The Younger Generation Disconnect: Is Generation Gap Widening?

photo source: flickr.com


 Is the gap between one living generation and another increasing? I pondered this question as I entered another bright morning with a steaming tea cup on my study table.

The occasion was curious. My parents were surprised that one of my niece's favourite pop singers won an Oscar. The cause of this surprise was simple. They never took their granddaughter’s music tastes seriously. 

Ours is a South Indian family with a cultivated ear for Carnatic classical music. For us, all this new hype about Korean Pop and God knows what else was parvenu arrogance. Yet, our children constantly listen to this genre of music, full volume, all day. 


My parents’ wide-eyed amazement kept me thinking. As each generation progresses into the next, is the generation gap widening? 


Technology could be at the core, the abyss, of this gap. From mobile phones onwards, the older generation lost it. They use their mobile phones only to make calls, take photos, check WhatsApp, and watch YouTube. Banally ignorant of the other features of their smartphones- do not disturb, night mode, or photo edit, not to mention, the varied and vibrant smileys- they have entered into a minimal pact with this gadget of many possibilities and that would do.  


Their smileys are so predictable and few that the youngsters find it amusing. ✋😀😂😍 and some more.


The gulf already was wide between the Boomers and Millennials. Gen X, to some extent, and Gen Z all-in, have become unapproachable for the earlier generations. The Gen Alpha, succeeding Gen Z, are true aliens to Boomers and Millennials.


Investopedia gives the below exact years regarding how to define different generations, though in a corporate consumer context.  


“The current living generations are the Greatest Generation (born 1901-1927), the Silent Generation (1928-1945), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), Millennials (1981-1996), and Generation Z (1997-2012).”


Gen Z and Gen Alpha are digital natives. Naturally, a creed apart.


A considerable percentage of Gen Z and Gen Alpha are children of immigrants; unlike rooted people like us.  


This is where I am tempted to quote Aristotle, 


(Young people) are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances.”


Obviously, blaming the next generation when you are unable to understand them, is centuries-old, and a method of self-deception. 


That reminds me. When did I stop being up-to-date about all the newly released songs? The first disconnect could have happened when I stopped searching for new music and settled for the familiar ones. 


Now I try to reconnect with my niece again by paying attention to all the new releases. 


I watch all the machine movies, giving up my precious time (who knows of what value or has it any value at all?!) to it in the hope of a future meaningful conversation with my young nephew when I meet him next time. (I hid from myself the fact that I enjoyed watching them.) 


The generation gap is widening not because young people have detached themselves from the ground realities. It is because we stopped updating, day-by-day, as we used to do when we were young, about the evolving, progressing, wonderful world. We stopped being curious. And stopped taking risks in life.   


Nostalgia needs to be redefined as something evil if we are not to make the lives of our youngsters horrible by blaming them for everything. 


The posturing authoritarian figures are insecure in their own peculiar and ridiculous ways. They belong to the stone and concrete age as is manifest in the statues erected on our wayside pedestals. 


Every day, let us remind ourselves that neatly cut green grass, left alone, does not want to remain so forever, but is eager to grow into a forest. For once, let us put our lawnmowers aside and let the grass grow.   


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How Far Away Is a Cancer Vaccine?

Paraman, The Street Violinist: Memory of a Man

Travel Plan: A Trip to Understand The Bermuda Triangle