The Boomers and the Millenials Should Be Friends

My visit to the Verizon store on my way from work should have been pretty straightforward.  It was time to upgrade my phone, and I knew I wanted either an iPhone 5 or an iPhone 6.  The store wasn't crowded and I should have been in and out of there in less than 30 minutes.

My salesman was very helpful and knowledgeable as I compared models and selected a carrying case.  He was perfectly willing to sell me the model that cost 99 cents if that's what I wanted, and saved his hard sell for a super strong screen protector, as he evidently sized me up (correctly) as an accident waiting to happen.

Then I chose to select the Verizon Edge option, and that's when we hit a snag.  It turns out that Mr. Rip, as the account owner, had to sign for this option.  Yes, that's right - I couldn't buy Verizon Edge without my husband to give me his permission in person despite the fact that my name and phone was clearly on the account.

Mr. Rip had stopped at the Asian Food Market on his way home from work on the other end of busy McKnight Road, but said he'd be right over.

The salesman and I had some time to kill together.  Our conversation turned to music.

My salesman thought that Led Zeppelin “borrowed” much of their music from other artists, and decided to prove it (although I don't remember questioning his theory).
   

“Now, you won't know this band,” he said to me as he was finding the piece of music he wanted me to hear.  “This is Spirit, and this piece of music was published about 1960.”

I had to admit that the passage he played sounded a whole lot like “Stairway to Heaven.”

We went on to discuss the concept of copyright infringement, and somehow got on the subject of Lady Gaga.  I said I thought that she was a versatile vocalist, equally adept at singing her own stuff, a Stevie Wonder cover, standards with Tony Bennett and the Sound of Music medley she so beautifully delivered at the Oscars.  They agreed although the second salesman wondered if she'd ever live down that meat dress.  We also all thought that Katy Perry was a pretty good singer, and my salesman thought Katie may be a just a bit “bigger” than Gaga right now because of the Super Bowl half-time show.

Mr. Rip arrived and before our transaction was complete we found out that my salesman was a 2011 Penn State grad.

How about that?  I just spent two hours in a professional transaction and personal discussion with a Millennial where we related like two human beings with little regard to age.  He even taught me a little something about music made in the 1960's, and I knew a little more about what Gaga's been up to lately than he did.

This wouldn't have been so surprising if I wasn't constantly being barraged with articles and instructional seminars to teach me how the Millennials (people coming to adulthood about 2000) think so that this old dinosaur can manage to communicate with them. 

You see, according to these authorities, Millennials are rare and exotic creatures who are an entirely different species than all the made-up generational groups who came before them, you know, the Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, whatever. They have the world at their finger tips and want immediate gratification.  If we oldsters don't keep up we will perish and lose them forever.

I read one ridiculous blog by an actual Millennial pretty much putting the rest of us on notice that they’re here now and they’re just not going to live by our archaic rules.  They will do what they want, and we had just better get out of their way. After reading it, I had a flashback to the 60’s when the young people of the day (aka the Baby Boomers) had a mantra of their own.   “Don’t trust anyone over 30.”  Maybe the Millennials aren’t so different than their forerunners after all.

Want to hear a secret? I see people of all generations living and working together peacefully and productively all the time, and I know a lot of older people who have smart phones and short attention spans, too.

We really should all just get along. With the Millennial's tech skills, social media saavy and short term memory and the Boomers' wisdom, experience and ability to format a standard letter, together we can pretty much rule the world.