I could not agree more. The constant retread of “Gen Foo just doesn’t ‘get it’ like Gen Bar does” or “Gen Bar are too soft and are a bunch of layabouts and complainers” is so very tired. You could find articles written today about Gen Alpha and find similar sentiments written about the boomers, and give a few decades, they’ll probably be writing the same things about how Gen Alpha sold out Gen Delta or whatever…
It has nothing to do with the two arbitrary dates someone happened to be born between and then lumped in as a “generation”, and has everything to do with conservative policies…
Though I will say I do wonder where some of this is headed given algorithms are doing this narrowcasting at the exact same time that people seemingly have little to no instruction in critical thinking - not that I think we’ve ever really been great at instruction in critical thinking, mind you. In any case, it might be the youngest among us and those that come after may be prone to engaging in some of the most extremist right wing insanity we’ve seen on these shores in a very long time.
I totally agree with you about how critical thinking is harder to come by. I do think some of it has to do with the vast number of information sources out there. There’s so much stuff competing for attention, diametrically opposed opinions, opinions presented as facts, etc that perhaps critical thinking is harder than it was in simpler times, when getting information was pretty much limited to books, the newspapers, and TV, all of which had to pass through editors in order to be made public.
I could not agree more. The constant retread of “Gen Foo just doesn’t ‘get it’ like Gen Bar does” or “Gen Bar are too soft and are a bunch of layabouts and complainers” is so very tired. You could find articles written today about Gen Alpha and find similar sentiments written about the boomers, and give a few decades, they’ll probably be writing the same things about how Gen Alpha sold out Gen Delta or whatever…
It has nothing to do with the two arbitrary dates someone happened to be born between and then lumped in as a “generation”, and has everything to do with conservative policies…
Though I will say I do wonder where some of this is headed given algorithms are doing this narrowcasting at the exact same time that people seemingly have little to no instruction in critical thinking - not that I think we’ve ever really been great at instruction in critical thinking, mind you. In any case, it might be the youngest among us and those that come after may be prone to engaging in some of the most extremist right wing insanity we’ve seen on these shores in a very long time.
I totally agree with you about how critical thinking is harder to come by. I do think some of it has to do with the vast number of information sources out there. There’s so much stuff competing for attention, diametrically opposed opinions, opinions presented as facts, etc that perhaps critical thinking is harder than it was in simpler times, when getting information was pretty much limited to books, the newspapers, and TV, all of which had to pass through editors in order to be made public.
Pitting generations against each other is just another way to distract people while they are being robbed and enslaved by the super rich.