When we were young we often resented the way in which older people would lay down the law and make it clear that they knew how things were. It was accepted that they knew which wines needed time to mature and which didn’t; the right part of the year when you should plant tulips; which is the best way to drive between A and B. Even if we thought we had a good idea ourselves, we accepted that experienced people probably knew best.
But nowadays it seems the situation is very often the other way round. I am going to visit a couple of far-off friends, and it’s my son who knows where I should be when on the journey, and – useful these days – what to do if there are cancellations, or trouble, or changes that I might not understand.
I’m grateful, of course, but there do seem to be too many ways in which we elders have to accept that the young really do know more – if only because they have consulted the internet. We, the older generation, no longer assume that what we think, the way it has been in our experience, is bound to be right. We may just have to accept that some of the young may have found hard information on the net about a place, say, that may be more useful than the vague assumptions of someone who has lived there for 20 years.
I wonder how they will feel when it comes to be their turn to find they are getting older. I’m pretty certain that they won’t feel as though they are stepping into their father’s shoes at last, or that they can cook as well as granny. But with any luck they will take their mastery of the internet to the end.
What do you think? Have your say below
