Ticking bomb?
A lot seems to be happening all over the world. Technology, westernisation, indoctrination… name it…so many things with different names.
Over the years, a great number of things have changed. From our lifestyles, health habits, dressing, education, politics… name it…things innumerable to mention. Are we going in the right direction? Are we moving forward or backwards? A lot of things are happening and we don’t know what will happen next.
We have heard about the different generations of people from the old school to the new school- the Greatest Generation (1901-1927), the Silent Generation (1928-1945), the Baby Boomer Generation (1946-1964), the Generation X (1965-1980), the Millennials (1981-1996), the Generation Z (1996-2012) the Generation Alpha (2013-2024) and the Generation Beta (2024-2039). I guess from the categorisation you now know where you belong. Even those yet unborn have been categorized.
It is not just about the categorisation but there are some common traits or characteristics found along these categories.
For the Greatest Generation, they were indelibly impacted by the Great Depression which moulded their children in regards to frugality. This group was also representative of the majority of soldiers in World War II. If still with us, these folks are between the ages of 98 and 121.
Those born between the years of the Silent Generation are actually the smallest group, due to consequences from the Great Depression and World War II. Between the size of the population and the hesitancy to speak out against social issues, they earned their name. the people in this group are between 79 and 99.
Baby boomers, along with Millennials, are one of the most misunderstood and mislabeled groups of the entire list. Countless internet jokes and videos of young people saying “Ok boomer!” in referencing an older person not understanding the modern world and how it works.
The baby boomers are actually one of the most relevant groups in modern society as they were integral and present for many of the technology advances in the last 50 years. They have been more adaptable to modern growth and learning how to function in today’s technological age. Boomers are currently between the ages of 58 and 76.
As with Baby Boomers, the Generation X’ers are the most relevant generation of modern times, in relation to technology and serve almost as a bridge from older populations to younger ones. They were present for the inception of the internet, video games, artificial intelligence and is the population that has created many of these advances. This group of folks is currently between the ages of 43 and 57.
As mentioned, alongside of Generation X’ers, Millennials are greatly misunderstood and often mislabeled. Older folks can tend to blame someone younger for being a “Millennial” when they don’t understand the values of older times and hold the same views as they did when they were young.
It’s quite common to hear someone use the term Millennial to refer to people in their 20s, although true Millennials are between the ages of 28 and 42.
The Generation Z are a group of interesting younger people. They have been exposed to social media, and were the first population to cope with cyber-bullying and other internet related issues, It was also during this time that school related violence and climate crisis have become more prevalent. This large group of people are between the ages of 10 and 27.
The Generation Alpha are the youngest people and are the first group to be born in the 21st century. They are the first generation to be born to parents who grew up with the internet, cell phones, tablets and social media. They are also inclined to be the most racially diverse and the most technologically adept. The oldest people in this group would be 9 years old this year.
The Generation Z and Alpha are actually the crux of this write up. They were given birth to by the people of Generation X and the Millenials.
If you look around at the things that are happening around, we begin to ask some salient questions. What happened? Where did we miss it? What went wrong? These generations seem to have missed it with their kids. They were the yuppy generation growing up in the 1980s. They saw life and lived it.
Most of the people in that went to unity schools and from there proceeded to federal and state universities. As at that time, it was those who were said not to be academically sound or those who had families abroad that travelled out. us Most of these people finished their first degrees and started brilliant careers.
From these ones came the new generation banks, the private firms, and also grew in the professions- Law, engineering, and politics. They proceeded to marry themselves and started having children. This generation had a seemingly good life until they began to want more and the quest for more and even competition amongst themselves has led us to where we are today.
There seems to be a disconnect or I would rather say we are fast losing it. The morals and values got from their parents and older ones couldn’t be transferred to their progenies.
Driven by the quest to do ‘better,’ expensive private schools started springing up to cater for the need to give the children what ‘they didn’t get’, and then they started creating a tribe of people disconnected from reality.
Over the years, we have built for ourselves a community of selfish children who bear no emotional resemblance to their parents; children who have no affiliation to their parents in any way. They are culturally detached and total strangers to our cultures and upbringing.
Funnily enough, parents are becoming afraid of their children. “Be careful, I hear, be patient, and tread carefully. Otherwise, she will cut you off. Mine has cut me off;” is what I hear some parents say.
In our huge houses, big cars, and solid careers, many parents are losing their children. Sometimes they only reach out when it’s necessary and as soon as they get the money, they disappear only to come back when they need another round of assistance. Some don’t even come back as they have carved a life for themselves.
While many parents break their backs to give their children the best, they don’t really have time for these children. These children grow to learn things and get ‘help’ from outside. They get the love and care they should get from home outside. They are left at the whims and caprices of others. Before you know it, they become lost and begin to seek for validation from outside.
Many of them even leave home and do not bother to call or even visit; they lose their roots and background and do not care. Many people of Generation X and Millenials might be left alone in their old age if care is not taken. They are afraid to even inculcate the values they had as children to them. My heart bleeds when I see all these. They only care about themselves and not the other person. They lack empathy and are engaged in different forms of crime and criminal activities. With them, life is not sacred as they can do away with another person’s life without looking back.
We see them behaving just anyhow and cannot talk. We hide under the new label – Gen Z and Gen Alpha giving justification to their actions, saying, “Oh, he or she is a Gen Z, they are all like that.”
When does it stop? How do we even save these children from the destruction ahead of them? A lot have come back drug-filled, a lot more have become gender-confused, some have lost their lives, others have ended up in jail, and very few go ahead to make something out of their lives.The future is here. We need to do something fast as time is ticking. The bomb will soon explode.
