I watched one of those “create an argument” shows this afternoon. Two hosts. One guest was a business school prof. The other was a guy about 25 years old. The topic was “Generation Y.”
Within about 3 minutes, the “discussion” turned into a complete attack on young people. All 3 of the… um… less young people just jumped down Generation Y’s throat. Gen Y is a bunch of unintelligent, illiterate, entitled, lazy, shiftless… yeah, those words were used. Many times. The 20something responded that today’s youth have different career plans than their parents did, they carry record amounts of student debt, and they learn during college that their degrees are unlikely to help them achieve the jobs they want. In addition, their communication habits, formed in a different education system and shaped by the online environment, can’t be expected to look like their parents’, and they are ambivalent about working for corporations that arguably have damaged the planet, destroyed the social contract, and proven themselves disloyal to their employees.
This, of course, had no effect on the old people, who seemed to become more and more angry that the young guy wasn’t agreeing with their criticisms. I was surprised by a a couple of things:
1 - The sheer vehemence of the old people’s condemnation. There seemed to be no recognition that not all young people are exactly the same, that some of these characteristics might have positive aspects, or that they might be reactions to the current environment. It seemed like an ambush.
2 - The young guy was much more evenhanded and (it seemed to me) rational than the others. He made some excellent points (which I’ve already mentioned), and (as far as I watched) kept his cool under attack.
This kind of all-out generation war is new to me. These shows are notorious for trying to squeeze maximum conflict out of minimal issues, but it was still interesting. It made me think of how I see my students (sometimes I agree with the old people), and it seemed that the old folks were overlooking some facts:
These spoiled, illiterate, ungrateful brats will be busy running the world when we’re busy running out of Depends (TM). Also, recent attempts by the older generation to browbeat or guilt-trip the younger generation into doing things the Fogey Way have been somewhat unsuccessful. So, we can’t stop them from taking over, and we almost certainly can’t turn them into copies of ourselves, now that they’re 23, so…
Maybe instead of increasing their alienation with a generation they are probably seeking the approval of (despite what they say), we should look at who they actually are, and a) take advantage of whatever they bring to the table, b) tailor any last-ditch persuasion efforts (they’re in their 20s…) to who they really are, rather than who we wish they were, and c) try to guess what they will turn the world into, so we can find a way to live in it without going crazy.
(final note: On MST3K right this minute, Crow is saying, “Well, honey, it looks like we spawned a demon seed.” Heh heh).
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