Recently a friend shared information about the various generations alive and well today, from the Traditionalists to the Linksters. (This last term was new to me, as I always thought of them as Millennials.) Regardless, her information is worth sharing in an effort to get different generations to understand each other.
For instance, I’m a traditionalist, but just barely. Born in 1944, I embody the traits of loyalty and respect for authority while still being independent. At the same time, I question that authority and am well-educated, which are traits of the Baby Boomers, the generation after me.
My two sons are both Gen Xers, partially defined as the products of divorced parents (Yes), intolerant of bureaucracy, yet social responsible. They are now in their forties.
Which suggests they are rubbing against the generations behind them. For my son the college professor, it means trying to relate to students less than half his age who are one with their machines, have never lived without technology, and are the wave of the future.
But identifying the various traits of each generation isn’t enough. The real work begins when someone in one generation tries to communicate with someone in another.
In my own world, for instance, I’ve learned that if I want to communicate with friends my age, the telephone works wonderfully. But if I want to touch base with a Linkster – such as my trainer at the gym – I need to text. I’m not very good at this, as I don’t believe in arbitrary abbreviations and emoticons – which also implies a learning curve on my part – but I’ve learned this gets his attention.
The one thing I see in all this – and believe me, there is a ton more on the Internet – is that the older generations seem to adapt to the ones behind them with little reciprocity in the deal. Perhaps that’s also something to work on. Just because something seems obsolete doesn’t mean it’s not useful in terms of communication.
Leave a Reply