E
very generation likes to tell the next that they’ve never had it so good, while secretly believing that the world is going to pot (which it is, obviously).
At the most prosaic end of this inter-generational game of one-upmanship lies discussion of technological change.
“Of course,” a 70-year-old might wibble, “we didn’t have a television until I went to secondary school,” which sounds rather woeful until they add: “so instead I read lots of books, which made me clever; and I played outside a lot, which made me fit and strong.” They will deny that they were ever bored, and then tell you about their massive pension.
