So, Our Conversation Today Is Communication Across the Generational Divide
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So, our conversation today is communication across the generational divide. And let me go ahead and tell you that the presentation will be a PowerPoint because, because I was going to try to create some kahoots and some other things and make it more enjoyable and engaging since we are on zoom and just try to make it more interesting. And you know what happened? I ran out of time and realized, I know how to play Kahoot, but setting up a Kahoot I need a, I need a couple more days to play with it and do what I wanted to do. So, I know how to use it, but being a creator of content, well, that's one of those cross generational things. Y'all could probably put it together in six minutes. It was going to take me a little bit longer than that, so we didn't do that. So, in terms of cross generational communication, let me give you an example of one that I had recently actually it has been a while, but with one of my children. So, I asked my child, what's your friend's name and he said Dede. And my response was that is not his name, that is not the name his Mama gave him and then my son told me, but Mama that's not what you asked me. And I was thinking, Well, of course that's what I asked you. I asked you the child's name. My son says, yeah but you didn't ask me what his Mama named him. You asked me his name. And that's that, and that's that cross generational communication in which things can be misunderstood because of how we communicate to each other. To my son, his name Dede all day, every day. And for me, the child name is what Mama calls him. So, David or Don or Billy Bob, whatever the name is. That's one example, a very simplistic example of a cross generational communication mishap. Okay, so with that being said, there are several generations that exist on campus, some of which you've heard, some of which you might be mistaken for. Because I hear people referring to young people as millennials, millennials, millennials, millennials all the time, and many of you are not millennials. Some of you may be, but many of you are not. The ones that we have on campus are the traditionalist Generation, Baby Boomers, generation X, Millennials, Generation Z. And all of these various generations are impacted by various things. Technology, the economy, health care, right now. Certainly, generations depending on which generation you're in, you're more impacted by the pandemic than others. In terms of your health care, as well as your economic, economic stance. Education, politics, et cetera. Various generations feel various ways about various things. When you talk about certain movements, you know, you'll have to eat, well, you know, she from the old-time generation, she'll think like we do now, you know, that kind of stuff. So various factors impact the various generations. So, the traditionalist, those who were born prior to 1946, okay. And you're thinking, I assume you're thinking, we got people on campus who was born in 1944, 1945? And the answer is yes, we do have employees on campus who've been here 40-50 years as employees. And when you do the math and you subtract it back, you go, well, goodness, they have to be at least 70, 80 years old to work on campus. And that's true. So, what's, what's some information about a traditionalist? Well, one of the things that you have to remember is World War II, if you remember from, from history classes, that was 1939-1945, right? So, they might've been born during World War II. One of the primary modes of communication during the day, during that time was letter writing. Hand, cause y'all seen us write letters, right? Letters of recommendation and things. Letters of interest to a job, et cetera. But hand-written letters in cursive, right? In cursive writings. Telegraphs, which you guys probably does anybody, in fact hold on. Somebody unmute tell if you know, can you tell me if you know what a telegraph is? Anybody? I might find something in my office for you if you can tell me what Telegraph is. It's like a, like a line and you tap, you tap on a metal rod and it sends out, it's kind of like Morse code, right? You got it. A telegraph, actually, when you, when you look at, AT&T, its original name was the American telegraph and telephone company. Now we just know it as AT&T and some of us have it for our cellphones and our Internet and all of it. But the original name back, way back in the day, way, way back, was the American telegraph and telephone company. So, for traditionalist folks, they remember the telegraph, that's how they communicated. Landlines. Y'all know? Everybody knows. Yeah, everybody knows about a landline. You may not have ever used a landline phone, but you know what one is, correct? Everybody. Thank you so much because some people believe it or not your age do not. It's very interesting. And then modes of transportation, boats, ships, trains, cars. Transportation was really developing during this time because not everybody had a car, and not everybody could jump on a boat or a ship. You did have some people who still using horse and buggy, if you can believe that, or if you can imagine it. Okay. A couple of cultural references. Casa Blanca, that’s a famous movie from 1942, and that's that picture up in the top right. You've probably seen in various movies and things where people reenact this famous scene with Humphrey, was it Humphrey Bogart and I forget the actresses name. But there, you know, in the fall, and he's got on this little, neat little hat, and she's in the hat, and they're, you know, saying goodbye to each other. That scene had been played in various movies and re-enacted in different ways. But that's from 1942 Casa Blanca. Captain America. Now we know Captain America. Right? A little different. He doesn’t look like this dude, you know, punching the other dude now, right? He looks a lot different now, right? He's quite, he looks a lot different. I was going to say he's quite handsome, but, but he looks very different. He looks very different than this dude. But that's Captain America from 1944. That's when he first came on the scene, and you can see right there, he looks just like a just a regular old dude. And then White Christmas we, Chris Brown has a version of White Christmas. And I think Mariah Carey, a lot of others, but it originated in 1942 with a singer by the name of Bing Crosby. Okay, so those are some cultural references to give you a sense of, of what the traditionalist life looks like from back in the day. Okay, baby boomers and let me go back. I keep hitting this mouse. Okay. Baby boomers were born between 1940 and 1960. And I know from social media some of y'all use the term boomers. Hey boomer. If you don't, you know some people who do right? Don't shake your head because you know you do. I can see some of y'all looking at me like No, I don't. But you grinning, and you know what I'm talking about, I see you grinning. Okay. When people say, hey boomer, this is the generation that you're talking about born between 19401960. They were basically born after World War II. There was a period of time after men and women came home from the war. They came home from the war and there was an increase in births. Ya'll understand. Okay. And that's what that baby boomer generation is all about. Okay? This is when folks staying home yet again from the war and they had money to go to college. So that idea about the American dream began, began to develop. More people were going to college, they were buying houses, they were looking at their retirement accounts and all these things. That's where the American Dream, that concept started to become realized. We had an increase in malls, and drive ins, and theaters. We had an increase in women working outside the home. For those of us who are modern-day women, it's hard to think of ourselves as being, as being a stay at home king of chick. But at that time, it was very commonplace for the woman to work only at the home. Television programming began to increase. You know, prior to this time we had a lot of programming, a lot of broadcast program, but it was all on the radio. So, you know, TV shows that we are, that we will watch now, like Captain America, Superman, Batman, all this kind of stuff used to be on the radio. Soap operas, used to be on the radio, all this stuff. We started to see the beginnings of the civil rights movement, which was very important to me. And in terms of communication styles, you know, baby boomers are used to face-to-face communications, telephone, the land line.