Post-war fathers like mine were often regarded as the bread winner and disciplinarians: men who never talked about feelings, and left those soft touches and displays of emotion to Mam. The early 1950s were an age of austerity, when most homes had lino floors, some had outside loos and meat was kept in the cool pantry. You were well-heeled if you had an inside toilet and a bath, and I can even remember being washed in a large kitchen sink when I was very young.
During these austerity years, there were still echoes of make do and mend. Watches, if you owned one, could always be repaired, shoes heeled, and socks darned, while children’s clothes were handed down from sibling to sibling.
I can remember as a very small child watching Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation on a neighbour’s 10 inch television. The whole street had crowded in to watch; even the neighbour from the top of the street who owned the only car in the street.
Things improved rapidly by the late 1950s. In 1957, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan declared that Britons had “never had it so good“. Consumerism was beginning to take off, and people rushed to Radio Rentals to hire televisions, with 15, 17 and eventually 19 inch models becoming more widely available.
All in all I had a happy childhood roaming the countryside with my friends for hours, before returning home for tea.
The revolution that opened a generation gap
The 1960s heralded a cultural revolution that redefined societal norms and values. Dr Benjamin Spock was the first paediatrician to study and understand children’s needs and family dynamics. His ideas influenced several generations of parents, encouraging them to be more flexible and affectionate with their children and to treat them as individuals.
Spock’s child-centred approach was criticized by some as being overly permissive, and he was even blamed for having helped form the generation of young Americans that protested the Vietnam War.
The youth of the 1960s championed civil rights, gender equality, and environmental awareness. They strove to create a fairer and more equitable society and in doing so created what became known as the generation gap. The gap arose as young people moved away from their parents’ attitudes and values. Members of this counterculture grew their hair, attended festivals, travelled overland to India and followed Timothy Leary’s mantra: “Turn on, tune in, drop out.”
Many Boomers benefited from post-war economic policies that promoted home ownership, education, and job growth. In those days, your future seemed much more certain, and you could leave one job on a Friday and find another in the following week. Boomers attended university without the burden of tuition fees and student loans, and secured well-paying jobs, while contributing to a burgeoning middle class.
Today, Boomers own 55% of the nation’s housing wealth, worth £3.84 trillion, and many people aged 60 and above have paid off their mortgages. They have also benefited from gold-plated final-salary pension schemes, which have largely been phased out for younger generations. Even so, one in six people in their 60s has no private pension.
Looking back it seems an ideal time to have been born but debate still focuses on this generation and whether they bear a unique responsibility for the environmental damage left behind and the massive climatic problems the younger generations are now expected to fix.
Bridging two worlds
For me, Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996 and Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, form a vital link between the analogue past and the hyper-digital present. Taylor Swift, Mark Zuckerberg, Lionel Messi and Prince Harry are all Millennials.
Millennials were born into a world where neither the internet nor mobile phones existed. They would have lived through an era as children, where cash was king and where cheque books were used. Communication then was done through letters, landline phones and fax machines, and even the humble postcard.
They would have recognised typewriters, cassette players, the Sony Walkman and the Rubik’s Cube. In UK primary schools, their early reports would have been handwritten, and a classroom might have contained a single BBC Micro with floppy disks. Most lessons were delivered through books, blackboards, pens and paper.
A household might have bought an early home computer in 1984, when Amstrad launched its CPC 464, although the internet didn’t really take hold until the late 1990s. Families would also have seen the gradual spread of domestic appliances such as dishwashers, tumble dryers. and automatic kettles.
The high street would have contained familiar giants like Woolworths, BHS and C&A, and children would have recognised laundrettes, video hiring shops, and camera and film developing shops which have largely disappeared. In the 1980s children played with handheld lcd units like Nintendo Games & Watch and by the 1990s this had extended to portable video game systems and virtual handheld toys like a Tamagotchi, where children cared for a pixelated pet.
The mounting cost of adult life
Now grown up, these bridging generations still aspire to many of the things their parents regarded as part of a normal life: educational opportunities, steady employment, secure housing, marriage and children. Yet they know that their reality is very different.
Life today is harder and more stressful for these generations because of the high cost of living, a tough job market and constant digital pressures. Only 15% of 25-year-olds own a home, compared with 43% of young adults in the mid-1980s. Rent and mortgage payments are higher for young adults than at any time in the past 50 years. For many, saving is extremely difficult amid stagnant wages, student debt, rising prices, and inflation. Many describe themselves as “just about managing” or JAMs and have put marriage and children on hold.
As a result, there is a declining fertility rate in the UK, which has now dropped to a record low of around 1.39 children, with the average age of women having children rising to 31. These adults also face the growing cost of childcare and associated costs, as well as the prospect of looking after ageing parents.
Housing appears to be the crucial determinant. Until young couples can be housed and feel financially secure many won’t consider starting a family.
An unequal future, but not a hopeless one
What seems to be emerging from my cursory view across the generations is the alarming shift towards greater inequality between the haves, and the have nots. Many young people fear that they will never be able to own a home while they struggle through a cost-of-living crisis in which prices continue to spiral.
Some fear, they will never be able to meet their own expectations; what they once thought possible, is now pie in the sky. Others question the value of their degree with the lack of graduate employment. Mental stress appears to be increasing generally among the young in this digital age and there’s constant concerns about not having enough money even to get by.
While the picture may remain bleak to some, others argue that young people could have a bright future. Rapid technological innovation, a stronger focus on mental health, expanding green industries and powerful digital tools could make self-directed learning and global collaboration easier than ever before.
Giving the keepers of tomorrow a voice
Arthur C Clarke, dubbed by many the Prophet of the Space Age, once said: “Trying to predict the future is a discouraging, hazardous occupation.” However, young people today deserve greater recognition and importance within society. They continue to navigate a uniquely difficult landscape defined by rapid technological change, artificial intelligence and intense economic pressure.
Young people are our future, yet they face shifting definitions of work, diminished opportunities to fulfil their ambitions and unprecedented pressures on their wellbeing. They should be recognised as the keepers of tomorrow: supported, listened to, and given a greater voice as they confront the many obstacles of these uncertain times.
More from John Greeves
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