Sunday, August 20, 2017

The Kamikaze kids of millennial generation

The kids from the millennial generation are so different - a generation with a high sense of entitlement. Lot of things we used to strive for and earn it, they take it as granted from their parents.

They yell at their parents at the slightest of pretext, which we rarely did in our generation. Making eye contact with fathers was a taboo for many, most confided their issues to their mothers. It was the norm to look down towards your feet while talking to male elders, a sign of obedience, otherwise you will be looked down upon by the society which mattered more than the individuals then. Not anymore. 

It was not much different when I joined Engineering, where we were supposed to talk to our seniors looking at the 2nd button of our shirt lest we invite a tight slap. (One of my friends while looking down got nervous and fumbled. So instead of addressing a senior as "you are my Senior God and I the junior Dog, he swapped the words God and Dog. He ended up getting a few slaps as bonus)

The driving force behind this present day behavior of kids is a convoluted sense of entitlements as Rights from their parents. The simple reason - we tend to pamper them more. The lesser the kids, more is the pampering. 

Most of them grow in single, non nuclear families without any grandparents to play or sooth them with affection. AAI (Grandmother in Odia) is now replaced by iGadgets, but gadgets and Apps are no substitute to Grandpas. Soon friends will be replaced by Robots (we give so many toys to our kids, those toys being no less robotic than the real Robots). 

These Kamikaze kids are mostly parents who belong to the category of DIOK (Double Income One Kid), live in Metros and take everything for granted. It is because due to lack of time and inability to provide their kid a sibling, they tend to shower or bribe them with whatever they crave for. The kid often grows up with lack of sharing tendency and a staunch inability to accept a firm "No" as an answer. This adds fuel to the fiery sense of entitlement of present generation at an early stage in life. 

Most from my time grew up with at least a couple of siblings to give company in households, some running well into double digits. It wasn't uncommon for our grandparents to live with us. My mom instructed us to share everything with our siblings, including our farts. When one emitted a silent, sneaky one, upon discovered moments later would be yelled at - "CHHEECHHEE JAA ETHU JAA", "Yuck, Yuck. Go away from here". Now this generation's single kids have no one but only inanimate gadgets to silently give company to their silent fart.

It probably explains why the Chinese, where an entire generation born post 1978 when their authorities ruthlessly implemented their "One child"policy are getting increasingly pugnacious. An entire millennial generation, all who grew up as single, lonely kids have a high sense of entitlement, with crave to be pampered, with an innate inability to take No for an answer. That might be a factor behind their bullying over neighbors - the Doklam standoff with India being the perfect example.

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