I was reading an article yesterday about how "Gen-Z" (these generational labels should all have sarcasm marks) believe that after work drinks no longer happen. It stood out, because an hour earlier, we had arranged with colleagues for afterwork drinks on Friday. One of the perks of having the office in the city, being in the office, and working with people you actually like.
Perhaps the younger generation is correct though, because they are the ones who not only think that they shouldn't be at the office, but also tend to use people and then get rid of them when not momentarily useful. Most also have very little will to commit to anything, let alone their employer, so they are often skipping from company to company for a bit more money. If the have a "culture" as a generation, perhaps it should be,
Disposable.
I get the feeling that there isn't really much of a culture at all, other than a near complete focus on the self. They talk about mental health and "self-care", but this doesn't seem to be about developing mental strength and fortitude, but rather about limiting exposure to difficulty. The label of "toxic" is applied to anything that they disagree with, anything that makes them uncomfortable, anything that indicates that they are wrong - anything that suggests they work, that they input energy into something other than themselves. As far as a community is concerned,
That is a toxic culture.
I wonder if the people who think that socializing with colleagues after work is dead, just killed it for themselves, making it a shadow world they no longer have access to. Perhaps they believe it is dead because their self-centeredness has led to them just not getting invited.
"Even if they asked, I wouldn't go anyway"
But they aren't asking.
I like hanging out with at least most of my colleagues, as they tend to be interesting people, with a wide range of life experiences. At least in the older set. The younger of course are more of a mixed bag, with many of them not having a huge amount of life experience under their belt yet, and perhaps, they never will. It isn't that they haven't travelled, nor that they aren't intelligent, but their experience is largely consumptive, rather than interactive. They consume, not participate.
i get the sense that when I was young, there was more cross-generational interaction, where people would spend more time with parents, grandparents and extended family. Perhaps because of this, there was less siloing, or maybe more understanding across generations, where people knew more about others. Now, it seems that with less overlap, it is more assumption based, which creates the perfect environment for social media and the likes of the article I mentioned above to create divisions. It is much like a lot of the political or religious discourse - arguing against the other, knowing nothing of the other.
Looking at the picture above, another article I read a week or so back was talking about the anxiety younger generations if they have to speak on the phone directly. Apparently, they have a fear of failure because they have no tool to rely on, and they are expected to answer immediately. No Google support, no edits, immediate feedback.
Digital natives - Social fraudsters.
I feel that in time, some of them may recognize that the path they have been conditioned to follow, doesn't lead them to some promised land of relevance, but the opposite. They are heading toward isolation, solitude, insignificance. They hey love themselves as they are, they want to be part of changing the world, but they can't even face the day in front of them without being triggered into tears, every time they feel the excruciating pain, of not having their expectations met.
I could be wrong.
They might make this world the best place it has ever been, solve all the problems caused by all the generations that have come before them, and make society a rich garden of opportunity for all.
What do you think?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
