Read on Twitter
1. Thread on generational shifts, media, and politics:
So I'm an old millennial, my kid is a zoomer, her dad is gen X, raised by boomers in Pakistan, while I was raised by Pak boomers here. Generational divides are personal but also very political, esp in higher education
So I'm an old millennial, my kid is a zoomer, her dad is gen X, raised by boomers in Pakistan, while I was raised by Pak boomers here. Generational divides are personal but also very political, esp in higher education
2. I've been realizing how the disconnections btw generations are becoming really obvious and really problematic during the pandemic, especially if we think about what kinds of media/knowledges diff gens are consuming and responding to, since that's all we have atm
3. The silent gen, older than boomers, are most at risk from COVID. Boomers are not far behind and they too grew up with only f2f sociality, tv, movies; they're the gen in power for the large part. Even with Trump, it's clear how much of a basic boomer he is.
4. Gen Xers seem kinda confused tbh. They aren't as batshit as boomers, and yet they can barely keep up with today's media (outside of twitter
). as an old millennial I made my first social media account in 2004, but I learned quick and it's also my research so... whatever.
). as an old millennial I made my first social media account in 2004, but I learned quick and it's also my research so... whatever.
5. zoomers are on tiktok, insta, twitter with very different social norms and relational practices. like, for ex, a millennial like me still would share tiktoks on insta, bc we know our friends are mostly still afraid of tiktok. this marks me as a millennial cuz zoomers would not
6. but guyssssss, we have to understand social media much better than even this. it is no longer an opt-in model. if you're not on social media, you're not having the same conversation as our students.
7. our media usage, but SM specifically, filters what knowledges we are consuming in regularly, daily, routinely. if people think Fox News watchers are getting propaganda, what makes you think your social media consumption isn't also propaganda?
8. professors: our students are creating anonymous insta accts like "dearpwi" and "dearhamilton", while professors are still just "thinking" about getting on insta. those of us do research with young people have to keep up, but I'm telling you, we're failing as the "adults"
9. even millennials, but esp the gen Xers and boomers which make up most faculty and higher ed admin. during the pandemic, all our communications have gone online or no longer exist. the modes of communication that us olds prefer, f2f in person meetings, can't happen.
10. instead I see these painful email threads, some really important and others people's random thoughts, floating in my inbox. we know how to filter this (mostly) bc email is not a new tech for millennials, but I see gen X and boomer folks struggling.
11. you know what I mean, leaving ppl out of threads, adding ppl to threads without permission from the other recipients. putting A LOT of feelings out through email. this goes to what linguistic anthropologist Ilana Gershon calls media ideologies.
12. now that we have no other option but to use digital communications for most of our organizing, teaching, socializing, the disconnections keep coming up. another ex, organizing with faculty (as a millennial) is partly abt recalibrating the work to each person's media politics
13. this is not a call-out, this is a call-in for people to start being more aware of how their own media ideologies are becoming a hindrance to actually knowing what's going on right now, and what our students need us to know
14. I am not suggesting it's easy or obvious, but you won't know if you don't try and not trying right now is basically saying you don't care about what the youths want, what they're thinking about, and if the protests show anything, it's that this is their moment.
15. as the olds, we need to support them, but they're the ones inheriting a shithole country, massive inequality, a dying planet. it's an existential crisis, and I'm still hearing faculty consider adding instagram or tiktok. get over it. add the apps and try to keep up.
16. it's honestly the least we can do given what a mess everything else is. happy Friday, everyone!
