IS GENERATION GAP REAL?

We always talk about GENERATION GAP.

Is t real? Is there something really called Generation Gap? I tend to believe that it is a grand myth.

Progress of human race is constant and continuous and every slice of history has its share of knowledge and ethos that keep changing. This is natural reality and mankind is conditioned to live with this exponential change.

So where is the relevance for the Generation Gap which we like to label as a complaint?

I feel, at all times, there are good people and bad people. There are responsible people and irresponsible people, there are knowledgeable people and dumb people, there are smart people and dull people, and there are progressive people and conservative people. But, all these gaps are intra generation and not inter-generation.

Then why do older people complain that things were better during their times… and why youngsters do complain that the elders will never understand them.

The answer I think is not GENERATION GAP, but communication gap. We do not communicate enough between age groups.



A youngster may appear to a parent, not as an independent individual, but as a representative of a formidable collective force which can seem profoundly threatening to all that the parent stands for and believes in, as an individual.

And when the parent appears to symbolize the power and vision of a whole generation, the child may feel terrified and overwhelmed.

For the GAP to disappear they both need to TALK and the Family is the stage for this.

We tend to associate inextricably with our childhood experiences. Those who grew up listening to a particular singer decides for ever that , this is the sovereign standard for music and will never accept other types of music that came later and got entrenched in the minds of the next generation. Again the bottom line is that there has been good and bad music at all times.

We follow religious practices and habits followed by our parents and insist that our children follow the same, forgetting that there have been outstandingly brilliant atheists, and God fearing killers centuries before.

The children decide that their parent’s views are anyway antiquated and merits rejection, without bothering to analyze the good and the bad.

The issue essentially is the difference in attitudes, priorities and views between people and never a generic Generation gap.

People get associated with the art and literature or the type of entertainment available in a given period and condition their minds that this is the ideal and anything that came later is frivolous.

Tastes keep changing and no one should grudge the change. Then, there is no generation gap.

Another important task for the elderly, is updating. Updating on change, updating on technology, updating on modernity. This helps to avoid gaps. I had a colleague from the old school, who learned to use computers at the age of 55 and retired as an expert at 60. He never felt alienated from the SMS generation.

Traditions, culture, technology, morality standards… all change. It is unwise to criticize or ridicule these changes, which will only create generation gaps.

For the young, change should be a natural occurring, but never a blind adoption of the shell of change without the element of value improvement that goes with that change. A lot of so called matured people are afraid of change, and a lot of youngsters are contemptuous of tradition. Majority of young and old who do not get the positive import of this transitional domain, fight battles to preserve and justify their way of life. A little bit of empathy on both sides will dissolve the gap.

I have a word of caution for the very young. They get carried away by the eulogizing and celebrating of youth that is found in the mainstream media. This is just a trick played by the commercial world though no one is in doubt about the paramount role of youth in building future. The elderly are not a marketable slice of demography and corporations compete to sell technology, gizmos and goodies to the young world, which are puffed up. Corporations do not waste money to develop products for the elderly. So the advertisements bombard the youth with an outrageous concept of style and diffidence that creeps into their value system. The bright youngsters do not fall for these gimmicks.

It is simply the overall changes in society over a period, in terms of technology, business, government structures, religion, faith, cultural norms etc that creates the illusion of a Generation gap and never individuals themselves being young or old.

When the elderly complain about youth, they must concede that the new generation is simply responding to the world that their previous generation has handed over to them.

They deserve an honest FEEDBACK and not JUDGEMENT.

This needs DIALOG and this needs FAMILY.

Both sides should avoid stereotyping and free themselves from age bias.



FAMILY holds the key for generations to communicate with each other and create harmony and value systems independent of age and dependent only on rational minds that may be young or old.



A.P.Jayanthram



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