A headline for millenials to skim
My dear old grandmother, gone now for decades, had a hard-enough time wrapping her head around my generation, what with the invention of the pill creating a conflagration of bra burnings. She was not a prude, just a very proper lady. She blamed the Beatles and Elvis for the sex, drug and rock ’n’ roll debauchery and loosened morals of young women and men of my generation, both who were wearing their hair long, and going to university and protesting as if higher education and civil disobedience were somehow their God-given right.
Right on! Power to the people! Make love not war! Et cetera, et cetera, although you had to be there.
Today’s millennial generation, however, would have driven my dear old grandmother to drink which, to her, was almost a sin in of itself — especially if one drink became two.
Now, here’s a headline that caught my eye, and would have had my grandma nodding in agreement if she were still around to see what my generation has spawned.
“Australia’s seniors say the political correctness of millennials is ruining society.”
Now, before we get into it, I am ready to bet the proverbial farm that this particular headline was written by a millennial because only a millennial would think someone over 50 is a senior.
Sixty-five is a senior, because 65 comes with an old-age pension cheque and, in Ontario, the right to go fishing without a licence. Getting there is the toughest part. The story out of Down Under, however, concerns a study commissioned by the Australia Seniors Insurance Agency (ASIA) about its nation’s younger generation, and why in hell they polled 1,000 people over the age of 50, and not over the age of 65, is a question that was not answered. So, a pox on them, too. The results, however, were startlingly accurate. Today’s millennials are “ruining” society, the study’s wording, because of their obsession with technology and their overboard embracing of political correctness.
Let’s cut to the chase. Millennials do not talk to each other like normal people used to do. They text.
They walk down the street tapping away, earbuds plugged in so they can listen to their downloaded playlist that was likely stolen, all the while totally oblivious to anyone around them or the car that is about to run them down. You can hear the bass boom a block away. In a generation or two, these millennials will have miniscule-sized thumbs as Mother Nature adapts to their addiction to the miniscule-sized keyboards on their so-called smart phones, and with no ears on the sides of their heads whatsoever because they will all be deaf.
Bookmark this page, and put it in a time capsule.
In Australia, 74 per cent of those polled were annoyed by millennials who strived to be politically correct, while a full 88 per cent thought modern Australia had already reached the tipping point.
So, I am totally onboard with the 45 per cent poll of Australian “seniors” who said they intentionally try not to be politically correct just for the sake of not being politically correct.
Millennials would no doubt say this is not politically correct, which is no doubt why the aforementioned 88 per cent have had enough.
Am I concerned about millennials being offended by this? Not in the least. They only skim headlines, if that. And/or write headlines that turn people into “seniors” 15 years before their time.
markbonokoski@gmail.com