What Is The Greatest Need That Stamp Collectors Have?

NSK,
I am pretty sure that making a sweeping generalization about a sweeping generalization is also irony. Would you agree with someone saying that 'Dutch only care about XYZ...'?

I have not been to every country in the world, but I am pretty sure that no one country has a monopoly on greed or selfishness. I am also fairly sure that no ideology has a monopoly on poor behavior by the people who follow it.

And one of the things that should attract people to this community is that we support different perspectives under the 'safe harbor' of philately. Here, I would like to think that people can steer their ships into the harbor from the storm raging in the world that is being powered by the winds of divisiveness.
Don

Don,

Please, read the whole post and do not jump to conclusions when looking at part of a sentence.




Is not a sweeping generalisation. It is an observation.
It says nothing about Americans. It says that a similar statement, commonly, is made about Americans "outside the USA."
And the anchoring involved with such statements is underlined in the post.
And statements like




are neither inviting nor indicating a "safe harbor" for those young people.

... Caramel waffles.


Absolutely.

Understood.
From my way of thinking, I would not make a large differentiation between me repeating a sweeping generalization and me making one myself. Either way, I would feel that I was contributing to divisiveness. <shrugs>

Please note that I am not defending or agreeing with the original post in question. In fact, when I first read it, I strongly disagreed and considered writing a response but decided to move on.
Don

The thought did not occur to me.

The post in question is not the first post that is critical of young people. It is lamentable.

I think we should welcome anyone who collects stamps in whatever way. That includes those who have a single set of flowers on stamps or a single stamp - even if a single item does not make a collection - commemorating an event in his or her life.

Those who do not collect stamps, well, they, probably, have other interests. That is a good thing to. Without those girls who spend much time playing hockey, I would be missing out on a lot of enjoyment of watching their matches and talking with them, the club officials, and the parents and sibblings of these players.

My first thought on the original post was, 'have not many other previous generations felt the exact same thing about the young people of the day'? I know that I recall my older generational family members saying the same about us when we were the young.
Don

Yes. The Egyptians, probably, complained about the Greeks. The Greeks about the Romans. The Romans about Visigoths. It is in the human nature to find it difficult to change as much as it in the human nature to build on the collective knowledge of previous generations and change the world.

If I would be 16 now, I, unlikely, would be able to built my collection as I did. I think that would hold true if 16-year-old-I's carreer would be following the same path as mine did. Consequently, I doubt it will help if I complain about how young people collect stamps.

I posted this here back in 2019, feels apropos now...

Don

This fairly recent Morning Consult survey while focused on NFT's is interesting:



https://pro.morningconsult.com/arti...collectibles

Morning all,

Reality may suck; but, reality is what it is. This thread documents the factors changing our hobby have not changed in decades if not longer. Change is upsetting to those who do not understand how reality marches on.

The one thing constant year in and year out is change. Be of good cheer. Our hobby has and will continue to survive. We are all just the current stewards of our treasures. Our challenge is to work to pass on our love for this hobby to a new generation of its stewards.

hoosierboy well said.

Part of the reason the hobby is mostly men is that for many years women were actively discouraged from collecting. Even in the 70's there were stamp clubs which would not allow women members.

That was over five decades ago.

Therapy.

Five decades ago means that who knows how many might have been collectors are now not. Plus any young relatives who might have been enticed.