There’s a lot to be said about the generational divide between seniors and younger people. Seniors have a great deal of life experience, so they’ve seen a lot throughout their lives. 

Some of the things they currently see are pretty cool, but they also witness quite a few things that they don’t like. These aren’t the garden variety “get off my lawn” grumblings, but legitimate complaints that are hard to argue with. 

1. Everyone Is Always In a Hurry

People today have busy lives and are seemingly always on the go. They’re rushing back and forth to work. They’re rushing to the grocery store and are ready to mow you down with their shopping carts. Well, maybe not run you down, but pretty close.

What happened to the days when people took things easy and had the time to smell the flowers and enjoy living? People are even driving faster. If you try to take a leisurely drive, you’ll either be tailgated or the target of road rage. It’s time to slow it down, period. . 

2. Reduced Education Standards

The baby boomer generation remembers how strict their school education was, and how they were expected to meet high standards of learning. This was without the benefit of modern conveniences like computers and apps. 

A good amount of the education students presently receive is online based, so they’re not being taught to think critically and analytically on their own. Instead they’re being trained to answer questions that satisfy a computer program, denying them a well-rounded education. 

3. Instant Gratification

The digital age has made getting things at rapid speed easier. You can order products online that are small, such as soap or large, like furniture, and have them shipped to arrive at your home within a matter of days. Food from your favorite restaurant can be delivered to your house in less than an hour. 

The need for instant gratification hasn’t always been so strong. In the days before online shopping and smartphone apps, household items were purchased in person or from a mail-order catalog, and food deliveries weren’t as common as they are now. 

4. Families Don’t Eat Together Anymore

The family dinner used to be an almost sacred ritual every evening. The television was turned off and there weren’t any smartphones. It was a time for everyone in the family to get together and catch up with each other while enjoying dinner.

Family schedules have become so busy, it’s hard to get everyone together to sit down for a meal each day. On the occasions when those meals take place, the people at the table have to compete with electronic distractions. It’s just not the same. 

5. Over-Reliance on Technology 

Doing things manually used to be expected. If you wanted to change the television channel or turn a light on or off, you got up and did it. If you needed to write a book report for school, you had to visit the library and find a book. 

Those and many more activities have been replaced by technology. Books have been replaced by digital versions, remote controls are used to change television channels, and the Internet of Things makes it easy to turn off a light with a simple voice command. 

6. Higher Home and Car Prices

Seniors recall when new homes didn’t cost half a million dollars and new cars didn’t cost three times a year’s salary. In their young adult years, buying a home and a car without going completely broke was possible.

Unfortunately, buying a new car is quickly becoming a privilege, and becoming a homeowner seems further out of reach. This isn’t just happening to young adults; all age groups are affected by skyrocketing prices.

7. Working on Sundays and Holidays

There was a time when most places were closed on Sundays and major holidays. This was a nice practice, especially for retail workers who were able to enjoy at least one guaranteed day of rest, even if they weren’t religious.

The same policies also used to apply to major holidays. The only stores that were open on major holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas were convenience stores. Today, many retailers are not only open on major holidays, but some of them are opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving to draw in Black Friday shoppers. 

8. Religion Isn’t Practiced As Much

Attending church at least once a week used to be practiced by many baby boomers. Entire families would dress in their finest clothes and worship with other members of the community at their local house of worship.

Going to church seems to have fallen out of favor with the younger generations. Even when they do attend, dressing up in their best outfits has been replaced by casual attire like jeans, sweatpants, and sneakers. 

9. Neighbors Aren’t Neighborly 

It wasn’t that many decades ago when neighbors not only knew each other and were cordial, they were truly friends with each other. Neighbors had dinner and barbecues at each others’ homes, and they raised their kids together. 

That’s dramatically changed over the years. Neighborhood relationships and gatherings have been replaced by indoor and external home security and surveillance systems. The sense of community has been replaced with fear and suspicion. 

10. Too Much Cell Phone Time

Cell phones have made our lives incredibly convenient, but they’ve also become one of the biggest distractions ever. Wherever you go, you’ll see people fixated on their cell phones, even when they’re driving – which is highly dangerous, by the way. 

People spend so much time on their cell phones that they’ve all but lost the art of having a face-to-face conversation with others. They don’t even use their phones to talk to others because texting and instant messaging have become the preferred way of communication. 

11. Music Used to be Better

Every generation claims the music from their era was far better than the popular music of the current era. In all fairness, historically speaking, there has been good and bad music on both sides of the generational divide. This time around, the seniors have an excellent point. 

Music today lacks creativity and originality, and the songs from a given artist all sound the same. You can’t differentiate one track from another, and autotune has replaced singing ability. I’ll listen to old-school music any day of the week. 

12. Cancel Culture Has Run Amok

Humans are imperfect and we all make mistakes—a lot of them. There used to be a time when a person could make a mistake, show remorse, be forgiven after a period of time, and be allowed to continue with their lives as wiser and smarter people.

Making a misstep now means having it go viral online for everyone to see, and being vilified by the world. There’s no grace being shown to people who’ve made an honest mistake or erred because they didn’t know any better.

13. Less Job Security

Baby boomers were lucky enough to come into adulthood during a time when a person could land a decent-paying job with one company, work there until they retired, and collect a healthy pension to carry them through their golden years.

Those days are long gone. Workers are jumping from job to job for various reasons aside from better opportunities. More companies are outsourcing their operations to other countries, laying off workers, or going out of business, making the job market far less secure than ever before. 

14. No One Writes Letters 

Before emails, texts, instant messaging, and video calling, people wrote letters to each other. There were letters between pen pals, thank you letters, or ones to catch up with far-away friends and relatives. It was a regular activity. 

With all the available technologies making communication easier, letter-writing has become a lost art. There was something special about seeing a handwritten envelope with your name on it, knowing someone took the time to write to you. 

15. Lack of Respect for Elders

Many were taught from an early age to respect their elders. It wasn’t just expected, it was considered extremely bad manners to disrespect them. I’m not sure when that changed, but being rude to older people has become acceptable. 

Over the last few years, if a person from a younger generation disagreed with their elders or didn’t like what they had to say, the go-to response is “Okay, boomer.” It’s not only disrespectful, it’s insulting and dismissive. 

16. People Don’t Read Books As Much 

Going to the library and checking out books to read, or stopping by the neighborhood bookstore to pick up the newest releases was something people looked forward to. They were an important part of a community. Libraries are still highly valued but the amount of traffic they see is dropping. 

Some bookstores are closing, but the ones staying open had to adjust their business models to keep up with changes in reading habits. Customers are opting for audiobooks or reading electronic versions of books on their smartphones, tablets, and e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle. 

17. Unusual Clothing Choices

Complaints about clothing is a common one among every generation, but there’s something to be said for today’s fashions versus what was fashionable in the boomer generation. Boomers went from wearing hippie attire to leisure suits to disco clothes. 

Boomers are understandably unimpressed with the clothing choices of the current generation, which often includes wearing jeans with so many rips in them, they look like they should be thrown away instead of being worn in public.