Post by @juergen_hubert@mementomori.social

@juergen_hubert@mementomori.social · 2 hours ago

The #Fediverse population skews old - I think the median age is in the mid-40s.

So how can we, as older people who have presumably seen some shit, support younger people who are anxious about their personal future and the future of the world at large for entirely understandable reasons?

I mean, I definitely hit some rather low points in my life. But I now have a stable career, gotten out a debt hole, and even own an apartment where I have only 10 years left to pay off the mortgage.

In contrast, young people who need to enter the workforce to pay their bills are constantly told that AI will make their beginners' skills worthless, and there is a high chance that we will soon enter a new Great Depression once the #AIBubble bursts.

Oh, and fascists are taking over more and more countries while the global environment is collapsing more and more.

In other words, young people need all the help they can get. So how can we support them?

#aibubble #fediverse

Lethe

@lethe@digitalcourage.social · 16 minutes ago

@juergen_hubert
Oh hey tag yourself I'm the younger people.

I'm not going to reiterate the anxiety that we are all collectively dealing with. Let's just say that many of us don't have long-term plans or dreams because we have no idea what the world will be like 10, 20, 30 years from now.

We could start by trying to reconnect the severed thread between the generations, talking and learning from each other on an eye level and rebuilding communities.

Older people can also acknowledge that they have much more power and privilege than younger people and use them.

Jürgen Hubert

@juergen_hubert@mementomori.social · 11 minutes ago

@lethe

I acknowledge my share of the privilege and culpability of my generation.

Rashunda Tramble

@rashunda@mastodon.social · 2 hours ago

@juergen_hubert I'm 56. I have two stepkids. They're 30 & 20. The only thing I can do is give them space: space to ask questions; space to scream; space to tell me to shut up when I offer unasked-for opinions. I also try to silently offer myself as an example.

ermo | Rune Morling

@ermo@fosstodon.org · 2 hours ago

@juergen_hubert I mean, we could start by simply asking what they think and what they are looking for?

Stevan

@withaveeay@mastodon.scot · 2 hours ago

@juergen_hubert I often wonder what we can say to younger folk, Jürgen, as really, we are the generations who have responsibility for the mess. Or as the old joke goes, "What we need is fewer people telling us what we need."
We should perhaps be talking to our own generation and getting them to stop acting perversely, rather than trying to advise younger folk, who, I firmly believe, are a source of hope, and help the younger generation only when they ask for it, for what they need.