Cell Phones on airplanes? a generational divide

Whether or not to allow cell phone usage on airplanes was the focus of a recent survey. The survey revealed that the tech-challenged Traditionalists and the Baby Boomer generation clearly want to keep the devices turned off and stowed during flights. However the Instant Messaging Generations X and Y are ready to end this ban.

Cell phones are banned on airplanes in flight due to the impact they would have on cell towers. With a high altitude plane a single cell phone could hit bounce it’s signal off hundreds of towers. However once a plane is in the final stages of landing their is no danger for their use according to many expert. The major pilot unions have continued to ask government authorities to ban there use anytime the plane’s door is closed is related to safety, not cell tower impact. They provide a distraction to the flight crew preventing the passengers, who are always riveted to any announcements being made, from clearly hearing them.

Generation X and Y, according to industry sources, will continue to have to sneak the IMs when the flight attendants are looking the other way.

Cracking down on boxers

Police in Flint, Michigan, and Lynwood, Illinois, are finally cracking down on crack. No, they are not attacking the illegal drug culture -- they are launching an all out war on generational cultures.

The Traditionalists are absolutely applauded by low pants. Baby Boomers also frown on the practice of showing boxers in public. Yet the Millennial Generation’s obsession amounts in their view to nothing more than a fashion statement.

In Lynwood anyone showing more than three inches of underwear is subject to a $25 fine. There is no mention of how sting underwear will be handled as it is often less than three inches in its entirety. Nor is there any indication of whether or not the normal folds or drape of the underwear is measured based on the drape or if it is stretched before measuring. If two officers are making the same observation, does one make the final call on the measurement or do they both, in which case we’d have a split decision.

In Flint it is more serious. Showing underwear is a warning. If the pants are below the, shall we say highest point of the crack, a ticket is issued that carries a fine. If starch was not used or the elastic is limp, the matter becomes much more serious as the police make a misdemeanor arrest, which could involved jail time.

Community decency standards are important, butt which crack is more important for the police to spend their time combating?

Teamwork falling victim to generational conflict

Teamwork in multi-generational workplaces is suffering from a lack of understanding how to communicate inter-generationally. According to Randstad, 66% of Traditionalists and 51% of Baby Boomers have little or no interaction with Gen X or Gen Y.

The Baby Boomers categorize younger workers as having less competence and work ethic while the Gen X and Yers feel the older folks are too set in their ways and cannot think outside of the box.

Companies not responding to this lack of communication risk a brain-drain as Baby Boomers head onto the retirement roles.

Many programs are successful at bridging the gap. One such program is Managing Builders, Boomers, Xs, and Ys without losing your Zs. It helps each generation understand how their culture was formed and how other generations view them. Mentoring programs are also generally successful when the mentor presents him or herself as an equal to the protégé, not a superior.

Employers believing the brain drain will not occur need only look to the struggle to get skilled workers as an example of what happens when tomorrow’s employees are not cultivated today.

Senior moment or shoplifting?

Traditionalist George Schwartz claims it was a senior moment but Publix Supermarkets says ist was deliberate stealing. In either case, the Dutch Apple Pie will never be eaten.

Schwartz had the pie in the rear basket on his electric scooter where it was covered by several personal items. It is the third “senior moment” Schwartz has had at the store, which did not prosecute the first two accusations.

Senior moments affect aged persons as short term memory begins to suffer.

Culture clash leads to road rage

Miami was voted the city with the highest rate of road rage according to a survey by Prince Market Research. Following Miami, although we hope not too closely (as that might irritate the driver in front), were Boston, New York, Baltimore, and Washington.

The reason for the high rate of road rage is being credited the culture clash between Florida's youth and retiree cultures. Both cultures have distinctly different driving styles.

Perhaps it would be to the benefit of all to address the importance of cultural courtesy in driver handbooks and on driving tests.

Cell phone holds memory of wife

The talk of closure is misguided. No matter how “closed” the relationship with a loved one who’s passed on, there are still a desire to be close to that person. I write about it in my book Life’s Leadership Lessons as I shared the story of my son’s death. The bereaved seek to connect through a video, photos, or the aroma of their clothing.

For Charles Whiting of Irvington, New York, a key connection was lost when Verizon changed systems. A voice message she made was no longer available to him. The daily time the 80-year-old man spent listening to her voice was void.

Fortunately a contractor was able to find the message in the Verizon archives. It has been restored and is now back in a positive part of Charles’ daily life.

The end of a cultural icon: Polaroid Film

Polaroid has struck a tear with Builders and Baby Boomers when they announced the stoppage of film production. Unless another company buys the rights to make the film, it will cease to exist after next year.

Myth Debunked: The camera did not get it's popular name from its early days, Polaroid "Land" Camera, because the reflection of water prevented developing the film. It's monacker was due to the fact that inventor Edwin Land developed the process to polarize light on film.

In the early 1960s Eastman Kodak discovered the advantages to marketing specifically to the growing baby boomer generation. The Brownie Starmite camera was an affordable way for the builder generation to introduce their children to photography. Polaroid answered in the following decade with “The Swinger”. Bikini-clad Ali MacGraw showed how much fun it was to have a fully developed picture in only seconds. Best of all it sold for only $19.95, making it one the most affordable cameras Polaroid had ever made.

In the 1990s Polaroid survived, much to the surprise of many analysts, serious financial problems and the advent of the digital camera age. However even the instantaneous nature of Polaroid film and cameras cannot compete with even more instantaneous digital photography.

Time marches on and a generation that already said goodbye to revolutionary technology like the Sony Betamax, Vegomatic, Seal-a-Meal, 8-Track tapes, and Commadore 64 will say goodbye once again.

Play the Swinger commercial.

Generations cope with writers strike

As with many other aspects of life, each generation is hoping with the writers strike in their own way:

• Builders/Traditionalists (born 1925-1944): watching network reruns.


• Baby Boomers (1943-1964): discovering cable alternatives.


• Gen X (1961-1980): still enjoying first run shows on cable.


• Gen Y (1977-2000): with MTV, MTV2, and VH1 they haven’t even noticed the strike.


• Millennials (1998-2012): Hannah Montana and other Disney and Nickelodeon hits are filmed a year in advance and You Tube doesn’t have reruns—therefore not effected.