Are humans becoming less trustworthy of their elders and one another? I had a long discussion about this with a patient when she talked about her children and how they deem her less trustworthy as they get older (they are both in their early to mid-twenties). She explained how they have become gradually disconnected from the lessons or information she is trying to convey to them and can't really trust the information she is giving them anymore until and unless an online search confirms it. She blamed this on the VERY fast and significant generational divide that has grown deep and wide due to the introduction of many new technologies in the last two decades. She was talking about how her kids are pretty much overwriting her as an old and not very knowledgeable person and need to "fact-check" everything she says (she is a highly educated woman in her 60s). This conversation reminded me of the phrase "OK Boomer," which became popular a few years ago as a way to describe and ridicule folks in their 60s and 70s and beyond. It was a way for the younger generation to communicate how outdated and irrelevant older folks have become.

The conversation also made me think about a couple of generations before this one and how we were relating to the "oldness" of our parents and grandparents. I was born in 1965, which makes me a Gen-Xer, one year after the Baby Boomer's cut-off year of 1964, so I can relate to both generations. Of course, I am from an older culture in the Middle East, and how I was raised does not precisely match someone my age in this country. However, I have many global friends around my age (mostly Americans), and as we exchange stories about our childhood and adolescent years, I see many parallels. In fact, I can see the footprints of globalization and the shadow of technology even in my childhood. I watched many movies, TV shows, and Cartoons that were produced in the US in the '60s and '70s and listened to popular Western bands from the UK & US as I was growing up. I can even look back and see how Hollywood influenced my parents when they were growing up and as teenagers in how they dressed, the music they listened to, and the programs they watched. When I think about it and look for evidence, I can remember and see that the relevancy of an elder's wisdom and life experience became less and less apparent in how we navigated life, even when I was growing up. If my parents had taken the advice and warnings of their parents, let's say, as 80% accurate, I may have taken theirs as 50% accurate (of course, all this is hypothetical and anecdotal).

The main point I am trying to communicate is this: As the influence of the outside of the house storytellers and life narrators became deeper and deeper, the relevancy of the in-house elder's advice and information became weaker. The storytellers and narrators of my era were Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Robert Denero, Dustin Huffman, John Travolta, etc. The storytellers of this generation are Google, Instagram, and, more recently, Chat GPT. There was a built-in and innate system in place until the 20th century that relied on the exchange of information from the older generation to the younger one, which started at home and extended to the small community around us. Maybe a tiny minority of humans extended that by learning how to read and educate themselves, or the ones who were wealthier and more adventurous by the way of traveling. However, the primary cohort of humanity relied on the experience of their previous generation to survive and thrive. Even those who got educated or had a world-view due to traveling abroad still respected and relied heavily on their previous generation's advice and experiences! This means that starting in the 20th century, humans (for the first time in our history) managed to steer away from the generational wealth of knowledge and wisdom that was naturally passed on from one generation to the other ever since we started communicating with gestures and words.

Like anything else in life, this phenomenon has pros & cons. We have managed to reduce human suffering and add years to life due to modernity in medicine. We have provided easy access to food and clean water on a global scale, and we have managed to reduce many inconveniences that were just a part of being alive before the 20th century, and have far more entertainment on the tab now. However, we have become (and are becoming) evermore disconnected. The main issue is not the fact that we are not trusting our elders and not taking them too seriously, which is breaking their hearts and diminishing their relevancy in society (although that is by itself a disaster!). In my humble opinion, the main problem is that this trend has already penetrated through osmosis in our collective consciousness, has overcast our entire relationship with all humans, and has made us bounding with and trusting "the machine" more and more. The generational wisdom that was passed on is becoming far less relevant in the mountainous shadow of the towering and rapid climb of information.

I know this isn't the most positive piece I have written, but the main reason behind exposing this conundrum is to emphasize the importance of human connections! No matter how influential the intellectual prowess of the machine is becoming, we still have something unique to us that is only communicated through our humanity: kindness and unsolicited wisdom! It is becoming ever more critical for the older generation to become more patient but also more insistent on the value of our experiences, roaming on this fast-moving rock when dealing with the younger generations. The true value of storytelling, mentorship, apprenticeship, and internship is becoming far more critical as the human experience expands into the future. Retaining all the wisdom of the past without diminishing the value of what future technology has in store for us is the critical task of the human 2.0.

Be Well,
Siamak