How many times have you been stuck in a seemingly pointless argument with your grandparents, parents or any other older family member, with the full, firm belief that you were correct about the issue? To say this incident occurs in my life on a regular basis would be an understatement. From politics to social reforms to simple mannerisms and etiquette, everything about our grandparents and parents seems so foreign and unnatural — they wear different styles of clothes, listen to different genres of music, and the list is endless. The most surprising fact is that this also occurs between our parents and grandparents as well. Why is the generation gap so massive? The answer that comes first to mind is that most of our grandparents or parents were of the baby boomer generation,which consisted of the members of a huge population increase in post World War II America. The ideas, beliefs, and culture was undeniably extremely different than the social beliefs we see today, as part of the millennial generation. Here are four signs that identify someone as a millennial or baby boomer:
1) Do you reply "You're welcome" or "No problem" when someone thanks you?
Recently, one of my teachers at school was slightly offended when I replied to her thanking me with an informal," oh, it was no problem at all!" She informed that the manner by which I responded to her was actually rude, and I should have learnt to say "You're welcome" as a response. I was shocked by her comments, since I never imagined what I said could be taken with such offense. Later, I noticed the way different people responded to someone thanking them. Those belonging to the mid twentieth century, or the baby boomers, grew up saying "you are welcome", since they want to the person thanking them that they appreciate the thanks. However, those born from the 80's to the 2000's reply with a quick "No problem" since their mentality is to let the person thanking them know that what they were asked to do was absolutely no problem at all.
2) How many participation trophies do you have?
As the highly controversial Time magazine article, " Millennials: the Me Me Me Generation," published in 2013, states, the mentality of the millennials has completely changed than the earlier generations. Now this is definitely the case with the birth of each new generation, but the technology revolution has caused a huge rift between the early 1900s, to the late 1900s and early 2000s. As we have probably heard time and time again from older family members, we are a lazy generation with our iPhones that are more powerful than the computer on the Apollo 11 spaceship, and our countless encyclopedias worth of knowledge accessible by Google. A new major concern has arisen with how kids are not encouraged to work harder to achieve their goals, but they are rewarded for every little job, no matter how well or horribly it was done. I have seen my brother's kiddie kick soccer team give trophies to every single child on the team, even the ones that never showed up to practices and ran away from the ball to chase a deer during soccer matches. Millenials definitely have a higher regard and standard for themselves. The article states that 58 percent more college students tested positive for narcissistic characteristics in 2009 than 1982. Also, 40 percent of workers belief that they should be promoted every two years, regardless of their performance.
3) How many times have you engaged in lively debates with your friends about politics?
The baby boomers were during and post WW II. The Nazis were defeated, everyone was convinced that the American democracy was the good compared to the evil of USSR Communism, and there was national pride as the two-time winner of the world wars. As we have probably read in our American history classes, the baby boomers were born during a period of conformity. Now...not so much. The millennials are much more involved in social reforms and debates, and they are more concerned in political affairs. The voting turnout doubled in the 2008 caucuses compared to the 1990s. The millennials are also more likely to volunteer and stay involved within their community, regardless of age. However, they are also less likely to engage in face-to-face civil movements, preferring the use of the Internet.
4) #blacklivesmatter #heforshe #BringBackOurGirls ?
The baby boomer generation saw a huge divide within racial and gender equality. The Civil Rights Movement took place around the baby boomer generation, stimulating many of this era to develop racist, sexist beliefs. However, the millennials, although subject to inequality every day, are more joined within gender and race to fight this phenomenon. A recent poll done to investigate the differences between gender in both generations revealed that when asked the topic if high school students should have to take a new civic test, 60 percent of female boomers agreed, while only 49 percent of male boomers agreed. However, when asked similar questions to millennials,females and males both had almost equal percentages.
New generations are all about innovation, and no generation is perfect. The ideals and beliefs of the Baby Boomers, albeit different to the millennials, is the uniqueness of that generation, and vise versa. This is something we can cherish as the ever changing lifestyle of the human species. We may get a few good kicks at watching our grandma trying to take a the perfect "duck-face" selfie, but truth is, after a couple decades, we will be the "weird ones" with our old fashioned iPhones and obsession with Netflix.
