Kids these days…
Have you ever noticed how older generations sort of love to hate on young people? “Kids these days aren’t as bright as they used to be,” “they are obsessed with technology!” and my personal favourite from Clint Eastwood himself, “we really are in a pussy generation!” (And if you just laughed at that, please note that that was in a statement by Eastwood justifying his support of Donald Trump’s stance against political correctness…).
I’m not going to simply put this down to our parents getting old, grumpy and spiteful (… even if they are), especially seeing as a lot of this can be attributed to three things: The Flynn Effect (which I will explain shortly), the media and the moral panics they induce.
Basically, a moral panic is an idea or feeling that is feared to harm the well-being of society, usually stimulated by the media. Popular examples include video game violence causes aggression in children and teens, refugees are going to steal all our jobs and money, and porn has hijacked sexuality. The thing about moral panics, while it’s important to note that they are not completely false, they are largely based on speculation and evidence that simply correlates (remember, correlation is not causation).
With this in mind, along with a bit of scientific evidence, I will provide a source of counter-arguments for fellow millennials to use against misinformed Baby Boomers, or perhaps a source to refer your beloved parents to say “hey, I’m not that terrible you’re just seeing me how your parents saw you when you were my age…”
Millennials are dumb
I’ve heard a few times from people, usually those much older than our parents, that young people aren’t as intelligent as they used to be (in my Nanna’s mind, I’m a nice girl but just a little dumb). Creative Industries and Arts degrees are inferior, what is even the point of philosophical discussions? — these are the ideologies of a concrete world, as James Flynn puts it.
The Flynn Effect: it explains why people are getting smarter by the generation, and justifies a lot of the misconceptions around young people. Once upon a time, people would only believe what they knew; everything was concrete. However, generation by generation, people have developed the ability to engage with the hypothetical; questions and answers that are more abstract. Even science requires the ability to look into the “what if”. Technology and innovation is founded on the basis of hypothetical, abstract thinking, explaining the number of technological advances that have occurred in the past century. In actual fact, on average, millennials have higher IQs than their parents, who have higher IQs than theirs and so on.
Millennials are brainwashed by technology
This is one I hear every time I facilitate one of our technology for seniors sessions at work. The ceaseless cautioning around technology, while not unwarranted in some instances (nobody wants to get hit by a car while playing Pokemon Go), can mean that boomers are missing out on a lot of great benefits that come along with tech advances.
For one, video games are making people smarter. Yep, according to the American Psychological Association, video games have the ability to improve spatial reasoning, cognitive function, problem solving skills and even social abilities.
Or how about the amazing ways apps have improved access to education and learning? There are a number of apps designed to assist children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties to improve on their education. In fact, there are even apps to assist children with autism communicate with their parents and learn in a way that suits their cognitive abilities. Studies have shown that all children learn differently, and it’s becoming increasingly prevalent in schools, using technology to unlock children’s full potential. Advances in technology mean that children in these situations, particularly those who wouldn’t have access to private schools or additional support, are ensured a better quality of life.
Technology is doing incredible things and represents what we can create and what we can aspire to be.
Why is it, then, that the moral panic still stands, despite all this evidence?
Adam Theirer describes two types of people when it comes to technological change: Technological optimists and technological pessimists. Theirer discusses the idea that optimists (someone such as myself) see technological innovation as progression towards a better world and a better society. Whereas, the pessimists see technology as one step away from complete self-destruction. According to his research, pessimism always dominates societal views because of our innate sense to be skeptical — it’s more comfortable to doubt something than to wrap our heads around the potential of a new concept. Theoretically, this aligns with the Flynn Effect and that idea that abstract thinking takes a lot more cognitive ability. So perhaps, then, moral panics around technology are so prevalent based purely on our nature to be skeptical — we are pessimists by default.
Millennials are too PC
People argue that political correctness is diminishing humour, threatening free speech, and wearing away our thick skin, and millennials are at the forefront of making it happen. Political correctness is literally to not be an ass, directly or indirectly, to minorities and people who are discriminated against. If that means someone doesn’t need to feel crappy at the expense of an evidently outdated joke or you have to hold your tongue instead of freely expressing that you’re a douche, or they never have to be bullied to have ‘thick skin’, then so be it. It’s a better and more inclusive world.
As much as I could easily rant about why PC is important, there is already a super informative piece on that here, which I recommend you check out.
What I do want to highlight is the moral panic around political correctness. Rather than being overly sensitive to non-issues like conventional examples of moral panics, this revolt against being too PC sort of flips the concept on its head. The media and the internet have an absolute field day talking about millennials up on their high horses, claiming everything to be offensive.
The question is, do we? Or is it just another moral panic gone wild?
Take, for example, the Fairy Penguin. An odd example, but I distinctly remember a segment on A Current Affair or Today Tonight where they listed all the things people are offended by, including the use of the term Fairy Penguin, with the connotations that the name is offensive to homosexuals. Apparently, young people were insistent on the name being changed to be more politically correct. I can’t speak for the homosexual community on whether or not this is offensive to them, but I can assure you that this campaign is non-existent. In fact, a simple Google search will reveal that Sea World (although I wouldn’t deem them paragons of morality) is still very proud to promote their exhibit of the world’s smallest penguins: The Fairy Penguins.
This really highlights how the media project an image of young people to change audiences’ perceptions of them. In his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers, Stanley Cohen points out the way in which the media amplifies moral panics. Basically, they choose their “socially problematic event”, they transmit the claims of moral panics by exaggerating the content, and broadcast to the masses between two more serious topics in order to up the seriousness. In the case of the Fairy Penguins, a claim so ludicrous paired with Tracy Grimshaw’s “could there be anything more ridiculous” tone is a recipe for moral panic over millennial’s “political correctness gone too far!”.
Another important point comes from the Flynn Effect — the ability to view things from multiple perspectives is a result of abstract thinking, something that older generations may be lacking. Perhaps this is the reason why the media can so easily manipulate people into these moral panics, perhaps not our parents but certainly generations prior. In fact, Flynn attributes his theory to the reason why racism was so prevalent. People literally lacked the ability to put themselves in someone else’s shoes; they were told that people with coloured skin were bad and they lacked the capacity to question it.
So next time you come face to face with a resentful boomer complaining about how crappy millennials are, politely point out some of the facts from this article (perhaps without telling them you’re smarter than they are — that might not go down too well…). Or if you are a boomer, thanks for sticking around until the end and not thinking “what a self-righteous load of garbage”. The purpose of this article wasn’t to offend, but to inform and to justify some of the misconceptions around young people in the 21st century.
Originally published at The Isthmus.
