I’ve never been one to spend much time on the nature vs. nurture discussion. The answer seems obvious to me. It’s both, at least at the individual level.
But when I look at generational trends, I see how nurture plays a significant role. Macro environments create the cultural waters that shape generations.
Here’s an example from my life.
My dad grew up on a farm. Because of the farm, each child had responsibilities to contribute to the “family business” as a whole. (Cows need milking 365 days a year.) Although his family didn’t have much money, they acquired a television in his teenage years and they had a paper delivered to their house to catch up on world events.
So, my dad’s generation swam in cultural waters that were high in responsibility but low on external information.
Fast forward to me. My dad left the farm and bought a small business. We lived on the outskirts of town with a few animals, but it wasn’t a farm. Because of my dad’s business, I had a few responsibilities but much less daily responsibility than my dad. I grew up with more news than my dad, but 24-hour news didn’t start until I was eight years old, and I didn’t appear on our channel listing until I was in my teens.
So, my generation swam in cultural waters that were moderate in responsibility and information.
Fast forward to my kids. They are considered native in the digital information age. They don’t know a world where a tragedy could happen anywhere, and people don’t know about it immediately. (To be fair, my kids didn’t have direct access to much of that information, but as their parents, we did. I watched the second airplane fly into the Twin Towers.) And I don’t think parents in my generation did a great job delegating responsibility to our kids. In fact, a college professor friend has told me amazing stories about how he has parents contacting him about their college student’s work.
So, my kid’s generation grew up with high levels of information but low levels of responsibility.
I am unsure exactly what to do with this, but the balance between responsibility and information has drastically changed and shaped generations.
So here’s a few thoughts as I keep pondering this:
- Older generations need to drop the derogatory “kids these days” nonsense. If you are older, you were complicit in creating the environments those same kids grew up in. So, stop complaining and start talking to younger generations.
- Giving kids appropriate levels of responsibility at a young age teaches them that what they do matters. It teaches them to have agency in their own lives and how their actions can impact others. We need to do this more.
- When we work with younger people, we must show them our belief in them through words and actions. “You got this” should be a regular part of our vocabulary. The encouragement will help them realize they can take responsibility.
There are more, but I will leave you with one final thought for 2024.
We (each of us) are responsible for the world we live in and create. So, let’s get to work to create a beautiful world. A piece of that is about seeing each other fully as human beings and extending empathy and grace as we get better together.
See you next year!