My biggest pet peeve is when adults say "kids these days" or "your generation…" It really fires me up when I hear it. Is what they say true? Maybe, but that can be a whole other discussion. In the first class of my freshman seminar, my instructor dropped one of those on me, and I almost tuned him out for the rest of class. It was what he said after that made me very thankful I didn't.

He started by saying that cell phones are going to be the downfall of human interaction and complained about how kids and teenagers live on their cell phones. He went on to imply that teenagers don't interact with one another face-to-face, rather screen-to-screen. I have heard this one before and knew where it was headed, and I didn't want to hear it. It goes down the road where adults point out and complain about all the flaws that my generation has as if they never had any. If my mom or dad were saying this, as they have before, I would roll my eyes to the back of my head and stop listening. But this time I didn't— he continued to talk and I continued to listen. What he said next was actually sort of eye-opening.

He moved away from my generation and onto just people in general. He said that people, in general, don't talk anymore. In my head I was confused, but his next statement cleared my confusion. He explained that people don't talk, they just argue. Then I realized that everyone has a "shut down all other opinions" mentality for something.

When it comes time to have a discussion, or to talk about it, it just becomes an argument. One person being interrupted or ignored by the other because they don't have the same opinion. This applies to adults and kids, in politics, sports, relationships, and more.

Then I had my own "AHA!" moment: I realized that if I were to be having a one-on-one conversation with him about "kids these days," it would have turned into an argument. Not a heated argument where we yell back and forth at each other, but one that I would have spent most of my words defending my side and him his.

Instead, I could have just listened to his opinion. Who knows it could have changed my viewpoint a bit or at the least allow me to understand his viewpoint. Now it makes sense why we find ourselves, as a society, so divided on so many topics. We, purposely or not, fail to listen learn or attempt to understand the other side, rather just fill our head with support for our side. This doesn't apply to every situation because I know plenty of conversations are had in this world that have nothing to do with opinions or sides.

But there are dividing topics that do need to be discussed open-mindedly, not just argued.