Wow...THIS younger generation is more 'interesting' than most...

[PCIntern]

Over the years here I've communicated some interesting (at least I think they are) conversations with patients since I am fortunate enough to come into contact with all types of people who emanate from virtually all socio-economic groups. Over the last fifteen years or so, I've changed my mind about a few things, the most significant of which is that quite frankly, the young males in my practice have some strange thoughts and considerations with which I haven't had to deal over the years. By and large, the females are consistent: appropriate, assertive, well-put-together, career and family--minded, and more or less in tune with what's going on in the world and what has happened prior to their existences, or at least have a semblance of an idea of same...or at the very least, a knowledge that their generation didn't invent the Wheel, although they are tech-ed out, they realize that there's a foundation upon which all this other stuff has been built.

But to return, I seem to have an occasional pretty odd conversation with a young male patient which often leads me to scratch my head figuratively, and wonder, "WTF????"

Yesterday a young gentleman, aged 24, arrived for his first appointment ever in my office. A congenial fellow, we talked a bit, and among other things I ascertained that he had attended and graduated Penn State University. He remarked to me, unsolicited, that "Joe Paterno should have left there a few years ago." I assented and of course, amplified it a bit, given the nature of what-all's going on over there and he said something I found remarkable:

"Yeah, it's not like an older guy like him would know that men would do it with men or with kids and stuff."

I just stopped dead.

I pulled up a chair and said to him, "I'm going to tell you this so you can never say that no one ever told you: your generation did not invent boozing, illicit drugs, or sex. There is NOTHING and I mean NOTHING in this pantheon that has not been going on for thousands of years." I can quote that because I've said it about nine million times to people about various things over 35 years of practice. He laughed, albeit a bit nervously, since he really didn't know me (now he does), and said, (honest to God) "But he's old." And so I told him the story of when my 82 year old mother went with her friends to see the film Boogie Nights and the two young couples in front of them kept turning around to see how the old ladies were doing. At the end of the film, my mother - even more outspoken than I - said to them that there was nothing in the film that she hadn't seen or done in her day. She said that all the color drained out of the kids' faces.

My patient left, appreciative of the history lesson. I know this because he said so and meant it. I think these kids are so connected to the Internet and so busy texting that they have little knowledge of societal history and of what has made people tick for the last eighty thousand years...or more.

[kentuck]

1. These are the successors to the Baby Boomers?

Scary.

[antigone382]

31. I don't really see what's scary about what the kid said.

He assumed that people from older generations lived in a simpler time where evil things like pedophilia did not exist. Of course we all know that isn't true, but I have seen lots of similar statements on this very board from older people, who see their younger days through a more nostalgic lens.

Yes, his uninformed idea, that older people are more naive or "pure" than younger people, is quite naive in and of itself, but I don't think it's inherently disrespectful. For that matter, I don't think it's inherently new. I think the younger generation has almost always thought that they know more about "what's up" whether the topic is sex, music, partying, or how to sneak out in the middle of the night, than their old "fuddy duddy" parents--to which those parents just roll their eyes.

[Aristus]

32. That reminds me of my late grandmother.

An ultra-ultra-conservative Southern Baptist (who was pro-choice, oddly enough). One time, she was getting ready to snap a family portrait of us.

She said: "Okay, everybody: say 'SEX'!" The horrifed laughter on our faces caught on camera served as smiles. I could scarcely believe she even knew the word.

The older generation was not quite as prim as we have been led to believe...

[antigone382]

34. Haha, I think we had the same grandmother!

(although I don't know that mine was pro-choice)

Sang in the church choir, joked with my mom (her daughter-in-law) about washing out certain "stains" on the sheets. Southern Baptist to the core. Famous for commenting at the birth of my older brother "well, he's hung like his grandaddy!"

She was a woman who managed to raise six kids and put herself through nursing school; she had some very good and very bad qualities, and I don't think I could ever agree with her politics, but she was one of those old school Southern matriarch who you just have to look at as a legend.

[dixiegrrrrl]

46. No...they are the grandchildren of the us Baby Boomers.

Their parents are the successors to the Boomers....
24 is about the age of my grandchildren.

[shanti]

50. not necessarily

my sons range in age from 22-35 and i'm a solid boomer.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. I don't think that young people today have enough contact

with older people. I spent a great deal of time around my grandparents when I was growing up and we talked about all kinds of things. I was more comfortable talking to them than with my parents and many of my friends. While they weren't always up on the latest fads, I certainly didn't think that they were ignorant by any means. Talking to older people gave me some perspective about the things that I was going through. IMO, age groups are much too segregated from one another nowadays.

[treestar]

7. They might have more though

Grandparents these days have fewer grandchildren. Parents have fewer children. I was one of at least 10 grandchildren on each side. The younger generation - fewer kids and so the grandparents know their grandchildren better.

[LuvNewcastle]

14. That's true, but I'm really talking about

the amount of social interaction. These days old people move off to Florida or go into managed care facilities and the kids spend a lot of time with the various technologies. Of course, I spent a lot of my formative years in the rural South, where it wasn't unusual for three or more generations of a family to live near each other or even on the same property. People are much more mobile nowadays; it's common for a child to be several states away from one their parents. I guess I'm just saying that people are more physically separated now and the kids and their elders are not getting the chance to learn from one another as much as they used to. It seems that people are lacking a sense of history.

[treestar]

16. You have a point

I was going on my personal anecdotal evidence, where the grandkids get taken to museums and plays and games by their grandparents, and mine never would have done that for me because it would have look like favoritism to the other 20 grandchildren!

They happen to live locally and the grandparents/parents/grandkids live in the same city. But others live a few hours drive away - even so grandparents drive to see them and spend time with the kids there. So they are all lucky I guess.

[LuvNewcastle]

20. You're grandkids are very fortunate.

I hope you have some idea how much you are contributing to the enrichment of their lives.

[arikara]

15. You're right

I would tell Gramma things I could never say to my parents. Not that she ever let me get away with anything... but she was so cool, she smoked and could tip a beer back and pour it down her throat without even swallowing. I had no illusions that Gramma was an innocent just because she was old.

[LuvNewcastle]

21. My grandma was great, too.

My fondest childhood memories are of times I spent with her. I wouldn't trade anything for that experience.

[shanti]

51. mine too

maternal grandmother, not paternal (who lived two states away). i remember one magical year with her when i was going into the 6th grade. we hadn't been close before due to lack of proximity (dad was military). finally, dad retired and we were back "home", living several doors down the street from my grandparents. i was able to go to their house after school, and we would play hearts, crossword puzzles, learn a new word from the dictionary, and she taught me how to knit and crochet. the parents bought a house across town later that year, but i will never ever forget that time i spent with my grandmother - it was precious!

[trumad]

3. No---

Simply put---that young Man was a Moran.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Why is he a "moran"?

Every generation has thought this way. "But he's old" just means that "My grandparents wouldn't dream about something like that, and he's the same age as they are, so by extension he wouldn't either".

Heck, I thought like that when I was in my 20s.

[AlbertCat]

19. Every generation has thought this way.

Thank you!

It has more to do with the amount... or lack of... experience a 20-something has had in their life than anything else.

Except maybe brain development. I read somewhere that your frontal lobes are not fully developed until your late teens/early 20's.

[libtodeath]

5. Great job

helping the guy see the world better as it is!

[seabeyond]

6. the young always think they are the first to do....

they always think the old are clueless. that is their job. and the older persons job to set them straight

[JFN1]

8. Kids today really do not have to know anything - they just have to know

how to look for it.

They have (as do we) pretty much the width and breadth of human knowledge at their fingertips, anytime, anywhere.

Consider what that means: an entire generation growing up with instant access to any information they can dream up, or need to have.

While this is terribly convenient, I fear it is robbing this generation, as it will the next, of the ability to effectively learn and to critically think without being connected to all of those facts. And I believe this might also encourage belief in "Internet facts," and scepticism in facts offered by their flesh and blood fellow humans.

[shcrane71]

25. Do you have a link for that? Just kidding. You're right.

If information isn't in digital form, it's somehow less valid to many people. By many, I mean younger people.

[Posteritatis]

29. I see plenty of people in DU's age groups dismiss everything that doesn't come with a URL, too. nt

[treestar]

9. I can kind of understand it

At that age I would have said that people always get married before they have sex and that couples never lived together. The older people I knew all had followed those rules as far as I could see. And the members of that generation were horrified that there were people breaking those rules now (in the early and mid 70s) and warned me against it.

Pregnancy out of wedlock was not accepted as it is now and birth control would have been less available. So things have changed.

[unreadierLizard]

10. I'd unrec this for baseless attacks on the young

"young people are clueless, is this the future, scary"

but I just don't care anymore.

[handmade34]

17. you, my dear

are the clueless one and it is very unfortunate that you do not care anymore...

[PCIntern]

23. ...and I didn't say that.

You mischaracterized the post. DU rules prevent me from saying anything further.

[antigone382]

33. I'm pretty sensitive to attacks on the young, but this post didn't particularly bother me.

I don't think PCIntern sees the young as a disappointing wasteland, s/he has just observed some erroneous ideas and has personally tried to correct those ideas. I don't have a problem with older people playing the role of informing and educating younger people (in a non-patronizing way). Why would it be any other way? What I have a problem with is older people defining us as lazy, amoral, sheeplike, etc., or acting as if we have no unique struggles to complain about; particularly when most of the social research studying the younger generation reveals at least as many good qualities as it does bad ones. Speaking statistically, this is a generation that is actually much closer and more respectful of its elders than previous generations, that tends to want to do something productive for society, and that is less materialistic, in terms of wanting the big house, the big car, etc.

If everyone just treated everyone like human beings with unique experiences who deserved respect, regardless of their demographic characteristics, we'd all do just fine.

[Zalatix]

37. I would unrec this, too.

[PCIntern]

39. You just did!

Many thanks!!

PC

[Zalatix]

40. Uh, I'm not unreccing unreadierLizard, but rather the OP.

It's a baseless attack on the youths of today. We don't need that kind of divisiveness.

[PCIntern]

41. Yes I know...

Many thanks for VALIDATING MY OPINION by unreccing it.

[Zalatix]

42. LOL keep telling yourself that.

Every other generation before you has said that, and all it does is serve to divide people.

[PCIntern]

44. elegaic response...

fact of the matter is that I'm correct: generationally, this particular group due to their disassociation from live contact with older generations, has been isolated in a manner in which has been heretofore unseen. Sorry.

As far as telling myself that, perhaps after nearly sixty years of observation including 35 years of dental practice involving literally tens of thousands of individuals over the years, I should just throw it all away and listen to you.

[Zalatix]

45. Uh huh, just like other generations.

[HiPointDem]

43. after 88 posts, you just don't care anymore? ok.

[Fumesucker]

49. Good snark..

[bloomington-lib]

11. Most young people here have gone through their life being around adults that are trying to act more

"appropriate" than they really are.

If the teachers, parents, grandparents, talked about the blowjobs they've had or the bud they've smoked, kids would have a very different impression of the previous generation.

They've been told for the first 20 years of their life to not smoke, have sex, try drugs, drive over the speed limit, etc. You can't be surprised if they assume that's the way most adults live their lives and don't understand what they do or see.

Ask a child soldier in Africa if he thinks adults are saints.

[grilled onions]

12. If Past Generations Were So Totally Innocent Of Sin Etc

then none of us would be here! If todays generations would notice that many of the classics in the library contain many four letter words and indecent situations. That is not a new thing. Neither were the bordellos of the old west or the activities during, say the Roman Empire. If they would study more of our past they would realize the generation gap is not that wide after all.
While many kids today think that their parents or grand parents may not understand about oral sex,contraception,illegal drugs perhaps they should wonder why they had VD many many years ago or bootleg whiskey when the country was dry or why the object called a coat hanger symbolized something much darker then something to hang your coat. It's just that past generations were not as open about many subjects and society in general felt women who enjoyed sex were only the "business" women. It was also a time when many thought women who were pregnant should stay hidden until they gave birth. It was a tough time especially if you were female because even certain questions were answered with a hostile look and little else. It was always hard to imagine your parents having sex since you always thought they were too "square" to do such things but there were not then nor now enough "storks" to deliver all those babies!

[Zalatix]

38. Ding! +100!

[The Doctor.]

13. All young people think that way.

Every new generation thinks it's the first to discover debauchery because the last generation didn't introduce it to them personally.

So because none of their seniors... their parents, aunts, uncles, teachers, no one from the older generation exposed them to anything of the sort, they could only imagine that the debauchery they 'discovered' came from their own generation.

Of course when people of the older generation took exception to the form the culture took, that appeared to be a reinforcement of this notion.

[surrealAmerican]

22. Exactly.

Add to that the sorts of actions that "just weren't talked about" (or written about in a straightforward manner) a generation ago, and it's no wonder a young adult could think this way. Once this young man gets a bit more exposure to the society at large, he will know better.

[hootinholler]

18. As it ever was

There have also been kids like that for thousands of years. Nice clue in though.

[Posteritatis]

30. The older generation's outrage at Kids These Days has always been there too

There were people centuries before Socrates whining about much the same things people on this site will. People always think we're doomed - doomed, I say! - thanks to the inherent failings of the next generation, and they always think "but it actually is true this time!" when that's pointed out, and yet life goes on.

[PCIntern]

24. Thank your for all the thoughtful responses...

but I have to tell you, that the things people say to me now, were not generally said when I was young nor for my first, say, 20 years in practice. As I stated, over the last 15 or so, I hear weird stuff mostly from the guys. Just remarking, that's all....I'm not indicting a gender of young people.

[shcrane71]

26. Try being a 20 year-old, heterosexual female dating (or trying to) within her age range.

I don't fall into that demographic, but I have several friends who do. These are bright, educated, beautiful women. They don't want to spend all their free time going to male sporting events, and they're liberal. In the Midwest, they have a horrible time trying to find males that they want to hang out with let alone date.

One friend is dating a someone 14 years older because he's got a job, and is fairly liberal, although she's had to succumb to going to sporting events every weekend. Another friend moved her job-challenged boyfriend from his parent's basement to her house. He's a somewhat affable guy (I think he pouts and whines too much), but he hates sports, and she likes his dimples.

[malaise]

27. Profound

They swear they are original

[lumberjack_jeff]

28. It's not just texting and internet.

They are also detached and alienated from fathers, uncles and other role models like teachers. For all they know theirs is the first generation of males, and have invented their shared pool of knowledge with the help of the TV and youtube.

[Archae]

35. My "Gramma" was a flapper.

During the 1920's, my Mom's mother was a "flapper."

Yet she married a quite conservative guy and raised her kids to be old-style "virgins until marriage" and stuff.
Go figure.

[PCIntern]

36. So was my Mom of blessed memory...

my (much) older cousins told me some stories after she had passed away. Wowie Maui.

[AJTheMan]

47. Every generation thinks the next in line is more stupid. n/t

[fishwax]

48. sounds like, well, pretty much every other generation

I pulled up a chair and said to him, "I'm going to tell you this so you can never say that no one ever told you: your generation did not invent boozing, illicit drugs, or sex. There is NOTHING and I mean NOTHING in this pantheon that has not been going on for thousands of years."

Another thing they didn't invent: thinking the adults who came before them were out-of-touch, more innocent than they actually were, etc.