I have read several articles over the last few months about how people everywhere seem to be less compassionate or empathic to humanity’s problems. We seem so ready to resort to violence, something I find disturbing, especially since I believe that this is a conditioned reaction and not the non-violent innate natural human way to respond. Many social experts put the blame on how the internet has started to dehumanize us. Please do go and read a couple of earlier posts of mine from May 2012 (Coming Back Into Our Sovereignty – Part 11: Freeing Ourselves on the Internet – parts 1 and 2). I recommend the 2020 film The Social Dilemma as a wakeup call for how insidious the internet can be. It’s all about the ‘Currency of Attention’ as You Tube blogger ZDoggMD says.
Then add to this melee with a generation of adults that grew up in an age where self-reliance has been diminished (The Millennial Generation) and addiction to technology is the norm. As ZDogg says, “[Our phones and computers] have gone from something passive that you use as a tool to something that uses you as a tool.” As a Baby boomer (born 1946-1964), social electronic technology for me was minimal (non-interactive TV and Radio, and corded land-line telephone). I used Fortran programming in the 1970s where mainframes took up whole basements of a building but had way less capacity than your phone today. I used a desktop computer in the early 1980s (when Gen Xer’s (1964-1980) were coming into their time) and email back in the early 1990s, but it was really just a difference between texting and phone talking. The convenience was that you didn’t expect an instant reply, but I did note how misunderstanding occurred more often. The lack of non-verbal communication birthed emoticons to try and convey what normally, unconsciously understanding of messaging we get from physical speech. Mobile phones were literally just that – portable phones you could use most urban places, but connectivity was spotty outside an urban environment. While social media began in 1997, few of us used it with any regularity.
Millennials (born 1981-1996) initially grew up without social media, but latched onto it readily as it became available, and then Gen Z (born 1997-2012) and now Gen Alpha (since 2013) have never known life without the social media and global connectivity. I dread to think what Gen Beta (post-2025) will be like. I have watched You Tube blogger Tom Bilyeu, who tries to increase people’s self- esteem (impact theory) through reality checking in order to boost their impact on society. I have spent many hours trying to understand these so-called generational divides. For starters, each generation is a product of the socio-cultural influences that created their conditioning. It would take a book for me to explain the ins and outs of what I have been reading and observing. I’ll keep it simple (as usual).
Each generation displays strengths and blind-spots (I don’t see weaknesses) that need understanding. For starters, I have said many times that the internet is both a beneficial and potentially harmful technology when thinking of human evolution. Having lived through the whole internet revolution and its current manifestation, I think I see a spectrum of plusses and minuses. Understanding the influences that ‘create’ a generational group helps me to be more empathic about the neuroses and anxieties experienced by each group. When I look at world leadership today, I see people (Boomers) who grew up in the post WWII and then experienced the Cold War, where war was a given reality somewhere, even if MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction from nuclear war) didn’t happen – we lived with the threat in the back of our minds. Even Gen Xers came on the tail end of this influence. We relied on leadership that we perceived was there to help us.
From Millennials onwards, the global war threat was mostly gone but the electronic age was the major influence. It was so new that most of the pre-millennials had no experience in its problems and benefits, seeing it mainly as a tool, and the post-millennials could only see the benefits and were blind to its problems. Coupled with globalization and economic upheavals favoring only the wealthy, the moderately stable world that was somewhat predictable for pre-millennials was fast changing such that expectations were also changing radically. The breakdown of the social contract that existed in the business world, where employees could expect to work for a company all their adult lives and receive a decent pension, and leadership showed appreciation for its work force was breaking down. Now companies dump employees to boost quarter dividends, fire older workers to reduce payroll costs, etc, and then expect remaining workers to do more work for less compensation, all with the goal of increasing profit for already wealthy investors.
Leadership has also changed drastically and today’s leaders have little understanding of the people that they supposedly lead – more a case of the blind led by the blinded. Great leaders today use empathy and understanding to truly lead and not just be out in front. “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” Paraphrased from a quote by Alexander the Great.
I’m wandering with this discussion – let me focus it back to compassion. Each generational group feels misunderstood by the older ones that actually set up the influences that conditioned them. The generational ‘gaps’ reflect changes in the underlying beliefs and values from their elders. A reasonable summary of what makes the generational groupings of the past century is linked here. This is where I would ask a student in class giving a talk, ‘So What?’
Each generation has strengths that they bring to the table. Instead of having conflicts over differences, we should have in-depth discussions that ask relevant and revealing questions that expose our beliefs, values, and as importantly, our worldviews and varying ways of looking at the world through those worldviews. And we need to engage using compassion and a willingness to communicate using multiple channels to ensure true understanding. Negative stereotyping is apparent for each generation. Boomers called Millennials and now Gen Xers ‘entitled’ but I recall being called entitled by my parent’s generation. Understanding generationally means understanding the different communication styles ‘preferred’ by each generation.
I still prefer in-person communications (phone, face-face), then email, text, using emojis of course. Communicating with my grandkids (Gen-Zs) is always interesting. I see how their phones dominate their lives, and they have a hard time understanding why I often leave my phone elsewhere in the house while I am typing in my office. But when we communicate successfully, we can co-create something wonderful. Notice that I imply this all happens at the grassroots, and I think the internet will be a great tool as long I we can communicate its weaknesses to bring about more self-reliance, greater self-esteem, and personal sovereignty.
If we are to change this world and develop new socio-cultural systems with life-affirming worldviews we need to talk more and really use active listening to understand what is being said and not what we think is being said. Then employing empathic skills without judging (see Resolving Environmental/Justice/Equity Issues Through Empathy – But What is Empathy Really? {August 2020}).
There is some amazing creativity to be tapped when we listen and are willing to discuss differing perspectives. I found this particularly true when I was developing my sustainability degree program. I developed the program and coursework, and was always speaking to my students about what they felt were the strengths and weaknesses of the planning process. When the program was launched, I carried on the evaluation process (both formally and informally) to continue building a robust program that served the needs of what the students felt they needed when they graduated into the workforce and how that all integrated with what I felt they also needed from an academic perspective. A new sustainable world will be no different. Older generations might have experience, but new ideas can come from new minds untainted by being blinkered with old ways of thinking. I see the generational gap as a strength and not a problem. The young still have imagination that hasn’t been jaded yet.
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