“Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” – George Orwell
I have found this quote very profound. Every generation has a different perspective on their life. The generation gap is the lack of understanding between two persons of different generations who lived in different circumstances which result in having different kinds of experiences in the various fields of life thus lack of understanding occurs between them, it may also arise due to lack of maturity and experience in young people. The generation gap mostly affects those countries where families live united. And even families tend to live united since they have odd terms with each other. When families make efforts to stay united for positive reasons, sometimes they get negative consequences.
This happens due to some particular reasons; today we can throw some light on those reasonses to analyze the generation gap:
- Differences in the pace of understanding technology
- Differences in how to approach work
- Differences in how to invest money
- Differences in day to day expenditures
- A huge difference in lifestyle
We can see it is happening on the ground in our daily routine, the young generation wants to celebrate their birthday by varying lavish ways but our parents even don’t remember exactly about their birth dates or even we can say they remember but don’t want to waste their hard-earned money for flaunting. Youth wants to enjoy every weekend with their friends or spouse in malls or cinemas on the other hand parents never feel the true requirement of boasting of.
Even modernization has changed the mindset of most of the urban families but if you see the bigger picture, you will find a huge gap between the generations.
While the old generation was about spirituality and belief, the younger generation people are mostly concentrating on logic, questioning, change, innovation, and believing in being different. The young generation always wants to be a couch potato, on the other hand, the old generation loves more physical work to stay always fit.
In reality, while the young generation is less thoughtful, the elder generation is more introspection. You can feel in the young generation; more loss of moral values, loss of faith, poor expressions of feelings, and so on.
Why does it all happen?
It all happens due to the difference in the era of birth between two generations. Both generations face different circumstances. Let’s have an example; our parents are born of independence phase or post-independence phase so they have personally experienced the pain and efforts to earn their bread & butter. Struggle at every step of their life has made them more interested in spiritual activities. When we were growing up, we witnessed a lot of economical and cultural changes around us. But now things have been changed drastically. The kids of this generation are born and they are witnessing a boom in technology. Due to technology and eagerness to earn more has made parents more high earner. Now, children are enjoying a comfortable life since they will not feel the heat that we felt. Even Today’s generation doesn’t want to know about the struggle of their parents and grandparents. They don’t know how much dedication is involved to reach this lavish life.
So due to the huge difference of bringing up all the generations, mental framework differs from each other. When people of different generations come into the heat on any topic, they don’t get convinced by each other’s point due to the different mindset or circumstances. Since, when two parties have different opinions about any point or topic then they find themselves unable to express their love towards each other. So, it broadens the gap between them.
Consequences of Generation Gap
Generation gap always gives birth to negative consequences and two different generations feel emotional drifts. In the utmost cases, emotional drifts also lead to the separation of one generation to another. Because due to the emotional drifts; two parties enter into the communication gap or misunderstanding that moves ahead to separation when necessary actions do not take place to remove the pile-up.
Solutions to the Problem of Generation Gap
There is no technical solution to this problem. Since two parties of different generations are indulged in this combat than it is never an easy task to handle it. But still, there is no problem with emotions exists in this world that can’t be tackled with communication. An open discussion is must to drop high emotions or, in harsh words I can say ‘arrogance’. Everybody needs to respect each other’s opinions.
I read somewhere, ‘A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.’
Every generation needs a new revolution. A father must lead his children, but first, he must learn to follow. He must laugh with them but remember the ache of childhood tears. He must hold the past with one hand and reach the future with the other so there can be a generation gap in family love.
Awareness can help to understand it better among masses and thus improve relationships. Realization and a high level of understanding is the optimal solution to combat the problem.
