A Study Shows That Boomers Are Indeed More Sensitive Than Millennials

Older folks like to treat younger generations like they’re soft – as if they get their feelings hurt over small slights and aren’t tough enough to walk uphill both ways to school in the snow – but the data coming out of a very long, thorough psychological study says that’s not at all true.

Basically, millennials (and GenX and GenZ) have one more reason to roll their eyes the next time an older person calls them a snowflake.

The study, published in Psychology and Aging, investigated narcissistic behavior between generations using six data sets that followed almost 750 people born between 1923 and 1969. They found that the earlier in the 20th century someone was born, the more likely they were to display high levels of hypersensitivity.

Regardless of generation, the study also showed that people do tend to become less narcissistic as they age.

Lead author William Chopik released a statement saying,

“There’s a narrative in our culture that generations are getting more narcissistic, but no one has ever looked at it through generations or how it varies with age at the same time. One of the most surprising findings was that – also contrary to what many people think – individuals who were born earlier in the century started off with higher levels of hyper-sensitivity, or the type of narcissism where people are full of themselves, as well as willfulness, which is the tendency to impose opinions on others.”

In sum: there’s little to no evidence that the younger generations are “weaker” or less hardy than any that came before them.

Levels of narcissism remain relatively stable across a person’s lifespan, though some aspects do wane with age: things like being full of yourself and trying to make others live according to your opinions.

On the other hand, having high aspirations for yourself increase as we age.

“There are things that happen in life that can shake people a little bit, and force them to adapt their narcissistic qualities. As you age, you form new relationships, have new experiences, start a family and so on. All of these factors make someone realize that it’s not ‘all about them,’” Chopik continued.

And get this: younger generations (i.e. teenagers today) are more well-behaved than any other in recent history. They’re also eschewing alcohol, cigarettes (I’m guessing e-cigs weren’t counted?) and teen sex by way wider margins than previous recent generations.

There you go, my fellow snowflakes. I guess we’ll all just sit here and not melt together (as the Earth warms around us), because we’re tough like that.

The post A Study Shows That Boomers Are Indeed More Sensitive Than Millennials appeared first on UberFacts.

15 Older People Confess What They like About Millennials and It’ll Warm Your Cold Heart

You can’t turn around these days without seeing Baby Boomers insulting millennials for literally every little thing they do. But while this is definitely a popular narrative that a lot of places have tried to push, the fact is that there are plenty of elderly people who sympathize with the problem young people today are facing.

Heck, a lot of them even admire the way millennials are handling things, as this Reddit thread will show you.

1. Smashing gender divides

I’m 62, and I’m impressed that boys and girls in junior high and high school actually are friends with each other. I even saw the kids playing a quick pickup game of touch football – boys and girls – at the middle school while waiting for the bus to come over from the elementary school. Never would have happened in my generation.

2. Fun music

My kids laugh because I like rap as much as they do.

They do get tired of me telling them the original sampled sources and musical roots.

3. Video games are awesome now

61 years old here, and I love my video games as much as younger people.

4. No worries

The phrase “No Worries” after you apologize for a delay holding someone up. Has a much warmer feel than any other equivalent.

5. Hilarious slang terms

Yeet. I don’t know what it is, but that word just makes me laugh. I’ll be 48 this year, and hopefully still have many years before I yeet the f**k off this mortal coil.

6. Changing priorities

Putting more of a priority on personal life and goals than on “career”. The realization that devotion to employer is a dead-end is one that not so many of my fellow Gen-Xers have cottoned to.

7. Memes!

I’m 48 and I love memes. I’m facebook friends with many of my college students and I’m sometimes in tears laughing over the memes they post. I love the levels of cultural knowledge required to “get” them. Even at 48, I still feel rebelliously like I’m getting something that my parents don’t get.

8. Kindness rules

How kind and understanding they are to kids who are different.

My first grader just went to a party for a kid with Downs this last weekend. He invited his whole class and at least 2/3 of them showed up to celebrate with him. Warmed my heart.

9. Adopt don’t shop

They adopt pets rather than buying the designer ones.

10. Keepin’ it casual

Casual dress codes!

Some of the managers are younger than me now and they do not care what anyone wears to work.

Die, high heels!

11. Tolerance

You guys are tolerant as hell. I work in a school and kids can wear nerdy shit and not wonder who they’re gonna have to fight first.

Back in the 90’s I smuggled my Star Wars books into the cafeteria like I was carrying enigma machine codes.

12. Advanced technology

I am amazed that you all can play game consoles with what seems like twenty different god damned buttons on the controller. And use them all almost simultaneously!

13. More living

I like that they are less into stuff and more into experiences.

14. Acceptance

I was a teen when “gay” was still an insult.

Kids these days are so friggen cool.

15. Dabbing

Dabbing. I dab the f**k out of my wife and kids. I open my arms and walk to them like I’m going to hug them, then I dab away.

The post 15 Older People Confess What They like About Millennials and It’ll Warm Your Cold Heart appeared first on UberFacts.

15 Older People Share the Things They Actually Like about Millennials

Millennials have taken a lot of criticism from older generations, seemingly for every little thing they do. But it’s not all bad. There are plenty of things millennials do that older people actually admire, as this Reddit thread will show you.

1. Memes!

I’m 48 and I love memes. I’m facebook friends with many of my college students and I’m sometimes in tears laughing over the memes they post. I love the levels of cultural knowledge required to “get” them. Even at 48, I still feel rebelliously like I’m getting something that my parents don’t get.

2. Kindness rules

How kind and understanding they are to kids who are different.

My first grader just went to a party for a kid with Downs this last weekend. He invited his whole class and at least 2/3 of them showed up to celebrate with him. Warmed my heart.

3. Dabbing

Dabbing. I dab the f**k out of my wife and kids. I open my arms and walk to them like I’m going to hug them, then I dab away.

4. Fun music

My kids laugh because I like rap as much as they do.

They do get tired of me telling them the original sampled sources and musical roots.

5. Smashing gender divides

I’m 62, and I’m impressed that boys and girls in junior high and high school actually are friends with each other. I even saw the kids playing a quick pickup game of touch football – boys and girls – at the middle school while waiting for the bus to come over from the elementary school. Never would have happened in my generation.

6. Tolerance

You guys are tolerant as hell. I work in a school and kids can wear nerdy shit and not wonder who they’re gonna have to fight first.

Back in the 90’s I smuggled my Star Wars books into the cafeteria like I was carrying enigma machine codes.

7. Advanced technology

I am amazed that you all can play game consoles with what seems like twenty different god damned buttons on the controller. And use them all almost simultaneously!

8. More living

I like that they are less into stuff and more into experiences.

9. Acceptance

I was a teen when “gay” was still an insult.

Kids these days are so friggen cool.

10. Hilarious slang terms

Yeet. I don’t know what it is, but that word just makes me laugh. I’ll be 48 this year, and hopefully still have many years before I yeet the f**k off this mortal coil.

11. Changing priorities

Putting more of a priority on personal life and goals than on “career”. The realization that devotion to employer is a dead-end is one that not so many of my fellow Gen-Xers have cottoned to.

12. Video games are awesome now

61 years old here, and I love my video games as much as younger people.

13. No worries

The phrase “No Worries” after you apologize for a delay holding someone up. Has a much warmer feel than any other equivalent.

14. Adopt don’t shop

They adopt pets rather than buying the designer ones.

15. Keepin’ it casual

Casual dress codes!

Some of the managers are younger than me now and they do not care what anyone wears to work.

Die, high heels!

The post 15 Older People Share the Things They Actually Like about Millennials appeared first on UberFacts.

Here Are 15 Useful Skills Your 13-Year-Old Might Need in the Future

Just a heads up, none of these people are experts. Nor are they psychics who can see the future. But if you’re looking for inspiration, or maybe some ways to think outside the box when it comes to preparing your young teenagers for what awaits them in this big, bad, world, these 15 people have some poignant thoughts.

#15. Good study habits.

“Am in college rn.

Please learn good study habits. Holy god. Just do it.

You should also really try and keep all your grades as high as you can. I’m not kidding, a few points here and a few points there cost me 4K in scholarship. It’ll happen to you, too.

Also, don’t get too messed up about girls in high school. It’s not worth ruining a year or two over. Promise.”

#14. Practice.

“Guitar and/or piano. Seriously. Your mom wants you to practice, fucking practice. The ability to casually produce music in social settings will set you apart wherever you go. You don’t even need to be good – just able to make sounds that go in the right order.

And if you don’t learn it now, you never will.”

#13. Nobody is obligated.

“Less “skill” and more “life lesson”

NOBODY is obligated to like you.”

#12. When things go wrong.

“Learn to handle when things go wrong, because they will, and often.”

#11. Make it up.

“No joke, learn to bullshit. It’s more important later in life than you think.

Learn how to talk to people in a way that makes them feel comfortable and have confidence in you. I learned by having a retail job, it teaches you how to connect to people (also some humility). This is useful from the boardroom to the bedroom.

And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, writing papers (essays, reports, etc.) is like 90% bullshit. In college, grab some sources and you can sum up your point in two paragraphs. Bullshitting will allow you to turn that into 2,000 word essay.

Incompetent people that can bullshit become middle management. Competent people that can bullshit become presidents.”

#10. Never forget this.

“Ok, so you’ve got $100. If you let it sit in a savings account for a year at 5% interest, then after one year, it’ll be worth $105.

But here’s where it gets awesome. If you then let that $105 sit there for ANOTHER year, then you get 5% interest on $105 instead of the original $100. So after two years, it’s $110.30. And then $115.80. And so on and so on.

That concept is called compound interest. You get interest on the interest you already earned, and it builds on itself year after year. If you start talking about amounts that are much bigger than $100. Like $100,000 or so? Then those amounts start adding up like crazy.

Now remember that the exact same thing happens to money that you OWE someone.

Never forget this.”

#9. In the long run.

“How to cook for yourself and do your own laundry. Also, tons of financial stuff, learning to properly handle money now will help you out a ton in the long run.”

#8. You never know.

“The two things I used in college that I wished I had known all along were WolframAlpha and the automation features in Excel.

Wolframalpha.com can do integrals, derivatives, areas, volumes, and even compare things like “Number of men in New York City divided by the number of women in Nanjing” which is pretty cool.

Excel can do a lot of work for you if you learn a few tools. VLOOKUP, SUMIFS, and Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts will be super helpful.

It won’t hurt anybody if you do learn some very rudimentary programming as well. There are plenty of free Java tutorials that can give you some tools you can apply to a lot of topics. For example, my wife got a masters in Public Health, and never imagined she’d use programming, but she ended up having to learn a statistical analysis tool that basically needs to be programmed to use. You never know.”

#7. How to ask for help.

“Learn how to ask for help. Don’t have someone else do everything for you, but it’s good to recognize when you genuinely don’t know how to do something so that you can ask someone who does. Can save a lot of time and stress, and you’ll probably learn it better than if you just muddled through on your own.”

#6. Labors of love.

“General yard labour, just to get a little bit of an idea of how to use some tools, and do some sort of manual labour.”

#5. Challenge ideas.

“How to think critically. Challenge ideas from your parents, your teachers, what you see, what you read. Above all those, challenge the ideas of your peers.

And read a damn book once in a while, just for fun.”

#4. Life skills.

“Sewing. The ability to replace buttons and repair small tears will save you a lot of money on clothing you would otherwise throw out or replace.

Cooking. You can make healthy, delicious food for a lot less money than eating out. Bonus for guys, chicks dig a guy who can cook well.

Reading. In a lot of schools, reading is not taught very well, so students commonly feel like it isn’t worth their time to read because they never learned to enjoy it. Books are great free entertainment and they are a wonderful way to learn and grow as a person!

Exercise. You need to know how to keep yourself fit, because it is a hell of a lot easier to get fit at 13 and stay that way than it is to try to get fit at 30.

Work Ethic. Any task worth doing is worth doing well. Cliche? Yes, but cliches exist for a reason, they are constantly applicable. Learn how to work well, how to get shit done without complaining or shirking. Employers and peers recognize people with good work ethics and respect them for it.

Dressing. Learn how to dress well, what clothes work for your body shape and what don’t. Learn how to match and contrast colors and put together outfits. Seriously, this is a very underrated skill and it can pay off. Simply looking stylish and put together can get you through doors that might otherwise be closed.

Finance. Develop good financial habits now, and they will pay dividends (pun intended) later. Live within your means. If you have a credit card, live by a rule of “if I can’t pay off the balance at the end of the month, I can’t afford it.” This one took me WAY too long to learn and I’m trying to play catch up.”

#3. Think for yourself.

“Learn to think for yourself. I’m not saying go out and challenge all authority but don’t let people push you into doing things you don’t want to do in life. Listen to what people have to say, absorb that information and form your own opinions and ideas from it. Too many people get pushed into careers or educational paths they don’t necessarily want to go into because they feel pressured by one person or another to do it. Think before you do.”

#2. Phone calls.

“Learn how to make serious phone calls for making appointments or asking for info. If online info about a business or service is vague or confusing, being able to directly ask a person makes things much less confusing.

It helps to develop a short script to frontload relevant info. “hello, my name is [X], I’m calling to ask about [y]/ I’m calling to schedule an appointment with [z], etc…”

Then learn info that’s commonly needed alongside it for when they ask for it. Address, phone number they can reach you at, driver’s license number, (careful with this one) SSN if you’re in America. Only give that sorta info out when asked, have it ready to go though.

Phone calls still have a very important role in communication even today, and when you need to do serious planning with someone else there’s no substitute to a phone call save for face-to-face meeting.”

#1. Types of knots.

“How to do 1 or 2 different types of tie knots. Regardless of gender this is both easy and quite useful. Being able to make a tie look really good can sometimes save the day.”

 

Good luck out there, parents of teens!

The post Here Are 15 Useful Skills Your 13-Year-Old Might Need in the Future appeared first on UberFacts.