We lived on a farm with about 40 cattle and some chickens, a rotary phone well into the late 1990's, 20 minutes from a town of less than 2000 people where I went to school and borderline fundamentalist Lutheran church. I went to a "private" school (Christian fundamentalist home school some woman ran with her bipolar abusive husband [divorced half way through my time there] and three sons) where I basically didn't have to learn anything for 4 years other than, "God is great. God created everything. Praise god!". My world, until my 20s when I moved to New Mexico and was exposed to a whole new world, was barely influenced by the media of people of my age and instead much more focused (in my free time) on old sci-fi, the "Classics" books (Shakespeare, Poe, Wordsworth, Plato) or video games. My social life was dominated by "god, god, god" or completely isolating myself from the world after my dad died, and experimenting with alcohol and weed by the time I was 11.

I could go on, but I think the point was made long ago and I just selfishly kept on writing... my childhood is not the "norm" for a millennial, and that is because there is no "norm" for a millennial. We all have had different experiences, different cultural backgrounds, different religious upbringings, different experiences with authority, different experiences with the opposite and same sex.

All it is is stupidly accusing all the people of a certain age that they must be like the rest, and that is not a good thing, because the literal only thing you know about them is their age. From that moment on every argument they put forth you have no interest in even considering, regardless of what experience or knowledge they might actually have.


Imagine if I believed that and interacted with people with the assumption that everyone here who was born between the mid forties to mid sixties is a narcissistic, spoiled brat who thinks themselves special because they were living of the economy their parents built for them after the war and really are just a bunch of bigoted, crybaby snowflakes who had no self-control and want to paint their flaws as being a thousand times brighter on everyone else who came after them.

That is literally what you are doing when I hear this "millennial this, millennial that" bullshit that pops up fairly frequently on the forum, and it's annoying af.

I understand your point about generations not being uniform among them.  But I do think there are some basics among each generation.  My parents grew up during The Great Depression and it had an effect on them  As did WWII.  I was born in 1950 and technically a Baby-Boomer, but my parents' experiences affected me as I was the eldest child.  My younger siblings were also baby-boomers but not as affected by the parents' experience as I was.  But each of us siblings shared experiences like The Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War.

My siblings' children share a common experience of high interest rates and fuel shortages.

Their children share the shock of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  And they grew up with the internet.  To me it is a slightly useful tool yo post here.  To them, it is a way of life minute by minute.  I can't fully understand that and I don't try.  I don't engage the world the same way they do.

These things do have a shared affect.  Of course people are different, but some things connect.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

SoldierofFortune

Generations is real thing.
especially for the last 40 year change the culture, tradition and the way people think.
I can see the difference between 40 years and now.
The changes is on political point of wiev of the masses, and about the rise of the atheism and deism, or the way we socialise.

Hydra009

Quote from: SoldierofFortune on August 28, 2018, 02:37:18 PM
Generations is real thing.
especially for the last 40 year change the culture, tradition and the way people think.
I can see the difference between 40 years and now.
The changes is on political point of wiev of the masses, and about the rise of the atheism and deism, or the way we socialise.
I'm pretty sure the OP's claim isn't that cultural change doesn't happen, just that categorizing people by generation and then stereotyping the crap out of them isn't necessarily very accurate and sets up an unfortunate Us VS Them dynamic.

Baruch

Quote from: Hydra009 on August 28, 2018, 07:41:14 PM
I'm pretty sure the OP's claim isn't that cultural change doesn't happen, just that categorizing people by generation and then stereotyping the crap out of them isn't necessarily very accurate and sets up an unfortunate Us VS Them dynamic.

It is us vs them.  Kill and eat the Millennials!
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Cavebear

Quote from: Hydra009 on August 28, 2018, 07:41:14 PM
I'm pretty sure the OP's claim isn't that cultural change doesn't happen, just that categorizing people by generation and then stereotyping the crap out of them isn't necessarily very accurate and sets up an unfortunate Us VS Them dynamic.

Of course every generation is not uniform.  That's why we fight politically and socially within our age groups.

But there are basic similarities.  My parents' generation assumed that women "kept house".  My generation assumed they might not.  My nieces' generations go "what"? The new generation can't live without texting (or sexting) or constantly media-ing to friends they didn't know yesterday.

We change far more culturally generationally than some people realize.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Unbeliever

And that's a brand new thing in the human experience. It used to be centuries with no cultural change at all.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Cavebear

Quote from: Unbeliever on September 08, 2018, 01:48:19 PM
And that's a brand new thing in the human experience. It used to be centuries with no cultural change at all.

True that!  For countless generations, there was little change.  You knapped a blade THIS way.  Then there were generations where if your Dad was a smithy, you were too.  Or a farmer.  Now it is nearly random.  Your Dad was a CPA and you code apps.  Or your Mom was a surgeon and you bake wedding cakes for the sheer joy of the design. 
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Baruch

Quote from: Unbeliever on September 08, 2018, 01:48:19 PM
And that's a brand new thing in the human experience. It used to be centuries with no cultural change at all.

Anyone ever read Alvin Toffler?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Toffler

Per Club of Rome ... all this change will end, permanently, in the mid 21st century.  Enjoy updating your apps faster and faster, while you can.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

SGOS

I just heard about another generation.  An article in the Wall Street Journal (which I didn't read, but was only related to me today) named Generation Z, born in the mid 90s and characterized as serious, struggling, afraid of risk, and less likely to drink.  I don't know if these are true or not, but supposedly they mirror the generation of the Great Depression. 

Baruch

Quote from: SGOS on September 08, 2018, 06:42:23 PM
I just heard about another generation.  An article in the Wall Street Journal (which I didn't read, but was only related to me today) named Generation Z, born in the mid 90s and characterized as serious, struggling, afraid of risk, and less likely to drink.  I don't know if these are true or not, but supposedly they mirror the generation of the Great Depression.

Kondratiev wave in human populations?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kondratiev_wave
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Cavebear

Quote from: SGOS on September 08, 2018, 06:42:23 PM
I just heard about another generation.  An article in the Wall Street Journal (which I didn't read, but was only related to me today) named Generation Z, born in the mid 90s and characterized as serious, struggling, afraid of risk, and less likely to drink.  I don't know if these are true or not, but supposedly they mirror the generation of the Great Depression.

I would not be the least surprised.  But I think they might be also defined as an internet-dependent generation.  To me, it is merely a convenience when I want to talk to all of you or blog, or look up stuff sometimes.  To them, it replaces talking, working in an office, watching TV, listening to CDs, or doing something by yourself.

I wonder what it is like to have a best friend you have never actually met in person?
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

SGOS

Quote from: Cavebear on September 12, 2018, 05:24:00 AM
I would not be the least surprised.  But I think they might be also defined as an internet-dependent generation.  To me, it is merely a convenience when I want to talk to all of you or blog, or look up stuff sometimes.  To them, it replaces talking, working in an office, watching TV, listening to CDs, or doing something by yourself.

I wonder what it is like to have a best friend you have never actually met in person?
It's been a few days since that list of Z generation characteristics was related to me by another person, but he mentioned one of them as "Not well socialized."  If it's true, it might be from iphone and computer communications.  Where recognizing :-) and assorted emojis replace body language and intimacy.

Cavebear

Quote from: SGOS on September 12, 2018, 10:03:45 AM
It's been a few days since that list of Z generation characteristics was related to me by another person, but he mentioned one of them as "Not well socialized."  If it's true, it might be from iphone and computer communications.  Where recognizing :-) and assorted emojis replace body language and intimacy.

I suspect every generation considers the next "not well socialized".  Even long ago, Soctates said “The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

If I was born in 1990, I would do just fine among my peers there.  And I wouldn't understand my current self. 
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!