Every generation moans about the new generation. The greatest generation moaned about boomers. Boomers moaned about generation x. Gen x moans about millenials. Maybe we are just getting grumpy in our forties and fifties?
That is possible, but this generation is very different than previous generations in several fundamental ways that will impact future generations. I suppose one could say that about our generations too, but still I notice a disturbing erosion. I am in the Boomer/Boomlet generation of the early 1960s. The WWII generation parents we had managed to prosper during the postwar economy, building most of the enduring privately owned businesses into massive corporations which employed millions of people, and their Boomer children. The Boomers built the technological revolution which had been sparked by the moon landings and also Star Trek.
. The Boomers created computers and cellphones and video games and microwave ovens. The Millennials are only building applications to run on existing technology, stuff like Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat may be massively popular, but not very constructive. The most important part of any of those apps is the code behind them, and the operating systems of hardware they run within. Millennials do not venture much into the fields which advance this tech. It is still the Boomers, who are now hitting their 60s.
I'm unique in my life path so I can't really speak as to how generation x was raised. I stopped having anything in common with most from my generation by the time I was seventeen. But I do know that most of my generation were given practical life skills AND social skills that many millenials seem to be lacking.
I agree though, those millenials who are employed do seem to have a better handle on things. I moved out of my parents at seventeen so I can't imagine the arrested development of a millenial living with their parents into their thirties.
I have found employed Millennials to be much more focused and practical in their lifestyles, and many of them will say they don't like things about their own generation. I try not to throw this blanket over all Millennials, but it just seems to me that the majority of them seem directionless.
I come from the school of hard knocks though. I think if future generations were made to give mandatory national service it would do them the world of good. I don't see any practical benefits in living a comfortable life for ones whole youth. I believe in being toughened up. It strengthens familial bonds and community. It also has practical applications. I think millenials could do with a little practicality. They need to be made aware that life isn't Jersey Shore. Maybe then they would be strengthened against peer pressure and shrug of mundane ridiculous things they used to be offended by?
My father felt the same way.
. I was raised in a very comfortable household where my brother and sister and I got pretty much whatever we wanted, but we were also taught the value of things and shown the connection between working for something as opposed to feeling entitled to something. My dad was a police lieutenant and a WWII vet so there was that strong leadership. And my mom was a very feminine woman who also showed me the strength in compassion and treating others as you would want to be treated yourself. Today, these values are seen as "conformist" and part of the "patriarchy".
Although maybe, having grown up in the sixties in America, you find the idea of national service distasteful? Personally I think those kids need to learn how to tie a bootlace and make a bed rigidly. ( I'm not ex army myself, I learned those things in another structured way ).
Oh no not at all! I am a USMC vet, and YJ02 is an Army vet. We are the only two military vets on the site so far. We both have discussed the notion of mandatory national service here. In fact, there are tens of thousands of posts we have hidden due to the political nature of them. The site had gone way too far into politics.
