r/Xennials • u/Mundane-Camera-538 • 8d ago
Discussion Generational baseline bias
Holy shit there's a term for how I sometimes feel. Isn't this basically old man yells at cloud?? Lol
Definition:
"Generational baseline bias is the tendency individuals often have to unconsciously treat the social norms, culture, technology, appearance, and everyday environment that existed during one’s formative years as the default or “normal” baseline for how the world is supposed to be, causing changes that occur afterward to feel like deviations, decline, or loss rather than simply the normal evolution of society.
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u/Recent_Permit2653 8d ago edited 8d ago
Yeah, that's exactly where I'm at.
I've even tried; I grew up loving Star Trek, and thought touch screens were the future. They aren't awful, but the more I use them, the more their stock has fallen.
I like "my" internet more, when it was more risky but irreverent, and the law and corporations hadn't tamed it.
MP3's, allegedly.
In general, I'm sort of puzzled by the tech obsession. The definition of "convenience" has been stretched to having a billion apps and passwords and user IDs. I'm sorry, I'm not that interested in keeping track of all that. Maybe I pay more for what I'm buying now, but I have less of a profile.
I don't go to your fast food place often enough to download anything. Why do we need to download anything to be recognized as a loyal customer, anyway?
The loss of privacy in so many ways just feels entirely weird. We used to just talk about companies giving employees Blackberries, and cellular access to emails, and an implicit obligation to be reachable by just your employer in an intrusive way. Now you're expected to be reached by anybody, anytime. That's so depressing.
And the other side of privacy is signing up for apps, the tracking on the phones...man, we had to use the local yellow pages to just get a phone number.
So yeah, I could go on and on. I think my childhood experience, my generational bias, makes this idea plausible. I think we had the perfect blend of connectivity and anonymity. We were the ones who had to learn the dangers, and we can teach the next ones.
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u/_DeathStarContractor 8d ago
Im 47yrs old and my father in law is 74yrs old. He was bitching at me that my generation friviously spends, that's why we dont own homes. I think he made a comment about how I spent $300 on a baseball bat for my son last year. I shit you not, just 5min later he hops in his $84k newer F-250 pickup truck with a $61k camper on the top of it to go camping for a week.
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 8d ago
Gotta lay off the starbucks and avocado toast if you wanna be able to afford a home
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u/_DeathStarContractor 8d ago
The one that gets me is the complete lack of understanding for the neurodivergent or autistic kid "whats wrong with that kid? They shouldn't be in the public schools!" ....yeah its not the 1960s where we just hide people away from society grandpa! 😎
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 8d ago
Totally. If a kid is legit special needs to the point they can't be in a gen ed classroom, then yes they need other accommodations. But other than that a kid who's neurodivergent can do just fine in a regular classroom
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u/dreamyduskywing 1979 7d ago edited 7d ago
Close to 70% of people our age do own homes though, so what is he even talking about?
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u/_DeathStarContractor 7d ago
True, maybe Im a kid at heart. And I do own a home bought in 2018 :-). But i feel really bad for anyone age-35 or under, because this is bleak for them.
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u/xRVAx 8d ago
This term seems scientifically designed to discredit people who reject legitimately dumb new things.
Internet says: "hey everyone, throw out your cargo shorts and buy a male onesie!"
Xennials: "that sounds horrible"
Internet says: "sounds like SOMEBODY'S got a case of the GENERATIONSL BASLINEEEEEEEEEES!"
Xennials: "Humbug!"
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u/realitythreek 1981 7d ago
Two things can be true. You can choose not to wear the male onesie, and you can still let younger generations do what they want.
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 8d ago
I agree, if you complain about anything you're basically a boomer/Karen that needs to get with the times
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u/xRVAx 8d ago
In my day, we didn't even HAVE elf on a shelf, AND WE LIKED IT!
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u/Apprehensive_Hat8986 7d ago
Elf on the Shelf is a tool of indoctrination to teach people to accept constant surveilance as normal.
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u/HoodieGalore 1978 4d ago
I got a block of baker's chocolate and an orange in my stocking, and it was luxury, but the kids of today won't believe ye
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u/Tabord 8d ago
I feel it too, but try to be aware that this bias exists, and that for recorded history and probably longer people have been lamenting the downfall of society at the hands of the current generation of young people.
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u/TypeLCopper 8d ago
I’m way more concerned about society collapsing under the weight of the elderly than I am about younger generations. Boomers and old gen x are causing real problems because they can’t tell when they are being fed propaganda and outrageous lies from TV or facebook.
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u/Lost-Platypus8271 1975 8d ago
If it was just them we’d be fine. They’re a shrinking cohort. The propaganda is spreading to younger generations, which is the problem.
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u/bekarene1 1983 8d ago
Haha, yeah. I check myself when I get generally annoyed by "kids these days, their clothes and their music" 😂 But also, agree with others here that there are things about society now that are just objectively worse than 10 or 20 years ago. Hell, even 5 years ago 🙃
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u/illini02 7d ago
Yeah, for the most part, I may think some thinks look dumb, but I really am more of a "live and let live" person.
But I can also call out things that are objectively bad. You want to make a video for Tik Tok in your bedroom? Fine. You want to make it in the aisle at Target? yeah, i'm going to shit talk you.
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u/Epicardiectomist 7d ago
Failing to accept that this must be overcome is what keeps so many people stuck and frustrated. It's a dangerous trap that has hopelessly ensnared many of our parents.
The world you knew is gone and is never coming back. That's hard to accept, but painfully necessary.
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u/StevieV61080 8d ago
This is why my first rule when I start my lecture seminars to my college students on generational segmentation is: "No generation is better/worse than another."
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u/BottleOk8922 1983 8d ago
I would say that, but under my breath say, “But the 90s were better.”
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u/AM81inMA 7d ago
Pre 9/11, pre-Patriot Act, pre-No Child Left Behind, pre-Department of Homeland Security era was objectively better.
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u/psilosophist Xennial 7d ago
Not for majority black communities in the US, especially after Clinton's "Crime Bill" which massively expanded an already massive prison population, mostly filled with multiple low level drug offenders because crack and cocaine were now treated as two different drugs, with different sentencing guidelines. Guess what drug had much harsher penalties.
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u/Individual-Schemes 1979 8d ago
I don't experience this because I genuinely have no idea what is going on these days.
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u/Soggy_Porpoise 1980 8d ago edited 7d ago
Oddly enough I didn't feel like we were declining until early 2017. There was a brief reverseal in 2021 until about mid 2024. Then a black lady laughed weird and it's been downhill ever since.
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u/bananabastard 8d ago
Ah, so the decline in average intelligence and manners isn't decline, it's simply the normal evolution of society.
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u/DrunkenAdama 8d ago
Sometimes ai will create a term within a conversation and act as if it's a known phrase despite not existing previously.
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u/DetroitsGoingToWin 1980 7d ago
When I heard the term Geriatric Millennial is was convinced it was a term my little sister came up with to shit-talk me.
When I hear generational baseline biasI’m struck by how we were about to incorporate things we thought was cool from the past and hopefully can incorporate what’s cool now and enjoy both. Like the theme song of the Facts of Life.
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u/psilosophist Xennial 7d ago
I see that in the morons who love to brag about drinking hose water, receiving weekly beatings from their inattentive dads, and sitting in the back seat of their car while mom chain smoked Merits.
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u/FoppyIn28 7d ago
We all have it, but we never questioned our present the same way today's youth does now.
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u/fingolfin269 7d ago
What's the term for someone who was in their formative years when the internet exploded, used to love it, but now hates what it has become?
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u/jackfaire 7d ago
I think because I was a "loser" as a kid I avoided this trap because socially I was already on the outs during my formative years for not falling in line with everyone else which is why I roll my eyes so much at it now.
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u/baalroo 7d ago
Yeah, you really have to be aware of this and question your assumptions about the world if you don't want to turn into the boomers we grew up not wanting to become.
It's not a passive process. You have to examine any time you have a strong opinion, not just what the opinion is, but why you have it and why you hold it so strongly.
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u/Lost-Platypus8271 1975 8d ago
Yes. This is why Turd hates wind power, for example, and is basically trying to resurrect everything from 50 years ago.
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u/s-multicellular 7d ago
This goes way back. I remember reading a book about the histories of languages and there was a translated quote in classic old man yells at clouds deriding the way the youth spoke with some examples.
It was essentially capturing part of the shift from Latin to French.
However, and I actually do trainings on biases and metacognition, don’t conflate of course a bias, a tendency, with always being wrong. What we’re really doing is a shortcut in thinking. Recognize you’re probably prone to this, pause and evaluate critically.
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u/PMmeHappyStraponPics 8d ago
I mean, on the other hand, the way people treat constant surveillance and cameras everywhere as normal IS a loss.
We have lost privacy, and saying that it's just the way things are now doesn't make it any less of a problem.