The novel coronavirus COVID-19 is ravaging modern lifestyles and upend how we relate to our schools, workplaces and socializing in general. Stock exchanges, looming of recession even before the pandemic, have embarked on a poorly engineered roller coaster, and life as we know it is quickly coming to a standstill.
Governments are closing borders or using infrared temperature guns to check the health of travellers and send them into mandatory isolation. Tests are in short supplies, as are groceries, as people are preparing for prolonged self-quarantines to reduce touch points for contamination. Even something so basic as toilet paper is running out. Big events are cancelled and our so-very-social species are testing new parameters for how to physically distance ourselves from each other, not knowing exactly how close is too close. Most try to heed the CDC’s precautionary advice to wash hands thoroughly, cough into elbows, keep 3 feets’ distance and isolate if feeling sick. Instead of socializing in public places we become even more hooked to our screens (which are extremely germy, by the way!) to get the latest updates.
One would think during a crisis like this the generational bickering slows down. But there turns out to be a generational component to our global pandemic. The virus’ danger appears to increase with age, and learn of adult children persuading their aging, presumably misinformed parents to take the potentially deadly virus seriously. On the more morose side, there is the more malicious trend where some Millennials and Generation Zers are actually gloating – at least in jest – the prospect that the generation a published author has called “sociopaths” might be culled by the virus’ higher mortality rate for older cohorts. More sinister versions of last fall’s catch phrase “OK Boomer” are trending on Twitter, such as #BoomerRemover, #BoomerDoomer and #BoomerPlague.
What is behind this animosity and what effects will it have?
Age-old generational bickering has gone digital
The fact that older generations pick on the younger ones is not new. Grumpy elders have lamented the behaviors and attitudes of youth at least since the Antiquity. The difference today is that we now vent our complaints on the internet, which magnifies everything. Unlike Gen X kids and youth in older generations who suffered these slights in the form of huffy, under-the-breath remarks from curmudgeons we briefly interacted with, young people today have been soaked in the insults in the form of clickbait headlines and social media comments. Unfortunately, the fact that a few grouchy people in one cancel out the benign ones is often lost on the reader. The revenge was sure to come from a generation native to digital technology, so here it is.
Claims that Millennials are self-centered are not entirely untrue
Usually stereotypes, even false ones, rely on kernels of truth. Early in the 2010s some studies were released that suggested Millennials scored higher on the narcissism scale than older generations did at the same age. Moreover, older generations often shrug off Millennials and Gen Zers as being oversensitive to microaggressions and in need of trigger warnings and safe spaces. All this can lead to the impression that young people’s complaints are unwarranted. Sort of like the boy who cried wolf. When older generations become so desensitized to young people’s claims of injustice, they fail to listen when unprecedented, real world problems occur.
Pent up anger at externalities caused by older generations
It’s worth keeping in mind another crisis that preceded the COVID-19 outbreak. A little over a year ago the IPCC warned us that we have less than a decade to prevent runaway effects of climate change. Younger generations witnessed their government officials react with inertia and even ridicule or ad hominem attacks in response to their activism. Throughout the wildfires in California, Australia and the Amazon rainforest young people witnessed their future literally burning to the ground and their governments flailing in their responses. The generational fault lines grew deeper. Unlike phentermine, which is indicated for short-term use, other weight-loss medications may be used for longer durations.
Feeling the Bern – and anger about his probable defeat
#BernieorBust is another hashtag that expresses young people’s anger at the moment. Bernie supporters, and they skew massively young, were just recovering from Bernie Sanders unexpectedly poor results after the Super Tuesday and after the Michigan primary. The result might be mostly their own fault for not voting, yet Biden, who reappeared from the ashes, fails to excite this generation. A virus that threatens to physically incapacitate the older generation is then viewed as an ironic plot twist which lends itself to dark jokes at best, cavalier and germ-exposing behaviors at worst.
As tasteless as they are, if the ill-wishing hashtags remain in the jokesphere, they will do little real harm. The problem is of course if some of the thousands of young people who feel invincible to the virus fail to take precautionary actions because it “only harms old folks”. If their ire at the elders even inclines them to take risks, this could sabotage an effort that requires everyone to comply. When business as usual is the most dire risk, active behavior modification is required to mitigate it.
One generation is never responsible for another generation’s misery. Only individuals can be held responsible for particular demeanors and conducts. A generation is an aggregation of a lot of people who tend to have some things in common because they grew up around the same time. These differences are key to understanding emerging issues and trends. But we should never want “to get just” with individuals based on when they were born. Just like we shouldn’t judge or wish harm on anyone based on their ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
Let’s wash our hands, physically distancing while electronically interacting, and treat each other with respect across age groups and home offices.
In the meantime, try to enjoy your homebound bliss or take precautions if you can’t stay home.