Bridging the Generational Divide
It sounds cheesy, but we need to be listening more to each other
Being in your thirties can be really fascinating. While we are still considered young, we are no longer the youngest people in the room anymore. And while we still have far to go, we are old enough now that we have gained some degree of wisdom that we can actually pass down to younger people.
For me, one thing I have learned that I have found particularly valuable has been the below, three-fold approach to life, which I find incredibly applicable to our current era where we are navigating a dramatic generational divide:
A) It is important to recognize that, when you are young, you have not yet learned everything there is to know about the world. A young person who assumes they know everything is arrogant, and also wrong. As such, a young person should try to heed the advice of elders, and give them respect as people who have walked this earth before them.
That said,
B) Due to shifting economic, social, and technological trends, no older generation will ever completely understand the context in which the next generation has been raised. Older generations are at risk of misunderstanding the new challenges that have arisen for new generations, who live in widely different sociocultural environments.
Therefore,
C) Wisdom comes from being able to distinguish when it is time to listen, and to heed elders’ guidance, and when one has entered a context in which an elder will not have the ability to provide accurate guidance. In these cases, you must have confidence in yourself and your values to know your path forward, even if those that discourage you from it are the exact same elders you have sought counsel from before.
I am lucky enough to have been raised by elders that I respect. My mother’s side is Chinese, meaning respect of elders was incredibly central to our culture. I was always taught that I must acknowledge and value the hard work of my ancestors, as they struggled so that I could be safe and secure. Throughout my life, I have taken these teachings to heart. I genuinely have learned a lot from people who have come before me, and I owe everything to my ancestors. I know too that elders can also be a very neglected age group, which strengthens my wish to acknowledge them as valuable individuals that are deserving of kindness and respect.
Sometimes in life, however, we need to acknowledge that it is just a simple truth that young people sometimes understand certain situations better than elders. In the context of our current media divide, and the student protests over the genocide in Gaza, I have been thinking a lot about how older generations are actually not exempt from heeding the same three-fold advice I laid out above. They, too, must use wisdom, context, and nuance to understand when it is a time to speak, and educate youth on lessons of their past, and when it is a time to listen, and understand that youth may sometimes have a better grasp on certain situations and environments. Like young people, members of older generations who assume they know everything are arrogant, and wrong.
I write about this now as I strongly disagree with the position that young students protesting at Western universities are whiny, entitled, lazy, or uneducated. These labels have been used against younger generations at protests throughout history. Since I am a Millennial, I have also been hearing this refrain about my own generation since I was a literal child, when I was not even old enough to demonstrate whether or not I was actually lazy or entitled.
Gen Z are not lazy. Of course there are always a selection in every generation that may be considered so. But more than their predecessors, Gen Z work more hours for less wages than previous generations–almost half of this generation works more than one job in order to be able to live, meaning they generally work more for less benefit. Since they have less hope of reaching financial stability, they do sometimes prioritize quality of life more than work or finances, but this cannot fairly be considered laziness, as it is a fair and rational decision based on their circumstances.
Gen Z are also not stupid. Many of them are remarkably intelligent, which is no wonder as they have never known life without the internet. As the first generation to have been exposed to the endless information since childhood, they not only have had access to an infinite amount of data for their entire lives, but they have learned how to navigate its contents better than any generation before them. They also have been exposed to more cross-cultural interactions than any generation in history, which has granted them more nuance and understanding over certain situations and historical events.
As such, many within younger generations actually understand topics like the Israel occupation of Palestine better than a lot of people in older generations. When I say this, I know that people may disagree. Of course this does not apply to everyone, and I genuinely do not mean to be condescending when I write this. But a large percentage of older generations were simply given the incorrect information about Palestine. They had less access to information that could offer different perspectives.
When Boomers were teenagers, was the Nakba included in their history curriculum when they were first learning about Israel? It wasn’t even included in my own, so why would it? Were Boomers taught that it’s in the West’s best interest to favour Israel in foreign policy, because it allows them control in the Middle East? No, because why would they? The difference between older and younger generations here is not that any generation is better or worse than another, but that current young people have more tools to access diverse global perspectives.
The point is, while older generations often have gathered a lot of wisdom, and it is incredibly important to continue to heed their advice and acknowledge their expertise, older generations too need to acknowledge the reality that there are situations where younger people will have knowledge that they don’t.
I had an argument once with a Boomer about Payments 4 Placements, a movement started by social work students. For those that don’t know, in addition to their classwork, social work students are required to complete a set number of hours of an internship or “placement” at a given university’s partner organization. This is so they gain direct practice experience as well as theoretical knowledge before graduating. Students can be stationed for example at psychiatric hospitals, refugee resettlement organizations, prisons, or drug rehabilitation centers to gain clinical social work experience. Hours vary, but students may have to complete up to 900 hours. The problem however is that these internships are largely unpaid, as they are technically “part of the school program.” The Payments 4 Placements movement pushes for this practice to end, and for students to begin receiving payment for their labour.
The Boomer I was arguing with disagreed with the Payments 4 Placements movement. Her position was that, because students have always “been paid” with “experience” rather than money since the dawn of time in training programs, to demand payment is thus greedy, because older generations never did so when they were learning in the past.
But this argument makes zero sense in our current climate. The 2020s is a vastly different era from the era where Boomers were training. For one thing, we are living in an era with massive wealth disparity. While Boomers could once afford houses in decent cities on the salary of one breadwinner, housing has now become unaffordable to the point that a household with two incomes can no longer afford to buy a home. In Boomers’ era, if a married person for example wanted to go to school and enroll in an unpaid training program, this would not necessarily cripple their household financially, as their partner could continue to work. But this is not the case anymore, as for most people, both partners now must provide an income in order to stay afloat.
So while internships and “experience” may have been a viable training route for young people in the 70s and 80s, having unpaid internships nowadays means that for students, they are losing valuable hours where one could be earning a living wage for food and housing. This ensures that the only people who are able to become social workers are the ones that are able to manage this and take on some expense. This leaves out many young, but less financially stable people out of the industry, including people with “lived experience” (such as those who are below the poverty line that have experienced homelessness) that social work schools claim to value.
On top of this, there are currently social worker shortages in both the USA and Canada. I can provide this supporting info to show that it is a problem, but I don’t actually need to look this up to tell you this is happening. I work in social work, so can tell you that there is high turnover, and even decent workplaces struggle to retain staff. While other industries like tech and fashion companies are currently experiencing mass layoffs, social work is still desperately trying to recruit. Postings sometimes remain empty for years, or are filled briefly before opening up again.
And do you know who helps make up for that labour shortage?
Unpaid social work interns.
At my last placement in grad school for example, there were 0 paid counsellors on staff, and 7 unpaid students that provided the counselling services.
This is just one example of how a policy in the past may have once made sense. But there is no use clinging to this rule if it no longer makes sense in our current climate. I bring up this example not to shame this specific Boomer, but to show a specific case of when an older person’s wisdom and experience may no longer be applicable in our contemporary world.
Navigating these kind of arguments does not have to be about young versus old. This is about humanity. We are a part of the same human race, living on the same globe. We have to share a society, so why not celebrate and value the different perspectives and areas of expertise that we can all bring to this world?
In my social work example above, what is the end goal for everyone? If we focus on what we want to literally happen, do we not have the same goal? Do we not all want to live in a world where social workers are both properly educated and social worker positions are filled in order to meet this crucial need in society? If we are all in agreement on that, and we know that our current strategy has resulted in a deficit of workers in this industry, why would we fixate on the fact that social work interns should not be paid now because they weren’t paid before? What difference does it make if something was different in the past? The past rule was applicable to the past sociocultural context. But future rules must adapt to our current needs, in our current sociocultural context.
Who better to learn about what the world is like now, for young people, than from young people themselves?
We should not see each other as enemies. Instead, we should all see each other as educators, to help us all understand the shifting complexities of life.
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Some Writers and Articles I’ve Been Reading on Substack:
Traditional Publishing vs Self Publishing by Remy Bazerque
Last Dance at the Vampire Ball: West Searches for Answers to Its Demise by Simplicius
Canada’s Addiction to Rising Home Prices by Generation Squeeze and Kareem Kudus
It’s Not Unusual That We’re Being Lied to, It’s Unusual That People are Noticing by Caitlin Johnstone
Is a Refusal to Build Affordable Housing Treason? by Renee Sylvestre-Williams
The Covid Kids Are Graduating by Connie Schultz
I really appreciate your great perspective and attitude, Eleanor. Thanks for posting.