Age is a big part of this. Your parents are competing in a very different social landscape than people in the 20-30 range are.
People in their 20's are engaged primarily in mate selection an career building. Those are very focused and somewhat desperate endeavours, where random conversations with strangers are high risk and low payoff, particularly when talking with people in your own age group who are likely to want something from you, just as you are likely to want something from them. It's like being at one of those networking events where everyone is there to make connections that can help them but aren't able to offer much in return: an unpleasant waste of time.
Older people are much more pro-social. Their investment in their offspring will be enhanced by a more friendly, connected world, and they can afford to indulge themselves in random social connections. Human society is fundamentally kept intact by grandparents. The reason we have these ridiculously long lives is most likely because troops of early humans who had more grandparents around were better at transmitting culture to new generations.
I'm putting this in brutally evolutionary terms, and there is obviously much more to the story, but the evolutionary forces are always there, under the surface, and we can't just wish them away (however much we might like to.)
Probably because it's a just-so story not based on reality. Building a career and finding a mate surely must be more influenced by the breadth of your social network than is your ability to help your children and grandchildren. Think about how many people you know who have gotten jobs or met their significant others through friends or acquaintances. I think anyone who sees interactions with strangers as adversarial should take a closer look at why their own stance is so suspicious. Getting to know new people definitely isn't easy, but it's incredibly rewarding in itself and opens so many doors.
I said it was a fantastic insight. I didn't say it was right. :)
Actually, I think you're both right. The idea that young adults should be suspicious and selfish is limiting and wrong. But the idea that older adults have different motivations socially is spot-on. In part, even the introverts and misanthropes have learned to value just talking to people, eventually.
People in their 20's are engaged primarily in mate selection an career building. Those are very focused and somewhat desperate endeavours, where random conversations with strangers are high risk and low payoff, particularly when talking with people in your own age group who are likely to want something from you, just as you are likely to want something from them. It's like being at one of those networking events where everyone is there to make connections that can help them but aren't able to offer much in return: an unpleasant waste of time.
Older people are much more pro-social. Their investment in their offspring will be enhanced by a more friendly, connected world, and they can afford to indulge themselves in random social connections. Human society is fundamentally kept intact by grandparents. The reason we have these ridiculously long lives is most likely because troops of early humans who had more grandparents around were better at transmitting culture to new generations.
I'm putting this in brutally evolutionary terms, and there is obviously much more to the story, but the evolutionary forces are always there, under the surface, and we can't just wish them away (however much we might like to.)