Learning From the Youth
It is a phrase that has become engrained into the minds of most; “Respect your elders,” our parents always say.
Following the guidance and love of your elders is a very beneficial thing, and there certainly is a lot to learn from the extensive pasts of those who have been on this Earth longer than us.
However, the younger generations need to be show just as much respect as the older, for as we have been living in a world quite different than those of our elders. And if they’d care to listen, we could teach them a few tricks of our own.
Generations that have grown up intertwined with the advancements of technology (particularly the internet) are often frowned upon by older generations. Most parents and grandparents start out a speech with “back in my day” when they are going to scold us for being too engaged in our smart phones, laptops, and televisions. They close with all of the “more beneficial” things we could be doing with our time, such as working, playing a sport, or doing homework. Little do they know whilst being on a laptop we are, in fact, typing up a paper for class or work. While playing Madden (football) on the Xbox 360, the quarterback of the football team could be memorizing plays he sets in motion with his animated players that help him understand the game much better when seeing it from a bird’s eye view. Someone with great artistic ability could be using computer software to construct virtual buildings and towns. Buildings that very well may be your home or place of business one day.
Technology seems like a shortcut to those who weren’t fortunate enough to have it all their lives.
Apart from the recreational technology, we as a generation have made great strides in the medical world. From stem cell research, to the first HPV vaccinations in 2006, to a human kidney being grown in vitro for the first time in 2013. Often times older generations argue we “aren’t getting anything done,” when really we are making some of the most significant medical advancements the world has ever seen. The average life expectancy in the United States has never been higher, thanks to our modern medicine and those working hard to obtain and administer it.
Millennials (people born after 2000) and Generation Y-ers (people born between 1980 and 1999) have also made copious strides towards civil and human rights issues. Bilingual voting ballots were made available in 1999. Our ancestors before us widely accepted America as being an English-only nation.Gay marriage was legalized nationwide in 2015. When being part of the LGBT community was looked down upon, and hardly even discussed about by generations before us.
Parents and grandparents are living in a giant world of authority fallacy. They are under the impression that they are always right and have the most knowledge simply because they have been alive longer. They try to discredit our technology and undermine our new found personal rights only because that’s “not how they were raised.”
