Rossall Inspires Presents Mr Bignell - Generations

One of the things that I really love about being in a school is the fact that multiple generations cross paths on a daily basis; Schools provide the perfect location for the sharing of knowledge, experiences and passions and I am not just talking about lessons.  It is our everyday interactions and the information goes from school staff to students and from students to school staff.

As we sit here in Chapel there are many generations between us; we all know that there are Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z & Gen Alpha and I would take a guess that each one of these groups could be represented here right now.

Boomers are so named because of the huge surge of births after World War Two and they are believed to be committed, self-sufficient and competitive individuals.

Gen X grew up in a time when technology was advancing fast, but it wasn’t nearly as readily available as it is today. Because of this, this generation straddles both the digital and non-digital worlds and understands the importance of both.

Millennials are often described as ‘lazy’ in the media and they spend their money too freely.  I am not completely convinced by this but what is certain is that they are deemed to be the first generation to be “digital natives”.  This makes them extremely self-sufficient, as they no longer have to rely on others to solve their problems or teach them things - they have the internet for that.

Gen Z, and yes this makes up a large percentage of you in the room right now, we can safely say that this group is young, and has never known a life without technology.  You are deemed to be ambitious, entrepreneurial, confident and tech-savvy.

Gen Alpha are quite literally growing in number; right now, it is believed they will become family-oriented and more digitally savvy than any generation that has come before them.  They might also be the first generation where labels start to lose some of their usefulness as we move into a more open society.

I am a Gen X, but what does this mean to me? Ultimately it means that I am old, yes I was born in 1975.  To me, I don’t see it as a label but it reflects the experiences and opportunities I have had, many of which luckily are before the invention of social media!

When I grew up we dressed up for fun, we played out in the street and the parks and we ran around freely making up games with our friends.  There was no way of our parents knowing where we were, apart from the fact that they were told I was going to meet this friend or that and we would probably go to the park, which park was never clarified.  When did we come home? We were always told a time but more often than not that was defined by when the street lights came on.  Yes, these pictures show a time from the late 70’s and early 80’s and just for clarity yes that is me in two of the photos.

But it was not all play outside and eat dirt.  There was the one home phone that you answered by saying the last 4 digits of your number followed by your name; 3 0 0 9 BIGNELL. It had a very long cable that was dragged to its fullest extent to get some privacy in your call, but in reality only made half way up the stairs and everyone could hear anyway.  There was the TV with 3, then 4, then 5 channels, but no remote so you had to get up to change the channel and the introduction of the BBC B home computer that allowed us to type and print documents.

Lucky the 80’s turned into the 90’s when us Gen X’s were teenagers and young adults at the rise and turn of the technological revolution.  Here we saw the introduction of home computers, the internet, email and mobile phones, so in many ways we are best placed to understand the past and the future.

Today we have so much computing power sitting in the palm of our hands.  These devices have truly shaped your generation and will continue to do so.  I am a huge advocate for the use of technology in education and benefits it can have on connecting people from all over the globe; last night I was on a face time to my brother who lives in the USA whilst we watched the final 20 minutes of the Tottenham Hotspur game on TV together.  10 Years ago who would have thought that this would have been so easy to do.

Those positive being said, I do worry about the reliance we have on personal technology and how it is very easy to let it control our daily actions.  Where do we get that time away from screens and the intrusion of a snapchat notification popping up?

Twice a year there is a Bignell family gathering, one on Boxing Day and one in the summer holidays.  Normally we get about 50 of us together and the generations range from boomers to alphas.

On these days no one sits around on their phones, we catch up, we share stories, and we play many silly games.  Don’t get me wrong these family get togethers are organised over the family WhatsApp group that was born out of COVID but when we are together the only phones being seen are to take photos …

but that’s changed in the last 2 years as we now have a few family polaroid cameras that do the rounds on the day so we have lasting, tangible memories to hold on to.

So why all this talk about generations, my childhood memories and family get togethers.  Well, I’m talking about making sure that we can see the world in many different ways and how generations can interact with one another.

For me it’s about understanding how we can get positive downtime and allow our brains to just refresh and our body relax without being distracted by or interacting with technology.

Right now you are probably all thinking, here we go the Director of Sport is going to tell us to do more exercise, join one of the after-school sports clubs or play in the school sports teams.  Of course I am, but not today; what I want to is challenge you to complete as many off screen activities in the month of February, there are just 25 days left.

So today I will be sharing with you 25 things to do away from your screens; these range from reading a book, playing a boardgame, cooking something new, writing a letter to someone, stretch for 20 minutes, speak to your grandparents about their own childhoods and of course go for a 5K run !

I hope you accept the challenge to put down your devices a litter bit more this month and focus on your own personal wellbeing.