A group of colleagues were talking about resiliency across generations, as there was an age gap of almost twenty years between us, and even the youngest said that he believes his generation and younger, are soft. I don' think it is their fault however, as they have been conditioned to be this way through the way they have been raised and the culture that has been provided them to build upon.
Everything is on demand, everything is pre-chewed, and they have been told that their feelings are the most important thing in the world. It is no wonder that when they come across any kinds of resistance, they fell it harder than the generations who came before them.
But, I was wondering if there is also a physical component to it also, since children today are also far less physically active than they were earlier. Not only this, when they are active, everything has been nerfed for them, so they don't hurt themselves as much, cut themselves less, feel less pain. This means less tears, but it also means not having to improve technique to not get hurt, or use a little more thought as to what is dangerous or not. This has to have an impact on their future selves.
And, I think it does, because they go through early life relatively safely, with very little physical or psychological resistance, having their emotional state supercharged as the most important part of them, only to meet resistance later in life. They go into a workplace and get "bullied" by a boss who tells them to do their job, and they react emotionally, but it gets translated as if physical pain more easily, because their bodies haven't gone through the process of feeling and healing.
If one of the senses is out of whack on not judging experience appropriately, it means that the others will struggle to agree on what is happening and what is the best course of action. This is kind of what is happening when we let our emotions dictate our behavior, because it overpowers the senses, and makes us react, even if it isn't doing a very good job of evaluating inputs or the validity of the reaction.
The younger generations are far less physical than my generation, and they shift from playing outside onto gaming consoles at a very young age. This impacts their bodies directly, but there is also a change in diets, with much more sugar, which also affect hormone levels. This likely affects their moods also, right?
We are what we eat.
And perhaps, whatever the younger generations are eating nutritionally and culturally, has led them down a road where they are struggling emotionally more. They are less resilient, getting affected by lower-level events, but reacting with more volatility. This is driven even harder by their identification with minutiae to separate themselves out from others, or group themselves with a minority - because being a part of a minority gives victim status, no matter whether the differentiation matters or not.
Something to think about at least.
Of course, not everyone in that age group is the same, but when talking about large groups of people, averages matter. There are exceptions, but if we are going to look at making a difference in society, or even in our own personal lives, we have to acknowledge that on average and across most facets of our lives, we are unexceptional.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
