I have to admit to being curious about some of the click bait that pops up on my computer. I saw prompt the other day that purported to describe the differing ways that millennials see the world as compared to their Boomer grandparents. I had to laugh when I scrolled through the predictions of how the world will change drastically within the next twenty years because my Boomer husband has already been proclaiming the glories of many of the new ways of doing things that millennials are supposedly embracing. Evidently he is way ahead of most of his peers in trending toward a new kind of world.
My husband is totally convinced that the future is calling and everyone will go there. He is chomping at the bit to own an electric car but he is taking his time studying them to determine how to get the most value for the least amount of money. He is convinced that one day our roads will be filled with safe autonomous electric vehicles that will revolutionize travel the way the gas engine cars once did. He sees a time when nobody will have to fight with an elderly person to wrench the car keys from his/her unwilling hands because the cars themselves will do the driving to and fro. He is utterly convinced that the revolution is already in process and will only escalate in the coming years.
My guy has already turned our home into a smart home that he can operate from thousands of miles away. Even on vacations we have little robotic vacuum cleaners whirring about the rooms keeping things tidy and dust free. Our sprinklers know when and how to water our plants. The lights go on and off at his command or according to a preplanned schedule. Cameras alert him to movement and live photos tell him if he needs to call the local police to report a break-in. Sometimes the automation is annoying and other times it demonstrates the possibilities of a future in which people will be able to keep things running smoothly with only the swoosh of a finger.
The world is quickly changing and those who don’t adapt will be left behind according to my spouse. He duly noted around the time that he was retiring from the banking business that fewer and fewer people and buildings will be needed to transact business in the future. In fact, most banking needs can be met from anywhere in the world without ever contacting a human. The millennials know and embrace this but some of the older crowd are struggling with the idea of paperless and people less financial trails. Banks still have lobbies but most of them are now echoing caverns were few customers ever come.
Malls are suffering the same fate. Younger people no longer converge on them for entertainment. They’d rather order whatever they need online to be delivered to their homes. The pandemic actually changed our family’s shopping ways as well. Now we simply order most of what we need with a few clicks of the keyboard on our laptops or phones. Delivery trucks drive up and down the streets of our neighborhood like milkmen once did in the days of old telling us that commerce has already changed from what it used to be.
Ubers are so popular and easy to order that there is literally very little reason for the elderly to need a car even in cities like Houston, Texas where mass transit is only minimally available. I often think of how wonderful this service would have been for my mother when she reached a point of becoming a bit dangerous behind the wheel of an automobile. She would have been free to go wherever she wished without worrying us that she might be endangering herself and others with a car.
The world is evolving and progressing just as it should be and always has. Sometimes we like to cling to the familiar even when it becomes apparent that the old ways no longer work as well as they once did. The comical dreams of a Jetson’s kind of world are moving quickly into place and the young people are embracing the utility of such scenarios. They are eating differently, entertaining themselves differently, purchasing differently and investing differently. They are challenging the old ways and pushing for the new. Ironically my husband is right there with them, if not maybe just a bit ahead of them.
We Boomers pushed the envelope of progress just as our grandparents and parents did when they were young. Now we should be looking to a new generation and encouraging them to be as innovative as they possibly can be. Many of the things that they advocate will make life easier for all of us.
I imagine a time when the elderly and infirm will be able to live independently in their homes rather than requiring residence in assisted living facilities. They will be transported and serviced by technologies that are being developed even as I type these words. Smart homes, smartphones and smart cars will assist them in ways that make it possible for them to enjoy the comfort and familiarity of home while still being monitored by family members and friends and neighbors. They will have their freedoms for many more years than is now possible. It’s an exciting thing to consider and my husband has me dreaming away about a wonderful future.
We sometimes have a tendency to want to cling to the memories of our youth rather than celebrating the trends of tomorrow. We memorialize the old days as though they were the high point of history. The millennials are moving forward just as young people have always done. We would do well to watch and learn from them. They have some very good ideas.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 