The Uphill Battle The Older Generation Has in Trying To Stop The Younger One From Choosing To Be Instantly Gratified During a Recession
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 right then and whether or not they have the means to purchase it they can still buy it by charging it on a credit card. If something get broken such as their MP3 player or phone they just throw it away and buy another one rather than going to an ipod repair or iphone repair business to have it repaired . With the recent recession, this younger set is now having to learn the lessons from their older relatives who valued the dollar and took care of the items theypurchased without going into debt to acquire more possessions .
One of the first lessons the younger person is now having to learn from those that survived through a depression already is to only buy what you can afford to at the moment. This has been a hard lesson to teach a lot of teens who have always had access to credit 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 realize this the hard way. The younger generation now has to learn to buy things that they only need rather than what they want. They also must repress that need to be instantly gratified and have the patience to work for things that they like .
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 thrown away if they are no longer the most current thing or is broken. With technology being such a constantly changing world, many kids today 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 six months so to keep up with it, would be incredibly expensive . With the recession happening , they are now realizing this is not possible .
The older folks 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 $2200-$300 and if it breaks, it is certainly valuable enough to pay for the price to repair it instead of purchasing a new one. This is actually unchartered territory for the younger set .
Another lesson learned for the younger kids during the recession is to be happy with less. In the 90′s people overextended themselves and felt like 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 in a world with fewer tangible items .
