Let’s face it– the stereotype of a cranky old person complaining about how bad things are and how much better they used to be isn’t entirely made up. Sometimes the old fart has a good point, and sometimes it’s just an old man yelling at a cloud.
But there are some things that were better in the olden days and much worse now. Unfortunately, some things have gotten worse, and some things deserve to have people wax nostalgic about. So, maybe we should stop and listen to the old folks- after all they’ve been around for a bit and have seen a thing or two!
Let’s focus on the good points, even if you disagree with them, and don’t worry about being called an old fart; if you’re not one already, you eventually will be!
Selfies
Some of us pretty much only posed for photos for school pictures, birthdays, and holidays. We weren’t obsessed with pictures of ourselves everywhere, much less taking them ourselves and sharing them with the world.
Sharing Everything on Social Media
We old cranks also didn’t have social media to share all the details of our lives. To be fair, a lot of us did eventually get on those sites and fall for them.
Less Freedom to Roam
Kids in the suburbs used to be allowed, even expected, to go outside and pretty much do as they pleased as long as they were home by dark. That’s rare now, with helicopter parenting and electronic devices deserving much of the blame.
Treating People With Different Opinions as Enemies
There was never a time when differences of opinion couldn’t get heated, but there was a time the two sides could remain civil and still see each other as friends or colleagues rather than enemies. Social media and partisan news outlets telling their followers what they want to hear have helped all but kill that.
Lack of Community
Neighbors used to get to know each other and help each other out. That’s not so common anymore, partly because everyone’s always so busy and partly due to the breakdown of civility in our society.
Surveillance
Video cameras have been around for a long time out of crime concerns, but 9-11 led to an explosion of surveillance using terrorism as justification. Now it seems we’re being tracked wherever we go and whatever we do.
Airport Security
Flying also suffered as a result of 9-11 and other terrorist acts. Gen Z never experienced this, but there was a time when you could keep your shoes on going through security, take a bottle of water through, and greet people at the gates upon arrival.
Cell Phones Everywhere
Before there were cell phones, public areas were a lot quieter or filled with actual in-person conversations. Today, there are so many people walking around distracted by texting, treating everyone else to their loud phone conversations, and just generally tuning out the rest of the world.
Online Shaming for Mistakes
If you do something dumb or offensive these days, there’s a really good chance it will end up on the internet, where you will be subject to shaming and bullying by strangers forever. Once upon a time, people could learn from their mistakes and move on from them.
Coddling Kids
Participation trophies, grade inflation, lack of meaningful consequences…these and other methods of soft treatment are widely prevalent now. Going back to corporal punishment in schools isn’t the answer, but coddling kids doesn’t prepare them for adult life.
Lost Privacy
It isn’t just the surveillance and tracking that gets to people. We’ve created a world where it’s hard to go off the grid. Cell phones have made us accessible anytime and anywhere.
Materialism
The world’s never been without a desire for materialism. In recent decades, though, it has seemed to spike and drive a larger share of the population.
Prevalence of Religion and Politics
For a long time, there was an unwritten rule that you kept your religion and your politics private except in certain circumstances. Now, both seem to be on display everywhere, and they’ve become the leading self-identifiers for a lot of people.
School Shootings
School shootings were virtually unheard of for decades. Since the 1999 Columbine massacre, they’ve become tragically frequent. Kids even have to practice what to do if there’s an active shooter on the premises.
Fast Food Prices
The lure of fast food was always being fast, tasty, and cheap. Today, it might still be fast and tasty, but it’s far from cheap, and it got that way well before inflation took off in 2022.
Rising Obesity
America sees some of the worst health outcomes among first-world nations. It’s on full display with our obesity epidemic, which continues to grow. Sadly, childhood obesity is also on the rise.
Video Game Culture
Home video games started to become a thing in the 1980s, but they didn’t dominate so many kids’ lives the way they do now. Many researchers suspect a correlation between time spent playing video games and poor test scores in math, reading, and writing. There’s also a vigorous debate about whether they normalize gun violence.
(Lack Of) Civics Knowledge
It used to be that most kids learned the basics of our Constitution and how the government works. Perhaps because it easily became politicized, civics is not a priority in most schools anymore, and it shows in an uninformed electorate.
Intellectual Laziness
Many are noticing that a lot of younger people are interested in getting answers but not in understanding the reasoning behind them and how to get there. Being able to find anything on the internet in just seconds has created a fast-food culture online.
Declining Middle Class
Post-WWII, America saw the establishment and growth of a large middle class based on well-paying manufacturing and professional jobs. Recent decades have seen a rapid decline of the middle class, with vast shares of the nation’s wealth concentrated among the extremely wealthy and with a growing lower class.
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Here are 19 key differences between Gen Z and millennials:
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Following are some notable examples.
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