Definition
Generational myopia is the unconscious assumption that the spirit of the years in which one came of age represents the natural, timeless way things are. People absorb the politics, technology, music, and moral attitudes of their formative decade so deeply that these features feel like reality itself rather than a passing arrangement.
The myopia is double-edged. It makes a person feel anchored and confident, but it also blinds them to how differently those raised ten or twenty years earlier or later experience the same world. What looks like stubbornness or naivety in another age group is often simply the residue of a different formative climate.
Why it matters
How it works
A formative era stamps a generation through shared crises, prosperity or scarcity, and dominant technologies experienced while identity is still forming. Members then carry that imprint forward, often reacting against the generation just before them and being misunderstood by the one just after.
To counter the myopia, study the conditions that shaped you and the cohorts around you. Treat your own assumptions as one possible response to one moment in time. This loosens the grip of the era and lets you choose which values to keep rather than inheriting them by default.