Let's be clear. Did you really know exactly what you wanted at the age of 15-20? And if so, tell me honestly, right now, at your age, is this what you are doing? And you have been moving towards this all your life, step by step, and are you sure that you did everything right? Congratulations, from the point of view of world statistics, you are among the 2% of people who did not change their field of activity, did not work in non-core work and did not receive an education that has nothing to do with the primary or is not related. The data is inexorable: the vast majority of people are determined with their "calling" by the age of 25-30.

What is worth learning: the realization that the world is changing so fast that at the age of 15-20 to make some Important Fundamental Decisions and blindly follow a once chosen plan is at least naive. When I was 15, the Internet seemed like something stupid to sit in a chat room. Now I am in charge of a large Internet project. Did I know about it at 15, could I choose this as a matter of life? No, no and NO.

They don't plan years ahead

Our grandparents knew how to save. Many have accumulated very tangible sums. And they lost everything in the early 90s. Our moms and dads knew how to save. Many have accumulated very tangible sums. And they lost everything in the 98th. We were able to save. Many even accumulated quite tangible sums. We lost some in 2008 and the rest in 2014. Hello, do you really think it makes sense to plan your life? Our children understand that the world is unpredictable, and if you have the opportunity to do something now, you must do it. No one knows what will happen in a year, what multi-year planning?

What is worth learning: bring joy to yourself here and now. I love to travel, but I always thought that at first .... And then ... and only then ... And my daughter taught me to spend money on studying Angkor Wat in Cambodia, fly to Athens for my birthday and generally count, that as long as there are countries in the world whose roads have not trampled my feet, this should not be postponed to a future that may not come.

They don't dream of cool cars and big salaries.

I bought my first car at the age of 19 and thought I was cool to the point of impossibility. A personal car as a symbol of coolness still lives in my head. I was horrified when I found out that no one - spelled - N AND K T O - from my daughter's friends, friends of their friends, acquaintances and buddies (I will make a reservation: I'm talking about Moscow) does not even think about buying a car as some kind of achievement.

Why do they need a car? Public transport lucky quickly and inexpensively, in another situation, you can take an affordable taxi. It's easier, cheaper, and more practical than messing around with technical inspections, gas, taxes, maintenance, and repairs.

What is worth learning: Delegate, you don't have to carry everything. Do not buy too much, use the resource wisely. Ponty in the past, it is important - convenience.

They only want pleasure

I remember very well how I thought that every penny saved should be put into a savings ... okay, in a savings paper envelope. I denied myself, I’m silent about a full-fledged trip to a cafe, because “this is for the wealthy” was sitting in my head.

I still have a hard time throwing away torn tights (but I'm working on myself), because "well, they're still good, why throw them away right away." I kept a “for guests” service in the closet and drank from chipped cups. These kids walk out of the store wearing a new outfit they just bought because it's cool! Yes, perhaps in a year there will be hunger and a nightmare. And then who will appreciate the new cool sweatshirt?

They don't have a goal

Well, well, now some choice has been made, now a decision has been made, but globally? What do you kids want - globally? They crumple, mumble and do not understand what we want from them, and we are like this: there must be a PURPOSE in life! Cretins.

None of us has a clue what the meaning of life is, and for what purpose of the universe we all were born. All that is in our power is to live this life in such a way that there is something to remember, or to take a reverse photo before death, in which there will be a treadmill flooded with sweat and blood.

What is worth learning: there is no point in overcoming difficulties, they will never end. You overcome one - there will be others. No matter how much you brush your teeth in the morning, by the evening they still require cleaning. Therefore, do what is necessary, but remember every day: if you did not rejoice today, you deprived yourself of joy for one whole day of life.

They don't set benchmarks

Many of us grew up in the paradigm “by 25 get married (get married), by 30 give birth to the first, by 35 the second, at 40 open your own business.” Change the dates, change the goals - the essence of the matter remains the same. We had a clear plan for achievement, limited by specific time frames.

These children live according to the principle of "how it goes." I was shocked when I asked my then young daughter who, in her understanding, is a young mother. She replied: "The one who recently gave birth." Age did not fit into the understanding at all! They don't consider 40 year olds to be old, they don't consider 60 year olds to be infirm. They are very specific comrades: they evaluate only this-given-only person, his capabilities and potential.

What is worth learning: we are very different, we have different paths and different priorities. No one should be put into a Procrustean bed (sorry) of standards, indicators and age limits. People are individual. They are not required to comply with any statistics, and even more so - to be condemned for it.

They are ready to go to any country where it is good

No patriotism! If everyone leaves, who will raise Russia from its knees? Yes, they are ready to raise, no, really. Create conditions. They do not mind! They simply (see above) do not want to sacrifice anything, endure and wait. You are not ready now to provide suitable conditions? Well, sorry, life is one, and not as long as we would like. If you don't buy, others will.

They don’t care, honestly, which country to raise, because they don’t care about all the countries in the world. They raise their standard of living, and nothing more.

What is worth learning: the person is alone. And if you do not take care of yourself first and foremost, very soon you will find yourself dependent either on other people, or on circumstances, or - surprise - on the system that has enslaved you. The world is very big and very diverse. And it's stupid, stupid to limit yourself to the limits that you yourself have come up with.

They do not understand people, their criteria are blurred

One day my daughter excitedly told me about some events in their teenage get-together. Now it does not matter at all what the matter was, it was important something else. In her speech, the names of the participants in the situation slipped every now and then. “And then Frol says ...”, “And Lena at that moment ...”, “And then Salim comes ...”, “Well, Yulia and I ...”, “And when Nathan called ... »

They have no respect for family

They don't clean their rooms, they don't want to take part in the washing up, they don't care about summer cottages and collecting Colorado beetles. They do not share their secrets and do not understand what a “clan” is.

What is worth learning: they initially do not want to depend on anyone. They are ready to take responsibility for their lives and do not want extra "anchors". You may not like the word "superfluous", but it's the harsh truth: we are all born and die alone. And in this life it is worth relying only on yourself, this gives a huge head start in reaching any heights and stability of the psyche. Believe me. Better try it.

These kids think they are the only way be self-confident: believe only in yourself. At the same time, they love us. To love and to depend are different stories.

They are willing to spend years looking for themselves

We were scared. But they don't. In their 15-20s, they honestly say: yes, we have no idea who we are and why. Wait and see. That is, they stole our uncertainty formula and turned it into their slogan. They really want to live and see. They don't need guarantees. They are ready to take risks and act according to the situation.

What is worth learning: faith in yourself. Nobody told them that it would be good, but they are still not ready to sacrifice in the name of potential success. They bet on themselves and win, because at this time we sit in the kitchens, calculate the risks and do not decide on anything.

We have grown up amazing kids. This is exactly what we can be congratulated on.

HEY!
- Father, why are you crying?
- CAN YOU HEAR ME?
- Yes, you can be heard in Europe! What happened?
- I CALL MY OWN! THIS IS GREAT!
- Dad, you must be holding the watch millimeters from your face. Put your hand down and we'll talk.
- HOW WAS YOUR DAY?
- You're still screaming. Put your wrist down and we'll talk.

Generation Z lives in a different world where, thanks to rapid scientific and technological progress, the barriers between the physical and virtual worlds have practically collapsed. We call it the phygital world.

Today you can buy something both in a regular store and on the Internet. You can write and send a regular letter, or you can send an email. You can work in the office or remotely. And so on. Choice is great, but having it gives rise to a lot of controversy. As a rule, they come down to clarifying the question of which solution is better - virtual or real.

Generation Z is different in that they do not see the difference between the virtual and the real at all. What is there to argue about?

Watch Generation Z to learn how they manage to combine the real and the virtual in their consumer habits, life and work.

For Gen Z, personalization is essential

A typical conversation between a parent and their Gen Z child:
- Father, the Gremps gave me a Kanye West CD for my birthday.
- Excellent!
Wasted money, don't you think?
- Why? I thought you loved Kanye?
- I love, but not all the songs. It would be better if the Gremps gave me gift Certificate on iTunes so I can compose my playlist.

Like all generations, Generation Z faced teenage insecurities, the desire to “find their game” and the desire to showcase their uniqueness at the same time. There are things that never change. But Generation Z is much easier to create a whole that makes them stand out from the crowd, because they were brought up in a highly personalized world.

From Twitter tweets, Instagram posts, and Facebook pages, my generation has a myriad of ways to identify and personalize a personal brand and communicate it to the world. It's super easy! All you have to do is look at my Facebook feed and in a few seconds you will know what I love.

The opinion of the representative of generation Z

From the media to politics and beyond, Generation Z has unprecedented power to choose and control their preferences. This is a wonderful thing, if used for good purposes.

What should we learn from Gen Z? technological advancement, open-mindedness, determination.

Generation Z is practical

A typical conversation between a parent and their Gen Z child:
- Jonah, next semester you have one optional elective. Why don't you take art history?
- Why her?
- To learn more about art.
- Why?
- What do you mean?
- How does this relate to at least one of my goals? I would like to attend courses that will really be useful to me in the future.

Well-deserved rest (of course, old man can continue labor activity if he wants it and his health allows);

Age-related features (diseases, a tendency to forgetfulness, certain character traits, changes in appearance);

Special needs (elderly people need special care, attention, understanding and respect).

As for the problems of youth, young people talked about the following. At present, due to significant reductions in the material base, not every young person has the opportunity to spend cultural leisure time, get an education, and fulfillment in life. Therefore, many receive "education" on the street. Not being able to get a job, since now not only pensioners, but also young professionals without work experience are faced with the problem of employment, young people are forced to expand the field of self-realization and may be involved in dubious enterprises, various criminal groups. Many are now forced to trade in the bazaar, because they see no other prospects.

To the question: what older generation can learn from the younger? , the elderly replied that now is coming scientific and technical progress, there are many innovations, for example, a computer, so young people should teach the elderly to master various kinds of innovations.

Young people, in turn, would like to learn household chores from the older generation, such as needlework, cooking and others. Also, they would like to learn to be more sensitive, as people today have become quite "calous", mutual respect. Young people were also of the opinion that the elderly should teach them how to build relationships in the family, that is, the culture of the family, because today the number of divorces, single-parent families has greatly increased, there are fewer and fewer multi-generational families, grandparents practically do not take part in raising their grandchildren, and parents, due to their busyness in earning money, devote little time to their children. Therefore, street children are becoming more and more common.

In general, at this event, the younger generation and the older were able to reach mutual understanding and admitted that it was interesting for them to communicate with each other, to hear the opinion of the opposite generation about themselves, and now they have something to think about, and both generations wished that such events were held more.

As a result of this program, young people learned a lot about the life of older people and their age characteristics, they learned about the help they need and who should provide it, they thought about aging, about the future. The students also tried to figure out why we perceive older people through the prism of negative stereotypes. This program helped to understand that old age is not always associated with illness, poverty and loneliness, that it is important not how you look, but how you feel. It is significant that students consider it necessary to strengthen family ties, close communication with the older generation, since they can learn a lot, and also agree that older people definitely need help from their children and grandchildren.

An important conclusion of our study is that the stereotypical perception of older people and old age is subject to correction. This is facilitated by any way of presenting accurate information about the diverse world of older people, about their characteristics, about the age stages of human life, as well as personal contact with representatives of the older generation.

Let's summarize this paragraph.

Intergenerational practices that are developing in modern society offer a mechanism by which people of different generations purposefully cooperate in order to support and protect each other. Intergenerational practices can meet the needs for contacts between generations, breaking down the barriers that modern society established between age groups. For the successful development of our society, it is necessary to combine the experience, knowledge and wisdom of the elderly with the cheerfulness, activity and optimism of the young, interaction and mutual assistance of generations is necessary.

Resource usage social policy, the media and the social environment is necessary to form a positive attitude towards older people. The elimination of discrimination based on age, the reduction of social distances between generations should become priority areas of social policy and the social structure of the Russian state.

Conclusion.

The problem of generations is one of the eternal ones, and this problem is not biological (at this level it also exists in animals) and not even demographic, but socio-cultural or cultural-historical. In this sense, the term generation itself is indefinite. It conveys, first of all, the involvement of people in certain social events (processes) that significantly affect the life of society, and the associated commonality of goals, socio-psychological attitudes, and value orientations that characterize the specifics of their mentality. It's about about changes in the ways and types of continuity, the cultural and historical meaning of which is highlighted by the attitude towards tradition.

In conditions of sharp social changes, of course, the conflict of generations is more clearly revealed, since age characteristics affect the ability to adapt to changes, so that socio-cultural characteristics are, as it were, intertwined with demographic ones. But this does not mean their identification.

Such an identification is fraught with nihilism, that is, the substitution of changes in the types and methods of continuity, the destruction of tradition, and hence the destruction of culture (an example of this is the emergence of a "counterculture" on the basis of the youth movements of the 60-70s), because culture can only develop based on traditions.

Generation is a temporary category. The change of generations is the flow that goes in history, ensuring the transfer of social information, culture, and accumulated experience from one generation to another. But the specific nature of the relationship depends on historical conditions. Therefore, a historical approach to the problem is extremely important. Each society, each era develops a certain type of intergenerational relationship and certain mechanisms for the transmission of culture over time.

In traditional societies, the place of each person was determined from the moment of birth, the problem of personality does not stand there as an independent one, the ways of interconnection of generations, the transfer of experience are defined and unchangeable. The picture is different in today's dynamic society, which constantly confronts each new generation with problems and tasks of self-affirmation, the choice of ways for its development. In such a society, the experience of previous generations cannot fully meet the challenges of the present and future. The mechanisms of transmission of experience themselves do not remain unchanged; accordingly, the "image" of each generation is formed.

Since the generation is a temporary category, the problem is inevitable, connected with the attitude of each generation to the past, present and future. For Russia, this is a particularly acute problem. The rejection of the ideology of the past led to the disintegration of the "connection of times", the feeling of belonging to the history of one's country, one's homeland.

NG asked its respondents about this on the eve of the Day of the Elderly, which is celebrated today

Svetlana BORTKEVICH, chief physician of the 11th city clinical dental clinic:
- I am surprised and admired by the industriousness of the older generation. When old people retire, they still continue to work. Helping children raise their grandchildren household, grow vegetables and fruits in the country, which only multiplies them vitality. Our grandparents are always at work, which, alas, cannot be said about many young people. Often children are willing to pay big money just not to look after their elders. Isn't that why older people with living wealthy relatives quite often end up in nursing homes? It's great that the state takes care of them. But why didn't it even occur to our grandparents to send their frail parents to a social shelter, and we consider this almost the norm? What's happening to us people?

Tatyana SINKEVICH, head of the department day stay disabled people of the territorial center of social services for the population of the Leninsky district of Bobruisk:
- The ability to enjoy life. Many elderly people come to our center to participate in various clubs: they go in for physical education, go on tourist trips, sing, dance. Recently, I see a great craving for computer mastery in the elderly. They need it to communicate with children and relatives who live far away. Some grandparents are in their seventies, but they do not lose optimism. For example, the chairman of one of our hobby clubs, who is raising a disabled daughter, despite difficult trials, is very energetic and elegant woman. She energizes everyone. Such an active interest in life and the desire for communication, cheerfulness and optimism can and wants to be learned.

Dmitry SAIKOV, psychotherapist, showman, singer:
- Modern youth is alien to the concept of traditions, "Belarus", love for the native - that is characteristic of the older generation. We can learn all this from the elders. The main thing is not to be afraid to take advice from outside and not to neglect them. I can't say I'm young myself. I look back and understand that if I had listened to the words of the older generation, I would have avoided many mistakes in life. Older people have something that many do not yet have due to age - wisdom, that which is made up of life experience. We must appreciate it.

Evgeny SVIDERSKY, archpriest:
- If we talk about divine commandments, the commandment about love for parents should be understood in general in relation to older people. We must honor the elders and not neglect their advice, understand that the experience of life cannot be bought for any money. To live life is not a field to cross. This folk wisdom says that one who neglects the experience of elders deprives himself of the opportunity to understand life and respect himself. No plant, no tree can exist without a root. So is a person. He cannot give himself life. This alone is enough to respect the elders, give them your care and listen to their wise words.

Ekaterina CHIGIROVA, teacher primary school Doktorovichskaya high school, Kopyl district:
- It seems to me, responsiveness and mutual assistance. These are the moral qualities that, oddly enough, help to find a balance between the material and the spiritual. People of the older generation, for example, my mother-in-law, come to each other's aid in any situation, they will not leave you in trouble. In today's younger generation, such relationships between friends and neighbors have all but faded away. In addition, older people know how to prioritize, restrain their desires, foresee the future, manage income wisely, and this also increases material well-being. For example, my husband's mother is a pensioner and she has four children. Receiving a pension, she manages to financially help each of her children. At the same time, happiness, as she says, is not in money, the main thing is to respect each other.

Anna-Rosa LOLINNI, former teacher, now retired from Shklov:
- My father is Italian, and my mother is Belarusian. Such a “mixture”, of course, affected my character. When I was younger, I was hot-tempered and principled. The wrangler was unsurpassed. And my mother always told me: “Learn to forgive, be kind, and everything will come back to you a hundredfold.” But did youth hear these wise words? Old people should learn patience, sincerity, kindness, readiness to help at any moment. In my opinion, when a person grows old, he looks at life with completely different eyes. And most importantly, he has time to review many life values, discard all the husks and concentrate on the main thing, which young people cannot always do.

Generation Z are people born in the early 2000s. Now they are about 18 years old or younger, they do not let go of gadgets and do not look like representatives at all. We will find out how they differ from us and what good we can learn from them.

Prefer to do everything themselves

They are interested in what is outside their competence. While others are looking for someone to take matters into their own hands, Gen Zers are looking for information that will help them close their knowledge gaps. How they do it - more on that below.

Learn on Youtube

While older generations are enrolling in courses to learn a new skill, young people are opening Youtube. If something remains unclear to them, they sign up for an individual consultation.

Generation Z sees no point in assimilating information that is not needed. They are aimed at obtaining only the necessary knowledge to solve a particular problem. And not a byte more.

Live on the Internet

They have blogs, channels, they share their lives on the Internet and enjoy it. People who grew up in the age of the Internet do not worry about the disadvantages of virtual life. And the calls “live one day without the Internet” are considered stupid, so you won’t wait for such a step from them!

Switch quickly from task to task

Send SMS, write an important letter, watch a video on Youtube, monitor a star's page - and all this in five minutes. Gen Zers jump from task to task instantly without getting bored.

But there is also a flip side of the coin: they are not enough for long-term tasks. They cannot do the same thing for a long time.

Want to move forward...

Growth is the driving force behind Generation Z when it comes to work. They may prefer a small company to a well-known company, because they believe that, personally, they will grow faster where the range of tasks is wider and where they can move forward.