Generations share information with people their own age to help and give guidance. There are many questions you can ask, and often you will get useful answers. This process involves large numbers of people communicating through channels of expression. We can get answers from friends, from popular entertainments, and commentary on this. Generations use all of these. If we discover how this is all put together, we will gain a sociological understanding of how countries turn millions of people into a process that ‘educates each new generation.’
Each of my posts will give examples of how generations operate. What is interesting is that not all people ask generational questions at the same time or care about them in the same way. A lot of our learning is personal; it matters to people the same age as us, and not to those who are a lot older or a great deal younger. People usually have distinct phases of life during which they want different things, ask questions about new relationships, and think about the life they want further ahead in time. It is children and youth who are particularly interested in early learning about new aspects of life. They are the ones who will have stars and heroes as people they look up to, and entertainments and influencers who provide enjoyment. This may be the age when generations are most useful.
Young people usually get help from generations and are supported in this activity by adults such and their parents and teachers. But these older are people are somewhat outside the lives of the younger generation. A broader sociological understanding will include asking why parents seem so willing to let their children do a lot of learning for themselves. To make generational learning work, parents must be willing to let their children be different from how the parents were when they grew up. We will see that generation supporting parents must willingly give children ‘permission to separate’ from them.
The flip side of this is that some parents can be found who are deeply opposed to leaving children to learn for themselves. Opposition to generations of any age group, and hostility to youngsters thinking they know better than grownups and thinkers of the past, means that some countries may have no population that supports generations. Are there countries in the world that have no generations? Do countries that support generations contain uniquely distinct beliefs and aspirations? We may ask big questions about whole populations and which ones, if any, are better for their people and progress in the world.