San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Protective efforts underscore deep generational split
Long before “Don’t trust anyone over 30” was a 1960s mantra, Peter the Hermit in 1274 A.D. supposedly intoned: “The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age.”
In other words, intergenerational disdain has deep roots. And when you add an economically ruinous pandemic to the already simmering mix, it’s no surprise that nationwide concern over the coronavirus is fueling yet more intergenerational strife.
“Generational shaming is a timehonored tradition,” said Michael North, a business professor at New York University who has researched the recent spate of media standoffs between Baby Boomers and Millennials. “What’s taking place now is a symptom of our inherent generational divide, not a cause.”
Stereotypes abound — be it
Millennials who would rather meet up with their friends than practice social distancing, or Boomer parents who disregard health warnings that they’re not as young as they feel and may be more susceptible to the virus. Both groups recoil at the sight of Gen Z college students flocking to beaches for spring break.
The fingerpointing is made easier by the way that Americans in the decades since World War II increasingly have been lumped into brackets of roughly 15 years — from Baby Boomers to Gen X, to Millennials, to Gen Z, and soon to whatever tag gets attached to the cohort born after 2012.
“The idea that Americans are born to a particular generation is a postwar phenomenon,” said Martha Lincoln, an assistant professor in anthropology at San Francisco State University. “That’s when the idea of a ‘youth culture’ becomes significant.”
Simplistic or not, such characterizations are found everywhere from social media memes to the conversations now taking place online instead of at work or a favorite bar. The spark is a virus that four months ago was unknown, but people familiar with generational dynamics say they throw light on a deeper truth — that when times are stressful, many of us start looking for someone else to point the finger at.
A local angle to this frustration among age groups played out this month on CNN, as news anchor Jake Tapper and senior medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta watched a live feed of people in San Francisco relaxing along the Embarcadero on the day that the Bay Area’s shelterinplace order went into effect. Some kept their social distance from other strollers. Many did not.
“People out there who are Millennials or younger ... who the hell are you to be walking around just giving this to old people?” fumed Tapper, 51.
“How I behave affects your