Building Bridges

          Most people online have seen, or at least heard of "Millennial's ruin ____" articles that state Millennial's have "killed" or "destroyed" just about everything from religion to marmalade. Whether these articles were written for serious intent, or to try to capitalize on the market of generating reasons to hate the people the target audience doesn't understand, it's a symptom of a larger problem faced by members of all the current generations. This is the first time in history that five whole generations have existed side by side simultaneously, and with each generation having their own values and ways of growing up and interacting with the world, it only takes a single generational gap between individuals for misunderstandings to occur. For example, those of the Baby Boomer generation had the telephone as one of their major technological devices during their time, so for them, speaking over the phone can be a sign of respect and is considered an intimate way to talk with someone. For Baby Boomers, Millennial's may come across as rude when, generally speaking, they may not answer the phone even if they're called hundreds of times, but will respond the minute they receive a text message, something they view as being an intimate way of interacting. What Baby Boomers who feel this way may not realize or may not try to understand is that for the Millennial generation, they are the "texting" generation and often prefer to receive text messages rather than phone calls. 

However, this isn't because Millennial's don't value phone calls at all, they just value them in a different way and may prefer to have them scheduled rather than occur spontaneously.

          It's important to be open and understanding to the way different generations communicate with one another. By building bridges rather than burning them, it creates a positive atmosphere between members of different generations and creates a more optimal learning environment not only for the immediate people involved, such as a group of teachers, but also the people they may be servicing, like students.