At work today I was talking to my boss about going on the trip to Kenya to work in the local schools. I went my senior year of high school but haven't been able to go back because it is a two week trip and I can't take two weeks off of college. However, my friend is doing this. The reason she can is because she is taking all online classes but one, so she can do that class while in Kenya. My boss was amazed that between his generation and mine how much technology has become a huge part of our schooling and education.
Generations are very interesting in the fact that every generation has their own identity. The definition of who fits into what generation is not completely understood, but whatever one I am placed in I am apart of the overall identity. For instance the generation that I consider myself to be in is known for being very technologically advanced. My grandpa's generation was known for being very hard workers.
In The Selves we Live By, Reisman talks about how as societies change mostly in size, it creates a social environment that produces a predominant character type that dominate the social scene. This could also have to do with the identity of the generation. The whole generation usually grows up in a similar national environment. This national environment can effect how individuals in the generation see themselves and those around them.
The difference in generation's identities may also have an affect on the negative stereotype the younger generation has. I have heard old people say "All you youngins don't care enough, when I was in college we protested this and that". I think we still are active in our community (maybe not as much, but still) but through a different medium. We unite people and protest over facebook not in the streets in front of Mary Sue's house.
Different identities for different generations is a known subject, however when different generations are compared I never hear about how the national environment has caused one generation to behave like this and another generation to behave like that. I find that very interesting.
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Heather,
ReplyDeleteYour post was interesting, although I would have liked to have learned more about the trip to Kenya! Sounds like an experience of a lifetime!
Anyway, I definitely remember one of my other professors talking about how we protest, just in a different way. And, I wonder, if what we do to be active can really be seen in the same light as actively protesting. Do you ever get an excessive number of emails and just push them off to the side? How about requests from facebook applications like "join a cause"? Honestly, I don't think that many of us are as politically active as we perhaps could/should be, and that saying that we use a different medium may be true, but the fact is that the medium we use seems so less influential (at least to me). I constantly ignore FB applications, not because I don't think that starving children in Africa deserve a meal or because I hate the rainforests, but just because I feel too inundated by all of this information wonder if my vote/small contribution really makes a difference. I think that perhaps our generation's biggest problem (maybe it's just my problem, idk), is that we are aware of too many organizations and causes and don't just dedicate ourselves to the ones we care about the most. We try to balance too many things, help too many people, and in the end the minor contributions we make to many causes aren't nearly as great as the larger contributions we could make to one or two organizations.
You really seem on top of The Selves We Live By! I really appreciate your parallels to Riesman...it serves as a nice reminder of the theorists. All your posts seem well tied to identity...I definitely admire that!
James