Our culture has dramatically changed over the past 70 years and our values have dramatically changed. We’ve gone from believing in common and objective truths and morals to being more persuaded by relativistic ones, as in what’s right for you isn’t necessarily right for me.
We’ve gone from holding up individuals who represent nobility and virtue to being obsessed with people who are merely nice to look at but vapid in every other way. This shift has occurred, coincidentally, right along side the rise and dramatic spread of media built upon advertising.
For generations they’ve used their messaging to convince us to let go of the ideals that make it harder to sell us stuff we don’t need. And in place,
they’ve been convincing us to adopt a value system that is obsessed with being fashionable and cool.
As a 72 year old, I can relate to a lot of what was said in your video. I can tell you with absolute certainty that your values change with age. Unlike in my youth, kids today are under extreme pressure to have the latest smartphones, trainers, media games etc. Parents today are also under pressure to provide their children with the latest device or fashion item because of the peer pressure their kids are under to have those things.
I don't watch those so-called reality tv shows featuring mostly young people, but just seeing the adverts for such programmes is enough to show that for the most part, they are indeed vapid, shallow and all about me, me, me. I am not suggesting for one minute that all young people are like that, they are not, but unfortunately, some are too easily influenced by such people.
As you get older you become even more family orientated, especially when grandchildren come along, and I must admit that very often it is the bank of grandma and grandpa that enables grandchildren to get the latest device or fashion item. My excuse is that you wouldn't be much of a grandparent if you didn't occasionally spoil your grandchildren.
I also believe that as you get older you take more stock of what is happening in the world and where it is leading us. Young people tend to live for the day and let the future take care of itself, although I don't think that attitude by the young is really any different in any generation. You can't put an old head on young shoulders.
As far as how older people dress, some older mens' dress sense seems to mean drowning themselves in a sea of beige. There was a time in my mid-sixties when I succumbed to that but it is possible for older people to dress more adventurously without looking like mutton dressed as lamb.
I see now that Christmas ads for toys and electronic gadgets are already hitting our tv screens and very obviously targeting the young, and while it is true that the majority of adverts are aimed at the young, there is one kind of advertising here in the UK aimed at the over 55's. Just about every insurance company that exists is flooding the tv screen with adverts for funeral plans.
Now we have one set of adverts telling the young they can't live without it and another set of adverts telling the elderly they can't die without it.
It is true that advertising can erode values, particularly traditional ones, but that is where good parenting comes in. One can only hope that parents are wise enough and mature enough to see the dangers and protect their children from those dangers.
Hope I haven't sounded like a grumpy old man!
