Woman Explains Why Younger Generations Are So Much More Self-Aware Than Boomers
Self awareness and accountability go hand in hand.
insta_photos | Shutterstock Many young people believe that baby boomers are out of touch and lacking self-awareness. Julia Peters, a content creator and creative director, agrees. In a recent TikTok, she shared her thoughts on why young people are far more self-aware than their elders.
The woman explained why younger generations are so much more self-aware than boomers.
“What if the biggest social clash between boomers and younger generations is actually that younger generations have always had to be accountable for the words that they say?” Peters suggested.
She explained that young people "use written communication, like text messages or social media," and as such "have to physically see the words we’re saying." Baby boomers, on the other hand, "grew up using telephones or verbal communication," Peters noted.
"That muscle of looking at the words that you’re saying and the thought process behind it and saying, 'How do I say this better?' or 'How do I actually communicate what [I want] to say?' hasn’t been built,” she claimed of boomers.
Other TikTokers agreed with Peters, building on her ideas.
Fellow TikTok users not only agreed with Peters but offered more evidence to evolve her argument. For example, one commenter added, “They’re so used to being able to get away with saying, 'I never said that.'" With written evidence, that argument doesn't work.
Another person thought Peters might be on to something beyond just generational differences. “OMG, not even just generational,” they wrote. “I’ve always suspected this was why my abuser hated texting and that I could pull up receipts and show other people (like therapists) verbatim.”
Samuel Borges Photography | Shutterstock
However, not everyone was on board with Peters' theory. One person argued that, while it could be true to some extent, boomers didn’t completely avoid written communication. “Actually, boomers wrote letters,” they pointed out. “BUT there was [a] more significant divide between the you that you show in public vs. the you that you show in private.”
Obviously, it would be a fallacy to claim boomers never engaged in written communication — especially because their communication involved actual writing instead of just typing, which is causing penmanship to become a lost art. Still, Peters does have a point that the written communication used by younger generations today is more frequent and impossible to delete.
Peters' ideas do fit the definition of self-awareness.
According to Kendra Cherry, MSEd, “Self-awareness is your ability to perceive and understand the things that make you who you are as an individual, including your personality, actions, values, beliefs, emotions, and thoughts.” Based on this definition, it seems that Peters' argument could be legitimate.
The things you say are certainly part of who you are — they are the essence of your actions, really. Being forced to reckon with that and being constantly aware of it could certainly be considered a form of self-awareness.
That doesn’t mean that boomers aren’t self-aware, though. It just means they approach how they perceive themselves differently because they really have no other choice.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.