If you grew up in the 1970s, you likely developed these 5 rare traits that most people don’t have today:
- You're comfortable being alone
People who grew up in the 70s are strangely comfortable with being alone. Not lonely, alone. They can sit by themselves for hours. They don’t require constant feedback or validation. They’ll fade away into projects and hobbies no one else cares about.
Millions of kids in the 70s returned home to empty houses. Both parents working, or divorced parents, or just a culture that didn’t hover over kids the way we do now. These kids learned to be self-managers.
- They made their own snacks, did homework without supervision
- They had solved their own problems by the age of eight or nine
- They developed psychological self-sufficiency that most people don’t get until their twenties, if they ever do
- You don't panic easily
People who grew up in the 70s don’t panic when left to their own devices. They’re not great at asking for help (they learned early that help might not come), but they’re incredibly resourceful. They’ll MacGyver some solution out of whatever is around. They don’t want a plan handed to them. Actually, they resent it, kind of, when you try.
They may have trouble working in a collaborative setting in which constant communication is expected. But place them in a situation where things are coming unraveled, and no one is coming to save you, and they’re steady. They’ve been there before.
- You have an immense tolerance for boredom
People who grew up in the 70s can wait. They can sit through delays, technical difficulties, and slow processes. They don’t freak out because things take time.
I was on a flight that was delayed five hours. The younger passengers were losing their minds and demanding answers, getting angry at gate agents. The older man next to me, who was probably in his 60s, took out a book and started reading without paying attention to anything around him.
The 70s were slow. You wanted to know something? Go to the library, hope they have the book, read the book. Want to talk to your friend? Call their house and hope they are home, and hope their mom doesn’t answer. Want to see a movie? Wait for it to come to your town, wait in line, hope it’s not sold out.
This constructed a different kind of nervous system. These people learned that good things take time and you can’t force them. They developed patience. Nothing was instantaneous, so either you learned to wait or you went nuts.
- They’re less likely to freak out if results don’t appear right away
- They understand compounding in a way that’s difficult to teach
- They can be aggravating to younger workers who expect quicker feedback loops
What’s interesting is they’re also weirdly adaptable to technology once they decide to learn it. Because they recall when everything was more difficult, new tools are like gifts.
- You're good at pretending things are okay when they’re not
People who grew up in the 70s have a default mode, and that's “keep it together.” They smile through pain. They don’t complain much. Back in those days, you didn’t discuss it. You didn’t go to therapy. Your parents didn’t sit you down and work through emotions. You just … dealt with it. Alone.
This created incredibly tough adults, but also kind of emotionally constipated. They can cope with crisis after crisis without breaking down. But they don’t reach out during times when they are having difficulty either. They don’t feel their problems are worth bothering other people about. They grew up at a time when you didn’t share your pain — you dealt with it privately.
In ways, this makes them great in emergencies. They don’t dramatize. They don’t need their hands held. They just fix the problem. But it also means that they suffer silently, sometimes for years, when they could have gotten help. And they can be judgmental of people who are more emotionally expressive — seeing it as weakness or attention-seeking.
- You can be emotionally distant
The 70s produced adults who were strangely emotionally distant. Growing close to them requires work. I’ve seen that they tend to choose activities over discussions. They’d prefer to work on a project with you than sit in front of you and discuss feelings.
They show love by doing things (fixing your car, bringing you food, helping you move), not by saying “I love you” every day. This all stems from a childhood where actions meant more than words, because words were not always to be trusted.
I’m not saying that the 70s produced better or worse people. They produced different people. And it helps to understand that difference. But what I am constantly learning is that the psychology of every generation makes perfect sense once you know what they lived through.
Aditya Singh is a writer covering psychology, self-improvement, and productivity. He has over 100k+ reads across various writing platforms.
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This article was originally published at Medium. Reprinted with permission from the author.
