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In a recent interview with Bored Panda, ‘Rooster’ shared that it was communicating with younger friends and family that made them ask the question about the so-called ‘old person’ hills millennials are willing to die on.
“I originally posted that question because I’ve become so surprised at how some of my friends and family—mostly the younger ones—tend to use the ‘reactions’ to text messages,” they said, emphasizing that it’s the reactions that pop up after pressing on a message for a little while and not emojis that they’re talking about. “There seemed to be a lot of confusion—and even some anger—about that,” they said.
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“It seems like they [young friends and family] feel the need to attach a reaction to every message that gets sent, despite the fact that they’re also replying with… you know… words,” the OP continued. “It made me wonder if they perceive the fact that I don’t do this as rude or as bad manners. But I’m not going to do it because it seems sort of silly and excessive to me.
“I also have enough common sense to realize that this is probably a generation thing, though, which made me wonder if other millennials felt similarly about the reactions or if maybe I’m just getting old.”
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The redditor told Bored Panda that they really enjoyed reading through people’s answers; though, some more than others. “A lot of ‘super clever and hilarious’ people decided to reply with just a thumbs up emoji—good one! Very original—in addition to a couple of ‘okay boomer’-style replies; those stung a little, if I’m being honest.”
Be that as it may, they added that they agreed with quite a few of the answers they read. “It seems there was a lot of common consensus among the millennials on a number of topics,” Rooster said. “Some highlights include:
- Headlights these days are too dang bright!
- People shouldn’t listen to their dang music/videos or take phone calls on dang speakerphone in public!
- Everything requires a dang subscription these days!
- People need to get off their dang phones and touch grass! And stay off your phones while driving! (Lots of ‘being in the car’ gripes, I have to say.)
- And OH MY GOSH, people hate the QR code menus and want their paper menus back! I’d venture a guess that 30-40% of people who posted complained about QR code menus. Certainly the most common comment.
“As for what surprised me the most, honestly it was the lack of toxicity,” the OP continued to share. “The internet is often thought of as a cesspool of negativity, but the millennials mostly had gripes about pretty reasonable things and—mostly—didn’t say anything bigoted or homophobic or transphobic; although sadly there were one or two [comments].”
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Discussing the hills they themself were willing to die on, the OP said that, aside from the overuse of reactions to text messages, they’d have to agree with the people suggesting that driving in a car “sucks”.
“I’ve lived in New York City for close to twenty years but grew up in south Florida, so I’ve been firmly on both sides of the ‘(not) having to drive’ fence. Not having to drive is so much better, and it shows in the replies to my post. It’s a miserable experience overall—traffic, bad drivers, expenses—and it’s only gotten worse because of technology.”
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“Every new car basically has a TV in it now, and the TV controls the air conditioning for some reason, and everybody is so addicted to their phones that they just can’t leave them alone while on the road. It makes for an awful and stress-inducing—not to mention life-threatening—situation,” the OP pointed out.
“People really need to come to grips with the fact that driving a car is by far statistically the most dangerous thing they do on a regular basis. As I said in a reply to one of the comments, people won’t go in the ocean because they’re afraid of sharks but then they’ll drive home from the beach while watching The Dark Knight on their phones.
“I wish people would treat driving with a lot more caution and respect for how dangerous it can be, and I wish we’d make it possible for more people in the US to have access to public transit like we do here in NYC. (But don’t even get me started on my public transit gripes!”
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Discussing why it is sometimes difficult for people to accept or get used to certain things other—especially, younger—generations do, the director of the Center of Innovation in Social Science and A&S Distinguished Professor of sociology Dr. Deborah Carr pointed out that throughout history, every generation has judged the generation that follows them.
“It is often hard to put ourselves in others’ shoes and understand each other’s preferences for music, lifestyle, spending habits, and more. Also, our worlds are very age-segregated, so it is difficult to really get to know people of other age groups outside of our own family members. It’s very easy to judge those people we don’t know well,” she told Bored Panda in a recent interview.
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For the OP, it was the reactions on messages and certain aspects of using technology that they didn’t see eye to eye with the younger generation about. But that didn’t mean that they were dreading using technology altogether; and, according to Prof. Carr, neither do generations older than millennials.
“It’s a stereotype that old people fear technology,” she noted. “Many baby boomers and Gen Xers were at the forefront of the tech revolution. Past generations pioneered internet dating, email, and more. Much older adults might have been initially uncomfortable with technology, but even people in their 70s and 80s learned to Zoom with their families during the pandemic.
“Many older people—and rightfully so—fear that virtual communication takes away the human touch – virtual friends can’t provide the same kind of nurturing and support as those who pay in-person visits. Older people also have fewer reasons to hop onto the newest technology. For people who are retired, they can make do perfectly fine using just the basics.”
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On a related note, the overuse and misuse of “therapy language” also needs to stop. Someone who pushes back on you when you say something inaccurate is not an “abuser”. You can’t set a “boundary” that you get breaks whenever you want at work to play on your phone. Like, come on.
But when discussing people’s relationships with technology and other aspects of modern-day life, it’s important to keep in mind that no matter the generation, people are all different, and millennials are no exception.
“There is no single type of millennials,” Prof. Carr emphasized. “This generation is very diverse with respect to age, gender identity and sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, education, national origin, economic resources, and more. They did share some pivotal experiences that have shaped them, however. They were very young when the 9/11 attacks occurred, and their childhood and adolescent years were punctuated by high-visibility school shootings. Many were young adults launching their careers and marriages when the pandemic struck. So, they have faced major challenges throughout their lives, with technology being a double-edged sword. Some use technology to cope and connect, whereas for others it’s a source of pressure, FOMO, bullying and more.”