The elders carry the experience of a lifetime marked by difficulties, with a childhood of work and absence of rest. It is this contrast with the gift that makes them look at today’s young people with suspicion and even some hardness. In a series of interviews by Gerard Masol content creator, Spanish men and women from the older generation spared no words to explain why they believe that current youth suffers more anxiety and depression.
According to the Spanish digital newspaper, news work, most respondents pointed to the discipline forged by poverty as the main difference between generations.
The hardness of life in the past forced early maturity and left little room for emotional weaknesses. “When I was a child, at 10 or 12 I had to go to work on whatever,” recalls one of the respondents, adding that there was no room to regret or stay at home.
“There was no time to think about being sad”
Poverty is one of the most repeated elements in reports. One of the retirees said he lost his parents as a child and, since he was seven years old, alternated between school and carpentry work. “If I didn’t get up, I knew I didn’t eat or that I was punishing,” he said. Another added, “There was no time to think about being sad. Life forced us to move on.”
For them, the difference with young people today is clear. While its generation has been shaped by the need to fight daily for survival, current adolescents and young adults grow surrounded by facilities that, paradoxically, make them more fragile. “Parents were very blame. They gave them too much and now lack discipline,” admits another of the pensioners.
Social networks at the center of criticism
The weight of social networks was another of the highlighted points. According to the same source, young people tend to expand problems that, in their view, are not as serious as they seem. “Today, at age 12, they still almost use a pacifier. We already had to work. And now the days of the mobile phone,” commented a renovated, irony.
The testimonies also leave space for practical advice. Several respondents recommend keeping their minds busy as an antidote against sadness.
A woman said she adopted a dog just to force herself to leave home every day. Another stated that “life has to be accepted as it comes, there is no other way.”
The secret, they say, is not to stop
The suggestions are repeated with small variations: leaving home, looking for conversations, getting a simple job that distracts the mind and, above all, not dropping into apathy. “You can’t spend all day on your mobile phone,” warns one of them.
Others even advise to abandon social networks. Also the care of the appearance is mentioned: “If we get a little, we feel another mood right away.”
In the end, the message left by the elders is clear. According to the generation that has passed 80 years old learned to accept the hardness of life and resist without giving up.
What they now convey to the younger ones is that time is the most precious good and wasting it in apathy or on social networks will later be the biggest reason for regret.
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