Sometimes extremely, sometimes shifting back and maybe settling in the middle (thesis, antithesis, synthesis). Modernism, Postmodernism, Metamodernism. But definitely different from where it started.
You can see it in fashion. Something goes out of style, then 50 years later you see a riff on the same theme for a different generation.
You can hear it in music. All my millennial coworkers singing along with Hey Ya (Outkast) and me having fun watching them, while thinking it sounds a lot like something from the late 1960s mixed with a little new wave from the early ‘80s.
You feel it in the university classroom where we had a season of losing the plot. It’s not about prolonging adolescence or stuffing empty heads with empty knowledge. It’s about coaching and guiding the next generation so they can think and do better and be viable contributors to the society they want to create. (dear students, the “test” is when the client is in your office.)
You adjust to it in the workplace where hierarchies flatten and then realign with new power dynamics. Communications change from phone calls to email to business messaging apps to texting to whatever the newest thing is that I’m not yet clued in on. (dear students, no you cannot text me and no I’m not answering your Canvas message within 15 minutes at 11pm at night. Other than that, I will respond.)
You notice it in church when we want to go back to strategies that worked when we were younger. Worship styles that were upbeat and energetic, or somber and reflective, pick your era. Fitting people into our “box.” We can become more focused on the scaffold than the actual message.
The old way is not better. The old way is not “the” way. It’s a way. Some of it may have redeeming qualities. Some of it can be refreshed for a new look. Some of it has passed its sell-by date. Whichever way it goes, the rules have already changed.
Puzzle Pieces Coaching 