respect your elders that’s what we’ve
all been told right I’ve heard it
throughout my
of life and chances are someone said it
to you at some point as well because
just about every generation of humans
since the beginning of history has held
their elders in high regard valuing age
and the wisdom that comes with it so
respect for our elders is something
that’s become quite deeply ingrained in
our culture but in my three years
working as a youth advocate with various
youth organizations facilitating
discussions between young and old on a
regular basis I’ve seen a reality far
different to the solder – many young
people don’t respect their elders
surprise surprise
but equally a lot of older people
especially those in positions of
authority feel the same way towards
young people so if someone who’s
passionate about helping to give young
people a voice at the table this poses a
real challenge see our society is made
up or can be made up of two large
intergenerational groups divided by the
birth year 1984 now the reason this year
was selected as the sort of center point
as a complex mix of cultural political
and technological factors but the main
one being that those born after 1984
generally grew up in a much more
digitally augmented society than those
born before so let’s do a quick show of
hands raise your hand if you’re born
before 1984 and be honest with me
because this is where I decide what
jokes I’m not going to tell okay so you
guys are mostly going to be Gen Xers and
baby boomers there may be some of that
Silent Generation before baby boomers
with us as well
now raise your hand if you’re born after
1994 okay so you guys are gonna be
Millennials and what we call post
Millennials so post Millennials are
people like me born after 2000 it’s kind
of scary right they’re letting us do Ted
talks now
now we’ve got a pretty even split so
most of my jokes are gone but that’s
alright we’ll move on anyway these two
groups seem increasingly at odds with
one another and I believe that this
compromises our ability to work together
to make a difference see most of us can
agree that when we’re trying to make a
difference we have to be able to work a
core across a wide range of demographics
and find that common ground that allows
incredible things to happen and in most
cases that includes a wide range of Ages
but as young people in a world where the
majority of big decision makers are
older than us it can be difficult to
reach that common ground and equally for
a lot of older people in these positions
it can be hard to bridge that gap with a
the younger generation who seem more fun
than ever now I’ve seen this many times
descend into a kind of intergenerational
mudslinging match which is very much
spurred on by the media with their kind
of sensationalized hyperbole around
people with different generations but
the reason I’m here is that
unfortunately we’re all at risk of
buying into that so let’s got me
thinking what is it about these
generations or is this something about
these generations it makes it so hard
for them to work together was there some
explanation for this phenomenon that I’d
seen occur on so many occasions
firsthand and most importantly how could
we overcome this in order to make a
difference so I started searching for
answers this was a fun part I did as any
self-respecting researcher would and I
started with the New York Post they had
an incredibly interesting and evidently
unbiased article entitled I’m a
millennial and my generation sucks I was
in for a treat what followed was more or
less a template for virtually every
other article about Millennials that
I’ve read since using up every available
word and the anti Generation Y lexicon
some of my favorites were lazy
narcissistic dependent and the crown
jewel entitled
now after a few more weeks of filling my
brain up with the literature of the
crusade against the young I was just
about ready to jump ship and join my
parents generation because what I’ve
learned so far was that Millennials are
the laziest generation in history that
they all live with their parents and
houses stacked to the ceiling with
participation trophies and that the
reason they can’t afford their own
houses is that they spend all of their
money on avvocato on toast I finally
understood why older people don’t like
young people Millennials suck but it was
time to look at the other side what are
these
avocado loving selfie taking snowflakes
have against their hard-working and
long-suffering parents and grandparents
well my first stop was the Huffington
Post who had an insightful piece which
asked the question our boomers a
generation of sociopaths and this is
where I really had to eat my words right
because sure they acknowledge
Millennials might be lazy self-obsessed
and financially illiterate but they
claimed it was the Boomers who taught it
to them these guys racked up debts
started wars burned through resources
created climate change on the side and
then offloaded this whole flaming mess
of a planet to their kids in a hospital
pass of selfishness and difference and
greed whew I finally understood why
young people don’t like older people
boomers suck so at this point I was
thoroughly deflated how can we work
together to make a difference when we
all just suck as much so I decided to
find out where we went wrong to locate
that exact point in history when young
people suddenly stopped respecting their
elders and older people got all grumpy
so I start I went back to 1990 as a
starting point and when I say went back
I don’t mean jumped on a time machine or
though that would have made for a much
more interesting talk sorry I went back
and looked at old magazine and newspaper
articles to try and find the voice of
the time on young people so 1990 what a
Time magazine have to say about
20-somethings back then they crave
entertainment but their attention span
as short as one set of a TV dial now I
didn’t actually know what a TV dial was
or what a zap of one would constitute
but it didn’t sound good I had to go
back further
I tried 1976 to see what some of those
boomers were getting up to when they
were kids the New York Times said quote
the youth of today are too busy
navel-gazing
to care about politics the now
generation has become the me generation
now sure it was proven difficult to find
that time before young people were
selfish and ignorant but I had to push
on
I tried 1968 Life magazine said of young
people quote the phrase making a living
has absolutely no meaning to these
children of the affluent society no
still lazy independent now I was
thinking about giving up at this point
but I decided in one last-ditch effort
to go back to the earliest year I could
possibly think of 1907 quote the rock
upon which most of the flower bird Act
marriage barges go to pieces
there’s a latter-day cult of
individualism the worship of the brazen
calf of the self said the Atlantic of
those young whippersnappers born a few
years before the turn of the century who
were now filing for divorce like there
was no tomorrow to the horror of their
parents now you’ve probably noticed a
theme here and it’s true every
generation of young people has been the
worst generation the laziest generation
the me me me generation even Plato was
moaning about young people in 400 BC so
the problem with young people today is
not a new one and it’s got oh there’s
Plato and it’s got nothing to do with
participation trophies or selfie sticks
or even avocado on toast it’s the same
problem that every generation before
them had their young we know that young
people can be naive and selfish and
spiteful towards their elders are not
very kind to long-standing social norms
but they also compassionate innovative
and
Howard and engaged so for those of you
born before 1984 and I know who you are
now think back to what you were really
like back in the day take a moment to
ignore the apparent lack of interest or
motivation amongst the young and pretty
appreciate us for what we can offer a
first perspective creative ideas and
in-depth understanding of why your
computer’s not working but for those
young people out there who are looking a
little too smug at this point I’ve got a
message for you as well
you still have to respect your elders
respect their wisdom and experience
their constructive feedback and most
importantly their input on what you
probably shouldn’t put on Facebook for
future employers to see and here’s some
interesting food for thought for
everyone in the room every generation in
here whether that over 65s or under 30s
despite their differences have something
big and common and that is a deep-seated
hatred of bureaucracy all of these
generations have demonstrated at some
point in history their preference for
leading with action hands on boots on
the ground rather than via the ballot
box so whilst this missing million might
be a massive problem for the political
establishment it’s an equally huge
opportunity for community groups and
service organizations who have
traditionally struggled to engage with
younger people now of course making a
difference is easier said than done but
what I’m trying to get across is that
dividing ourselves by something as
trivial as age by these arbitrary lines
in the sand drawn up by God knows who
really puts us on the back foot every
distracted glance at a phone screen
during a meeting or condescending not of
the head represents two steps backwards
for each one that we might manage to
take forward so we don’t have a
generational problem we just have
generations
because for as long as humans inhabit
the earth will have rolling of eyes and
reminiscing about the good old days and
spiteful articles in the media trying to
get us at each other’s throats but we’ll
also have discoveries made and lives
saved and bridges built and sorry
missing million I’ve misspelled the
slide and unlikely collaborations
between Paul McCartney and Lady gaga
these are all things that involve young
people and older people working together
and there are also the things that
really make a difference so the next
time you find yourself tearing your hair
out over a younger co-workers apparent
inability to perform very basic tasks or
you see an older person using their
phone like this before you write an
angry blogpost about it or a letter to
the editor or depending on what
generation you’re from take a moment to
step back forget your age for a moment
maybe even remind yourself of something
good that the other person’s generation
has done for you thanks and then just
quietly remind yourself that every
generation sucks thank you
all been told right I’ve heard it
throughout my
of life and chances are someone said it
to you at some point as well because
just about every generation of humans
since the beginning of history has held
their elders in high regard valuing age
and the wisdom that comes with it so
respect for our elders is something
that’s become quite deeply ingrained in
our culture but in my three years
working as a youth advocate with various
youth organizations facilitating
discussions between young and old on a
regular basis I’ve seen a reality far
different to the solder – many young
people don’t respect their elders
surprise surprise
but equally a lot of older people
especially those in positions of
authority feel the same way towards
young people so if someone who’s
passionate about helping to give young
people a voice at the table this poses a
real challenge see our society is made
up or can be made up of two large
intergenerational groups divided by the
birth year 1984 now the reason this year
was selected as the sort of center point
as a complex mix of cultural political
and technological factors but the main
one being that those born after 1984
generally grew up in a much more
digitally augmented society than those
born before so let’s do a quick show of
hands raise your hand if you’re born
before 1984 and be honest with me
because this is where I decide what
jokes I’m not going to tell okay so you
guys are mostly going to be Gen Xers and
baby boomers there may be some of that
Silent Generation before baby boomers
with us as well
now raise your hand if you’re born after
1994 okay so you guys are gonna be
Millennials and what we call post
Millennials so post Millennials are
people like me born after 2000 it’s kind
of scary right they’re letting us do Ted
talks now
now we’ve got a pretty even split so
most of my jokes are gone but that’s
alright we’ll move on anyway these two
groups seem increasingly at odds with
one another and I believe that this
compromises our ability to work together
to make a difference see most of us can
agree that when we’re trying to make a
difference we have to be able to work a
core across a wide range of demographics
and find that common ground that allows
incredible things to happen and in most
cases that includes a wide range of Ages
but as young people in a world where the
majority of big decision makers are
older than us it can be difficult to
reach that common ground and equally for
a lot of older people in these positions
it can be hard to bridge that gap with a
the younger generation who seem more fun
than ever now I’ve seen this many times
descend into a kind of intergenerational
mudslinging match which is very much
spurred on by the media with their kind
of sensationalized hyperbole around
people with different generations but
the reason I’m here is that
unfortunately we’re all at risk of
buying into that so let’s got me
thinking what is it about these
generations or is this something about
these generations it makes it so hard
for them to work together was there some
explanation for this phenomenon that I’d
seen occur on so many occasions
firsthand and most importantly how could
we overcome this in order to make a
difference so I started searching for
answers this was a fun part I did as any
self-respecting researcher would and I
started with the New York Post they had
an incredibly interesting and evidently
unbiased article entitled I’m a
millennial and my generation sucks I was
in for a treat what followed was more or
less a template for virtually every
other article about Millennials that
I’ve read since using up every available
word and the anti Generation Y lexicon
some of my favorites were lazy
narcissistic dependent and the crown
jewel entitled
now after a few more weeks of filling my
brain up with the literature of the
crusade against the young I was just
about ready to jump ship and join my
parents generation because what I’ve
learned so far was that Millennials are
the laziest generation in history that
they all live with their parents and
houses stacked to the ceiling with
participation trophies and that the
reason they can’t afford their own
houses is that they spend all of their
money on avvocato on toast I finally
understood why older people don’t like
young people Millennials suck but it was
time to look at the other side what are
these
avocado loving selfie taking snowflakes
have against their hard-working and
long-suffering parents and grandparents
well my first stop was the Huffington
Post who had an insightful piece which
asked the question our boomers a
generation of sociopaths and this is
where I really had to eat my words right
because sure they acknowledge
Millennials might be lazy self-obsessed
and financially illiterate but they
claimed it was the Boomers who taught it
to them these guys racked up debts
started wars burned through resources
created climate change on the side and
then offloaded this whole flaming mess
of a planet to their kids in a hospital
pass of selfishness and difference and
greed whew I finally understood why
young people don’t like older people
boomers suck so at this point I was
thoroughly deflated how can we work
together to make a difference when we
all just suck as much so I decided to
find out where we went wrong to locate
that exact point in history when young
people suddenly stopped respecting their
elders and older people got all grumpy
so I start I went back to 1990 as a
starting point and when I say went back
I don’t mean jumped on a time machine or
though that would have made for a much
more interesting talk sorry I went back
and looked at old magazine and newspaper
articles to try and find the voice of
the time on young people so 1990 what a
Time magazine have to say about
20-somethings back then they crave
entertainment but their attention span
as short as one set of a TV dial now I
didn’t actually know what a TV dial was
or what a zap of one would constitute
but it didn’t sound good I had to go
back further
I tried 1976 to see what some of those
boomers were getting up to when they
were kids the New York Times said quote
the youth of today are too busy
navel-gazing
to care about politics the now
generation has become the me generation
now sure it was proven difficult to find
that time before young people were
selfish and ignorant but I had to push
on
I tried 1968 Life magazine said of young
people quote the phrase making a living
has absolutely no meaning to these
children of the affluent society no
still lazy independent now I was
thinking about giving up at this point
but I decided in one last-ditch effort
to go back to the earliest year I could
possibly think of 1907 quote the rock
upon which most of the flower bird Act
marriage barges go to pieces
there’s a latter-day cult of
individualism the worship of the brazen
calf of the self said the Atlantic of
those young whippersnappers born a few
years before the turn of the century who
were now filing for divorce like there
was no tomorrow to the horror of their
parents now you’ve probably noticed a
theme here and it’s true every
generation of young people has been the
worst generation the laziest generation
the me me me generation even Plato was
moaning about young people in 400 BC so
the problem with young people today is
not a new one and it’s got oh there’s
Plato and it’s got nothing to do with
participation trophies or selfie sticks
or even avocado on toast it’s the same
problem that every generation before
them had their young we know that young
people can be naive and selfish and
spiteful towards their elders are not
very kind to long-standing social norms
but they also compassionate innovative
and
Howard and engaged so for those of you
born before 1984 and I know who you are
now think back to what you were really
like back in the day take a moment to
ignore the apparent lack of interest or
motivation amongst the young and pretty
appreciate us for what we can offer a
first perspective creative ideas and
in-depth understanding of why your
computer’s not working but for those
young people out there who are looking a
little too smug at this point I’ve got a
message for you as well
you still have to respect your elders
respect their wisdom and experience
their constructive feedback and most
importantly their input on what you
probably shouldn’t put on Facebook for
future employers to see and here’s some
interesting food for thought for
everyone in the room every generation in
here whether that over 65s or under 30s
despite their differences have something
big and common and that is a deep-seated
hatred of bureaucracy all of these
generations have demonstrated at some
point in history their preference for
leading with action hands on boots on
the ground rather than via the ballot
box so whilst this missing million might
be a massive problem for the political
establishment it’s an equally huge
opportunity for community groups and
service organizations who have
traditionally struggled to engage with
younger people now of course making a
difference is easier said than done but
what I’m trying to get across is that
dividing ourselves by something as
trivial as age by these arbitrary lines
in the sand drawn up by God knows who
really puts us on the back foot every
distracted glance at a phone screen
during a meeting or condescending not of
the head represents two steps backwards
for each one that we might manage to
take forward so we don’t have a
generational problem we just have
generations
because for as long as humans inhabit
the earth will have rolling of eyes and
reminiscing about the good old days and
spiteful articles in the media trying to
get us at each other’s throats but we’ll
also have discoveries made and lives
saved and bridges built and sorry
missing million I’ve misspelled the
slide and unlikely collaborations
between Paul McCartney and Lady gaga
these are all things that involve young
people and older people working together
and there are also the things that
really make a difference so the next
time you find yourself tearing your hair
out over a younger co-workers apparent
inability to perform very basic tasks or
you see an older person using their
phone like this before you write an
angry blogpost about it or a letter to
the editor or depending on what
generation you’re from take a moment to
step back forget your age for a moment
maybe even remind yourself of something
good that the other person’s generation
has done for you thanks and then just
quietly remind yourself that every
generation sucks thank you
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