“Generational trashing is actually eternal human behaviour,” wrote the novelist Douglas Coupland in an essay for The Guardian earlier this month. And he should know: he coined the term “Generation X”. Baby boomers, he recalls, once poured scorn on Gen-Xers like him, who themselves grew up to be sniffy about the [avocado-and-toast eating habits of “snowflake” Millennials. And now it’s the turn of Generation Z, with their TikToks and identity politics, to be judged by their elders.
There’s actually a scientific term for this: the “kids these days” effect, which can be traced all the way back to the writing of the Ancient Greeks. “Since at least 624 BC, people have lamented the decline of the present generation of youth relative to earlier generations,” according to the psychologists who named the phenomenon. “The pervasiveness of complaints about ‘kids these days’ across millennia suggests that these criticisms are neither accurate nor due to the idiosyncrasies of a particular culture or time – but rather represent a pervasive illusion of humanity.”
The rest of the article isn’t about people forgetting how to mend a fence and generally being incapable.
Again. This fence thing didn’t have to be generational. You. Went. There.
As each new generation inherits the world, vital knowledge is forgotten. In the latest in our Wise Words series, Richard Fisher explores the language that has emerged to describe that phenomenon.
And the article goes on beyond the part you quoted to feed your argument to point out that yes, indeed thing are lost between generations. No, they don’t specifically mention fence mending. Generational amnesia is a far broader concept than just how to fix a car.
You went straight for the fight.
You turned an appeal for people to pass knowledge on to those who may not get as much exposure to it as past generations and what…? Fuck you, don’t teach? Everyone knows everything already - apparently you do?
Boomers dying off and you gotta pick a fight with a new generation? I don’t do “kids these days” arguments because they’re stupid, but pot meet kettle, I never intended a generational argument but you certainly made it one.
In fact, Millennials are unfamiliar with a broad range of life skills. They are less likely than older generations to know how to sew, make basic home repairs, or drive manual-transmission cars. With GPS always at their fingertips, many never really learned to use physical landmarks to guide them. Some can’t even imagine how people functioned before mobile IT. One Millennial wrote an article asking older people how they used to look up information, meet up with friends in public places, and handle getting lost without smartphones.
The only really relevant thing in that article is
The rest of the article isn’t about people forgetting how to mend a fence and generally being incapable.
Again. This fence thing didn’t have to be generational. You. Went. There.
Think about that.
Your’e a real asshole looking for an argument
You skipped right past
And the article goes on beyond the part you quoted to feed your argument to point out that yes, indeed thing are lost between generations. No, they don’t specifically mention fence mending. Generational amnesia is a far broader concept than just how to fix a car.
You went straight for the fight.
You turned an appeal for people to pass knowledge on to those who may not get as much exposure to it as past generations and what…? Fuck you, don’t teach? Everyone knows everything already - apparently you do?
Boomers dying off and you gotta pick a fight with a new generation? I don’t do “kids these days” arguments because they’re stupid, but pot meet kettle, I never intended a generational argument but you certainly made it one.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/07/02/millennials-struggle-to-pass-life-skills-101/
And I don’t even like the fact they singled out millennials. It’s simply knowledge lost over time, not an X vs zoomer thing.