I was not planning on posting today. But as this relates perhaps to yesterday’s post, I thought it worth sharing here. I saw this on Instagram earlier this morning:
Reading the post and comments before I stuck in my “two cents,” I recalled once standing in front of a classroom and asking some 30 undergraduates: “Show of hands? How many of you were born in 1975?”
That’s right: 1975.
This past September, university 18 year olds had been born in 2000. Therefore they may well be my then students’ children. (Talk about feeling “older” suddenly!) The former history lecturer again began to come out of me as I commented on that post, saying essentially this – which I have expanded a bit here.
This issue is as old as forever. The old saying “Don’t discuss politics or religion at the dinner table” with family never went away and has now merely moved on to applying to social media. Indeed, has anyone’s mind, including that of strangers, ever really been changed by a Facebook or a Twitter fight? Arguing with family is especially pointless: you’ll just end up miserable and falling out.
The best life approach here is, I believe, this one. Work to accept that of course none of us agree with each other on *everything,* and confine family exchanges to family subjects like who’s getting married, who’s having a baby, who’s starting college, and who’s ill… and in your wider world vote for the candidates of your choice.
If someone pushes an opinion at you on Facebook, scroll by and ignore it. (I NEVER engage on Facebook – in public – with any family member about politics.)
If it’s in person, change the subject: “Wow, I think that proposal from him is just, uh, breathtaking. How’s your back feeling after the surgery? Mindy is at community college now, isn’t she?”😊
Remember this too. When we’re younger, we are often more challenged by what we believe to be older people’s “narrow-minded” and “old-fashioned” opinions. Someday, though, *you* will also be the older relative your younger relations will almost certainly consider out of touch and maybe even batty: “She’s stuck in a 2020s twenties mindset and is such a bigot. She thinks Obama was the greatest president ever. And she keeps playing Ed Sheeran – he’s soooooo old!”😂
Have a good day with the older relatives on Facebook, wherever you are. 🙂
R. J. Nello 
I do try to keep the cyclical nature of generations in perspective. My son turned 18 in September. He knows everything and I am halfway to fuddy duddy!
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When I was a kid, my parents were forever stuck in “1961.” My grandparents – Great Depression, World War II – were quaint oldie worldy intriguing curiosities of a bygone era. My great-grandmother, well, she might as well have been from the Middle Ages.😂😂😂
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