The Best of ...Both Worlds?

Yesterday my daughter and I had the conversation of which generation was the “last of the best”; the generation that had wonderful childhood settings as well as potential-filled futures as adults. She felt it was hers (Generation Y) because she feels the teenagers of today have a hand in a technological savvy world and pretty much has access to anything, far and wide, as long as they have the required resources. She also believes, mentally (book-wise) they are smarter.

I disagreed to a certain extent because I believe my generation (Generation X) had the best of both worlds; we got the opportunity to experience the “old” ways and the “new” ways (typewriters and iPads; board/outdoor games and Wiis, rotary phones and smart phones, etc…). We seemed to be the last generation where it was safe to be outside past dusk for the most part, music and art were major subjects in schools, pride in country was a good thing, neighbors seemed to actually care about and watched out for others, the majority of children were raised to be respectful of their elders, and unless they knew something we didn’t down in the south, I can never recall where being outside was detrimental to our health! Back then, punishment was having to come inside from playing; now-a-days, going outside is the punishment! And while I agree kids today are tons smarter, kids of old had stronger minds (and bodies). In my opinion, it seems we were more capable of handling conflict and while I don’t have any definable proof, we were less likely to do mass ragings…back then.

With all of that being said, although Generation X may have had the last of the good childhoods, we are also responsible for this mess of folks being raised now! So yeah, we had it good but we screwed up, big time! We are the generation that has allowed outsiders into the way we discipline our children, we allowed folks to take “God” out of schools, we worked hard for what we had as children but when we begat children of our own, we took away that pride of hard word to replace it with “I want my kids to have better than I did NOW”. Maybe this is because the world we’re living in is affected with an “instant gratification” type of mentality. Yeah, we’re able to now access things like never before but our mind-set has changed from “I’ll work towards being able to have it” to “how fast can we get it and can we get it before the proverbial “Jones” gets it!” ..and the list goes on.

Is it because of the duality of worlds, having a hand in the worlds of old AND new that has messed things up like they seem to be now? Are there trends in history that show how a generation gets lost after an “old and new world” generation exists? Maybe one day I’ll actually research that…

*sigh...Who knows, maybe everything that’s happening here and now has happened since the beginning of time but it’s only recent we’ve been able to broadcast and get knowledge of things taking place states, countries, even worlds away. Maybe it’s because as an adult, I’m more aware of what’s going on in the world I’m living in. Maybe Baby Boomers feel the exact same way I feel about Gen X’ers (them vs us)and we're all at fault in some form or fashion. Heck, maybe I’m just getting old….