How the Recession has Made the Older Generations To Teach the Younger Ones Some Valuable Life Lessons
The youth of today ranging from the tweens to the twenty-somethings have been raised in an instant gratification way . When they want an item, they want it now and whether or not they have the means to purchase it they can still buy it by charging it to a credit card. If something breaks like their ipod or cell phone they toss it and purchase another one rather than going to an ipod repair or iphone repair business to have it repaired . With the current troubled economy, this younger generation is now having to learn the lessons from their older relatives who valued the dollar and took care of the items theypurchased without having any debt to acquire more possessions .
One of the first lessons the younger person is now having to learn from the one that has lived through a depression already is to only buy what you can afford to at the moment. This has been a hard lesson to teach many kids who have always had charge cards and do not see anything wrong with having a balance on that credit card always . When they have trouble paying that bill because they lose their job is when they have to learn the difficult way. The younger younger kids today have to learn to purchase items that they only need rather than what they want. They also have to fight that tendency to be instantly gratified and have the patience to work for something that they would really like to have .
Another lesson that is also being taught to the youthful people from the older ones is how to take care of your things and that things are not meant to be disposed of if they are no longer the most current thing or is broken. With technology being such a constantly changing world, a lot of teenagers now constantly are trying to find the latest cell phone or the most current kind of video game. These technologies are known to change rapidly as every 6 months so to keep up with it, would be unbelievably pricey . With the recession going on , they are now realizing this is not possible .
The older relatives are also teaching them ways to value what you have and to take care of your things by maintaining them or getting them fixed if they break. An iphone, for example is between 200-400 dollars and if it breaks, it is certainly valuable enough to pay for the service to have it fixed rather than buy a new one. This is actually unchartered territory for the younger generation .
Another lesson learned for the younger kids during the difficult economy is to be content owning less. In the 90's people overextended themselves and believed the more stuff they had, the happier they were. Now they are trying to live a more simple life and that it is easier and often less stressful to live a more simple life with less tangible things .
