Help support the Mego Museum
Help support the Mego Museum

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Are we the unloved/forgotten generation?

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • EmergencyIan
    Museum Paramedic
    • Aug 31, 2005
    • 5470

    #16
    My wife works for HBO. Her problem with most all of the Millenials there, even when she likes them, is that they all expect to be, at least, mid-level management within two years. When that doesn’t happen for them, they get angry, feel slighted and leave as soon as they can find a new job. They feel the company isn’t being fair to them. It took my wife, and everyone else, years to reach, at least, that level. On top of that, as we know, most workers are not management material. Not everyone can be in charge and run the company. Millenials don’t seem to grasp that. Maybe it’s the whole “everyone’s a winner ... everyone gets a trophy” thing coming home to roost.

    - Ian
    Rampart, this is Squad 51. How do you read?

    Comment

    • johnnystorm
      Hot Child in the City
      • Jul 3, 2008
      • 4293

      #17
      /\
      Oh, agreed. I think 99.9% of the crap you see as news seems to center on how "unfair" someone feels their situation is, and how "unfair" it is that they haven't been lifted out by everyone else. I'd be willing to bet at least half of us on this site were bullied in some way, that our parents weren't highly paid executives, and that more than once mom & dad said no.
      Now you get bullied or called names, post it on youtube and Wolverine will come kiss your booboo.
      Don't earn enough to buy a new car? Show the world your sorry plight on GoFundMe!
      Don't get me wrong, in some situations these are helpful and even worthwhile solutions. But not in every case.

      Btw, I think iit's extremely unfair that I don't have any mint condition boxed vintage Megos, and so I'll be setting up a gofundme to enable all of you to donate to help remedy this very unfortunate situation I find myaelf in, THROUGH NO FAULT OF MY OWN!!

      Comment

      • palitoy
        live. laugh. lisa needs braces
        • Jun 16, 2001
        • 59204

        #18
        My wife works in a school where half the teachers are under 30. She doesn't think they're a problem to work with but does notice some little differences like that many want praise for doing their job. They'll say stuff "Look my attendance is on time" and she'll respond "It's supposed to be".

        However, she does also praise how health conscious and environmentally concerned they are.

        We as a society tend to see and retain the negative much easier and paint a generation with a very broad brush. I hear things about modern teenagers like they're all lazy morons, yet I am surrounded by abundantly clever, well raised ones constantly.

        I have a hard time blaming the young for the negatives as well, I think a lot of it is just the parenting model at the time, it was very hands on. While some of the teachers are married or live on their own, she suspects that half still live with their parents and all their meals still made by Mum. These people have jobs that start at 80k and their parents sometimes come with lunchs for them.

        My neighbors have two unemployed twenty-something sons, it's "Step Brothers" over there. Dude was hitting the bong in the front yard this morning at 8am. My parents would have never tolerated this and my kids better not test it but these folks seem completely fine with their full nest.
        Places to find PlaidStallions online: https://linktr.ee/Plaidstallions

        Buy Toy-Ventures Magazine here:
        http://www.plaidstallions.com/reboot/shop

        Comment

        • Makernaut
          Persistent Member
          • Jul 22, 2015
          • 1546

          #19
          Originally posted by Hedji
          Great observation. I'd wager quite a few Gen Xers have tech skillsets that are far beyond many Millennials. I think we tend to be more comfortable with desktop computing versus devices. When I was being groomed as a preservice teacher, we were warned that the "Digital Natives" would run circles around us. Yeah, that hasn't happened, in my experience. In my job I see about 50 new kids come through my educational technology facility, and I'm not impressed. Very few of them can navigate a simple operating system. Some of them tap the monitors instinctively, rather than using the mouse. I have yet to meet a young person who truly utilizes the computing power of their phones to create their own audio, artwork, or movies. After growing up with tape recorders, Super8 Cameras, and giant Camcorders, I would've killed for the potential in a smartphone to make my own visual or auditory stories.
          It sounds like we have similar work backgrounds and I bet you and I could talk about this with each other for weeks on end.

          I finished my time "working for the man" in State Career Tech. I taught classes intermittently throughout my whole career, but I was primarily tasked with maintaining and installing systems and equipment. Out of necessity, I learned to write training materials when I was in the Navy because with the advent of PC technology and miniaturized system components in the early 90s, changes and innovations made learning materials obsolete before they could be disseminated so we had to make our own. That ultimately led me into instructional design which was perfect for me because it is an area of expertise that is still evolving and being defined. I am very used to being in the territory without a map (not unique in that as a Gen Xer). This is possible for me/us because I/we can see something "new" and decide very quickly how to relate it to something I've/we've seen before because in reality, none of it is truly "new"....it's just reimagined, repurposed, simplified, integrated into something else, or given a new interface. It may be smaller, faster, open sourced, etc., but nothing is truly "new". The internet? We were on usenet and dial-up. We got that this was a better version of "fanzines" and newsletters. We can find information better because we wrestled with boolean search before algorithms got us to where we are now. We were around before Web 2.0. We know NOT to trust Wikipedia implicitly as a source....you need to look deeper than that. We understand the concept of plagiarism because we avoided it in the days before it could be so easily proven. I could go on and on about what the "natives" don't get.

          Gen Xers get that about things. AND we also get how problematic the interconnectivity that has evolved can be when it comes to privacy. I could see that coming in the mid-90s (couldn't imagine the multiplier of social media platforms, though) and I know I am not unique in that. Most Boomers can't conceptualize this and Millennials, the "Digital Natives", are so used to it (and immersed in it) they can't see the forrest for trees. And you can see this daily in the news when the social media scandal of the day hits and we wonder how they can be so stupid as to not get the concept of "those aren't pictures....they're evidence!"

          So here's to Gen X! Still the only generation that can set a clock on a VCR!

          Comment

          • Werewolf
            Inhuman
            • Jul 14, 2003
            • 14616

            #20
            Originally posted by Makernaut

            So here's to Gen X! Still the only generation that can set a clock on a VCR!
            Preach it.

            I just got to roll my eyes at the idea Gen X doesn't get tech like Millennials. Not only did we bloody well grow up with it, we also have the understanding (and patience ) of growing up with typing out lines of commands to get a program to run and waiting for downloads on dial up. Getting a program to run wasn't easy as just tapping an icon on touch screen.
            You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return...

            Comment

            • enyawd72
              Maker of Monsters!
              • Oct 1, 2009
              • 7904

              #21
              The way I see it is this....technology is a TOOL, and that's all it should ever be. It should make things easier to do, but you should still be able to manage without it. The problem with today's generation is they rely completely on the tool, and never develop the ability to function without it.

              When you can no longer tell time without a digital clock....do math without a calculator...spell without auto-correct...or even write well enough to sign your own name, THAT'S a problem.

              Comment

              • Nostalgiabuff
                Muddling through
                • Oct 4, 2008
                • 11290

                #22
                ^^ very true. unfortunately, many things are starting to be phased out of school teaching, such as being able to write in cursive. it's a scary thought if you think about the possibility of a massive power grid shutdown, similar to what happened to the east coast of USA a number of years ago

                Comment

                • Makernaut
                  Persistent Member
                  • Jul 22, 2015
                  • 1546

                  #23
                  Originally posted by Werewolf
                  Preach it.

                  I just got to roll my eyes at the idea Gen X doesn't get tech like Millennials. Not only did we bloody well grow up with it, we also have the understanding (and patience ) of growing up with typing out lines of commands to get a program to run and waiting for downloads on dial up. Getting a program to run wasn't easy as just tapping an icon on touch screen.
                  Indeed! My main generational beef is with what I perceive as the Boomers underestimating Gen X and being enamored with the abilities of Millennials. I find it baffling. However, it does serve to make me NOT want to do the same thing by underestimating or writing off the Millennials.
                  Last edited by Makernaut; May 6, '18, 3:34 PM.

                  Comment

                  • Werewolf
                    Inhuman
                    • Jul 14, 2003
                    • 14616

                    #24
                    Originally posted by Makernaut
                    Indeed, my main generational beef is with what I perceive as the Boomers underestimating Gen X and being enamored with the abilities of Millennials.
                    I don't get it either. The Boomers told us we were all hateful little monsters and weren't going to amount to anything. But they absolutely adore the Millennials. Go figure. Honestly, I actually don't have a problem of Millennials as a group just the fawning and hand wringing they get from the Boomers and the media.
                    You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return...

                    Comment

                    • Falstaff13
                      Persistent Member
                      • May 28, 2008
                      • 1251

                      #25
                      Originally posted by palitoy
                      My wife works in a school where half the teachers are under 30. She doesn't think they're a problem to work with but does notice some little differences like that many want praise for doing their job. They'll say stuff "Look my attendance is on time" and she'll respond "It's supposed to be".

                      However, she does also praise how health conscious and environmentally concerned they are.
                      I teach, and the turnover rate does mean most of my colleagues are now under 30. I definitely see the desire for praise, and I can lament where I am that they concede to it (schools in my district now offer "employee of the month" and it's for things like "always gets to work on time." Those who get there early aren't recognized because they beat the admin there.)

                      Some of that generation are more environmentally aware, but that's a generalization, same as my bashing some for wanting participation trophies.
                      Hugh H. Davis

                      Wanted: Legends of the West (Empire & Excel) and other western historically-based figures. Send me an offer.
                      Also interested in figures based on literary characters.

                      Comment

                      • Makernaut
                        Persistent Member
                        • Jul 22, 2015
                        • 1546

                        #26
                        Originally posted by Falstaff13
                        I teach, and the turnover rate does mean most of my colleagues are now under 30. I definitely see the desire for praise, and I can lament where I am that they concede to it (schools in my district now offer "employee of the month" and it's for things like "always gets to work on time." Those who get there early aren't recognized because they beat the admin there.)

                        Some of that generation are more environmentally aware, but that's a generalization, same as my bashing some for wanting participation trophies.
                        I'm seeing that "trophy for everything" practice swerving in the other direction and I find it even more alarming. For example, my niece played league softball all through elementary, middle, and jr. high school. She was on teams that won championships and never got a trophy. I asked her early on, when she was on a team that won a league championship, about her trophy. She said they didn't do trophies because it was too expensive to give everyone a trophy. I said, "But you girls actually deserve one!". So there you go, if everyone can't have one, no one can? That's even worse, as I think about it. I played Little League Baseball from Kindergarten through 8th grade. I won ONE trophy because I was on exactly ONE championship team in all those years. That ONE trophy still means a lot to me. It reminds me of a few bad teams I was on and several that were in the middle and a couple that were "oh, so close". I really don't like that these kids, those who always got trophies and those who never got them, are robbed of that sweet spot of really valuing something.

                        On a positive note, though, I have seen a trend of what Boomers considered in High School the traditional signs of "ruling the roost" being democratize in a very heartening way. I have seen, in recent years, Special Needs Students getting elected Prom King/Queen, Homecoming King/Queen, Valedictorians...that kind of thing. Some Boomers really cherished that kind of status and I am sure they eye-roll at what they can imagine as being a "tarnishing" of that status. I know Gen Xers and Millennials to both be of the mind that this is a very good thing. It doesn't cheapen anything....it finally gives that kind of stuff some real meaning and I give what we'd call Generation Y a ton of credit for being "woke" enough to get that.

                        Comment

                        • knight errant00
                          8 Inch Action Figure
                          • Nov 15, 2005
                          • 1766

                          #27
                          Originally posted by Werewolf
                          I don't get it either. The Boomers told us we were all hateful little monsters and weren't going to amount to anything. But they absolutely adore the Millennials. Go figure. Honestly, I actually don't have a problem of Millennials as a group just the fawning and hand wringing they get from the Boomers and the media.
                          Think of it this way: I've noticed that my parents were only a couple years before the official post-war baby boom group, I'm right at the beginning of Gen X, and my kids fall right into the very tail end of the Millennial group... So the Millennials are basically benefitting from fawning grandparents.

                          Comment

                          • Myoldtoys
                            Veteran Member
                            • May 15, 2012
                            • 303

                            #28
                            I work in a very old and traditional company that is run by 99% white men who are boomers. The HR department is reading all kinds of stories about millennials, and what they want in a workplace. As a proud gen Xer, I sit back and laugh at the boomers trying to find common ground with the millennials. And I laugh at the millennials as they hit a wall of office politics that none of their schooling prepared them for. Being in neither group allows me to sit back and enjoy the sitcom while collecting a large check.

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            😀
                            🥰
                            🤢
                            😎
                            😡
                            👍
                            👎