Objective: Address the psychology of WHY the gap between the generations is so big and impossible to bridge.
Tone: Hopefully, informative and slightly humorous with a dose of humility and empathy.

Can the gap between generations be bridged: between grass stains and smartphones?

Note: this is a draft.
I need to add MUCH more analytical/data, especially psychologically focused that supports my message, and need to create and add graphics. 

Also, I am writing this as part of the last interview for a job I’d very much like to secure. The employer asked me to share my work as I made updates, so this page needs to be refreshed,  often.

BEGINNING ARTICE

The Last Organic Childhood

Gen Xers were the last to experience what I would call a truly organic childhood, the kind that built social, emotional and physical resilience. Before the internet changed everything, we learned social skills by double dog daring each other to do something ridiculous. Our driveways became skate parks, and we built bike ramps out of sketchy plywood and cinderblocks. After a flood, we would kneeboard behind a pickup or go crawdad hunting in the ditches. It did not matter if we were rich or broke; joy was free and found in muddy water, scraped knees and knowing it was time to go home when the sun went down.

We were bold. We ran headfirst into life, fell hard, bled freely and broke bones doing things that were stupid but so much fun. Every bruise had a lesson, every mistake built character, and maybe that is what truly shaped who Gen Xers are and why we take such pride in our strength and adaptability. No generation other than ours, except for a few Boomers I know, knows what it was like to grow up before the internet and then adapt to it as a staple of life.

Other generations will never truly relate, simply because they did not have access to the kind of childhood we had. As parents, too many of us did not go out of our way to find some of that magic to share with our children.

Note to Holly: These graphics suck.
Edit and match size.

Screen Time by Generation:
Source: Pew Research Center.
Gen Z 71% spend four or more hours per day online, Gen X under 1 percent at same age.

But, again, I believe it is OUR fault. We’re not much better:

Link: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/03/11/how-teens-and-parents-approach-screen-time/

The Bubble Wrapped Generations

We fell down and got back up again and again, whereas younger generations grew up in a bubble wrapped protective cocoon. We pushed our limits, bending rules and sometimes breaking them, and we learned from being punished and serving our sentences. Real punishments, not just having our phones taken away for two days, but being grounded to the house for a month with nothing at all to do but torment our siblings. Being punished taught patience, perspective and how consequences actually work.

Note to Holly: find data that covers punishment techniques and frequency of past vs present (ex: we were spanked. Those who came after us, generally, were not. “Punishment” was usually banning the kid from using his/her phone, computer or XBox)
Insert graphic or copy here.

We were sharper, too, because we had to use our brains more. Brains are muscles and muscles atrophy, or never fully develop, if you do not use them. We used ours to look up information the hard way, flipping through actual books and cross-referencing sources without the help of ChatGPT. We did not have GPS, so help any of us who were directionally dysfunctional like me. We did not have email or text, so we had to talk on the phone or agree to meet somewhere, sometimes at the bike rack, which is a story all its own.

Trust and Independence

No, we did not walk three miles in the snow like the Boomers did (as if we believe that), but many of us walked to school. We did not make our parents endure long pickup lines or idle in their SUVs worried about leaving work early. When the bell rang, we figured it out: we bummed a ride, rode our bikes or caught the bus. Our parents trusted us to figure out a way to get home and to not turn the house into a home run derby while they were still at work. (I totally played home run derby in the house while my parents were at work.)

Note to Holly: add a graphic or data, or block quote the following:
By the early 1990s, more than 40 percent of Gen X children were latchkey kids, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. See https://www.census.gov

The Boomer Influence

When it comes to work ethic, I do not know if we will ever meet halfway. My generation learned from the Boomers, and none of us can compare to them. They went through world-changing experiences like segregation and cultural revolutions, things we will never fully understand because we were not there to experience them and therefore could not learn directly from them. A lot like how Millennials and Gen Z will never understand us, thanks to the massive adaptation involved with advent of the internet that we went through and they did not. For the record, Boomers deserve the award for being the toughest. But we are next up, because they taught us to be.

Note to Holly: humorous Boomer award graphic?

We were more responsible and independent kids and, of course, that originated from our parents’ trust. We had real life friends, camaraderie and even blood brothers. We would literally cut ourselves and rub our bloody hands together, and we took it very seriously. We had each other’s backs and everyone knew it.

Connection vs. Communication

I once read that 80 percent of communication is nonverbal. How deep can a relationship form online? How can you truly foster a friendship through the screen, having taken in only 20 percent of what a person is trying to communicate?

According to Psychology Today, about 73 percent of Gen Z report feeling alone either sometimes or always, the highest level of any generation. That highlights the limitations of digital communication when emotional depth matters. See https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-case-connection/202208/3-things-making-gen-z-the-loneliest-generation

Lessons Learned, Then Lost

At 17, I unfortunately had to drop out of college. Instead, I worked three jobs, made a car payment, within 2 years, moved into my very own 301 square foot apartment. I kept at it and, as soon as I felt ready, I left for the big city for bigger and better opportunities. I was still a teenager. But that’s what we did back then. We hustled. Somewhere along the way we learned responsibility, accountability, and independence. Those lessons stuck.

But when it comes to my own Gen Z children, I did not teach those lessons fully. I did not take them gigging for frogs. I took them fishing, but I baited their hooks, so it really doesn’t count. Younger generations will never know the thrill of clotheslining their arch nemesis in a game of Red Rover or dropping a crawdad in their dad’s aquarium full of exotic fish just to watch chaos unfold. Sorry, Dad.

The Stuff We Survived

We did not just build resilience; we built resourcefulness. Everything we learned came from trial and error and a little danger. We did not have tutorials, influencers, or how to videos. We had consequences, bruises and the occasional tetanus shot.

Stuff Gen X Is Weirdly Proud of Surviving:
Our unofficial résumé of reckless achievement

1. Playing outside all day with no sunscreen without supervision
2. Licking 9-volt batteries just to see if it zapped us
3. Rigging our backyard so we could jump from the roof, onto a trampoline and into the pool. True story.
4. Surviving Roman candle fights and BB gun battles
5. Playing Home Run Derby in the house
6. Sneaking beer, Mad Dog 20/20 or Strawberry Hill at parties we weren’t supposed to attend (Sorry, Dad)
7. Recording songs off the radio with a cassette tape
8. Buying cigarettes for our parents
9. Making prank calls and hanging up before caller ID existed
10. Driving before we technically had a license (Sorry, Dad)
11. Playing Ding Dong Dash without fear of video doorbell busting us
12. Riding bikes without wearing helmets, often with no hands
13. Smoking candy cigarettes in the winter
14. Watching MTV back when it actually played music videos
15. Riding dirt bikes and (forbidden) 3-wheelers in the off-limits dirt mounds (Uh, guilty as charged)
16. Toilet Papering (yes that’s a word) houses
17. Getting 2nd degree burns from metal slides in July

Basically, if it involved danger, dirt, or duct tape, we considered it a sport.

While we were building ramps from scrap wood, the world was already laying the foundation for something that would change everything: the internet. Muddy knees and sunburned shoulders gave way to a new kind of hustle, behind screens instead of on driveways.

Jobs That Did Not Exist Before the Internet
The careers our parents never imagined we could get paid for

1. Social media manager
2. Influencer or content creator
3. UX or UI designer
4. SEO specialist
5. App developer
6. Data scientist
7. Digital marketing strategist
8. YouTuber or streamer
9. Podcast producer
10. Cybersecurity analyst
11. E-commerce manager
12. Cloud engineer
13. Meme curator
14. AI prompt engineer
15. Virtual assistant
16. Community manager for online platforms
17. Digital nomad
18. Online therapist
19. Remote IT support specialist
20. TikTok strategist

Note to Holly: Polish and complete this part
According to LinkedIn, many of today’s most in demand jobs did not exist a few decades ago. See https://www.linkedin.com for context.

And with each new screen-based career came a quiet goodbye to the ones that raised us.

Jobs That the Internet Replaced or Obliterated
RIP to the skills we once thought would last forever

1. Travel agent, except for luxury or niche trips
2. Video store clerk, RIP Blockbuster
3. Newspaper delivery person
4. Encyclopedia salesperson
5. Typist or word processor
6. Phone operator
7. Film developer or photo lab technician
8. Switchboard operator
9. Mapmaker or cartographer, Google took that over
10. Librarian, not gone but severely outnumbered 
11. Print journalist, at least in numbers
12. DJ who spins actual vinyl at weddings and parties
13. Secretarial pool
14. Filing clerk
15. Telemarketer spammers
16. Newspaper classifieds manager
17. Toll booth operator
18. Receptionist for many offices replaced by chatbots
19. Mall kiosk salesperson
20. find replacement

The Gap We Built

The chasm that exists between generations may never fully close. It is too wide and we are too different. Yet, consider reflecting on all the opportunities missed to show your own children what it was like for you to grow up, getting yelled at for grass stains on your jeans, getting busted while riding a forbidden  3-wheeler,  and feeling the shame of a write up for being the argumentative little troublemaker you once were.

I will own my part. I did not teach my Gen Z children those same lessons fully. So, while I may sound like I am criticizing millennials and later generations, I am also standing up and taking responsibility. More Gen Xers should do the same, instead of mocking younger generations for not drinking out of the hose or wearing seatbelts in the backseat.

Did you ever offer them the hose? I did not. My son laughed at me when I said, “A penny saved is a penny earned,” and truly could not grasp the concept. From whom was he supposed to learn it? From me. And when they asked questions, how often did I say, “Just Google it?” I have done it more than once. Those were opportunities to give them glimpses of the childhood we had and we missed them.

Instead of mocking, it is time to model, not just memories but mindsets.

“I actually appreciated when adults let me try the real thing. Telling me was one thing. Letting me do it made me care.”
– Gen Z respondent

Bridging What Remains

The gap between generations may never fully close. It is too wide and too different. But maybe if we empathize a little more and swap shoes for a day, we will understand each other better, communicate more authentically, and more frequently and find common ground. That is how we bridge the chasm.

—–

Note to Holly: Add some of the following as graphics or data. Then re-format this section properly.

Somewhere, insert a photo or illustration of Gen X children doing stupid stuff. Include photo/art credits (for all in this article

Source: Pew Research Center. 
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/03/11/how-teens-and-parents-approach-screen-time/

NOTE:

The Gen X Survival List was a Collaboration with friends on Facebook and LinkedIn. SO fun! Thank you:
David Gallo
Jason Gerstner
Ricky Hooper
Jason Wright
Connie Sanford
Angela Henderson