Generational Differences

My friend recently told me that, contrary to popular belief, there are very few generational differences according to research. And I can get on board with that. Boomers, Millennials, the mere youths born after 2005 who are becoming adults (WHAT), and everyone in between, we’re all humans and share needs, wants, and problems. However, I do absolutely think that how we behave toward or cope with those needs, wants, and problems can be influenced by the culture in which we were raised. And I’m here today to provide you with a prime example.

For the fresh faces around here, this is the context you need to understand this post: I am a millennial, which means I grew up alongside the world wide web and we came of age together. If you feel you need further context, you can consult other posts for more information. I’d start with An Introduction (wild idea, I know.) But also, welcome to my blog!

Before I give my example, please take a look at the photo at the top of this post. (If you can’t see it, just picture 3 years’ worth of papers, cards, and guitar picks strewn about in a gigantic pile.) Take it in. Ready? Great.

This photo is of my filing system. My personal, business, and all-things-in-between filing system. If I need to reference a check from the last six months, I go to the filing system. If I’m looking for a meaningful note my boss wrote me last year, I go to the filing system. If I get a bill in the mail, I go to the filing system to check to see if I’ve gotten the bill before. It’s a pile of chaos, mementos, random papers I don’t know if I need, and things people have given me that I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to keep.

Two things you should know about my filing system:

1. I find it mildly embarrassing – I know this is not “professional” or “responsible.” It’s just what I do.
2. This system has only failed me twice in my entire life, which does not provide an incentive to change.

So here’s why I think this is about generational differences:

1. I was not taught a different method. Sure, my parents had nice manilla envelopes and a drawer for instructional manuals for every appliance they’d ever owned, my great aunt had file boxes going back to 1959, and I am aware that other filing systems exist. But no one bought me my first manilla envelope or helped me color code my first few paychecks. (I’m not mad, mom and dad, just making a point, you know how it is.) A key facet of millennials is that, although we saw responsible adulthood modeled, we were frequently not taught to practice it ourselves.
2. In the culture in which I grew up, paper was not king. See, I grew up in a world that was transitioning to electronic data. I wrote my book reports on a desktop Macintosh and saved them to floppy disks. And now, having something on my phone feels safer and less chaotic to me than having a paper copy.
3. It works, and something about growing up in the 90s and early 2000s taught me that what works is what’s best. I can’t quite put my finger on what that is, but I’ve noticed it’s not something I took from my parents or my older siblings, and not something I share with my slightly older friends. Ergo, I assume it is a generational difference.

So! Now you know my filing system, and why it may take me a day or two to get back to you about that invoice you sent last week.

It works, and I’m going to keep doing it, but I do think it’s an interesting commentary on how different generations behave. We’re all taught that responsibility is important, we’re all trying to make our way in the world, but how we behave and think to make that happen can be different. At least that’s what I think.

What do you think?