Old thinks him as gold, young’s calls the old as fools. The fight between the old and the young is not new and has been bound in the culture of every nation of the world. The generation gap is a more modern term for the difference between generations, or another term for the “clash” between the opinions, the attitudes and the behaviors of the younger and the older generations. The inevitable progress of time and technologies makes the introduction of new ideas, new believes, and new values unavoidable.
Difference between the present generation and previous generations are made evident through their different experiences, attitudes, and values. Old people always have fixed beliefs, practices, customs, and they think every aspect of their belief is the best whereas youngsters think that the customs, beliefs, practices by the old are useless and backdated, so they must be replaced by the new rules, ideologies, dreams of the new age. In the era of globalization and liberalization, the gap between the young the old has reached its zenith.
The key factor that makes the generation gap wider is the open mindedness of the present generation. The older generation seems to be more closed minded to different ideas and viewpoints, while the present generation seems to embrace them. The youngsters have free mind and aspire freedom more than anything. They do not want anything which acts as a barrier to their thinking and when old people acts as a block to their aspiration there is a clash between the two and this enlarges the generation gap and frustrates both the young and old. Now the life has become very competitive and fast.
So, youngsters have to run very fast to cope up with the competition of the world and prove themselves as the best. But the old generation can never cope up with the speed of the younger generation. Laziness, selfishness, and greed have infected the present generation. Since the previous generations have made life so much easier for us, many do not truly appreciate it and take it for granted. Many members of the present generation are entirely self-focused. They only care about what they want and how soon they can get it. Many lack the value of hard work and achievement.
It is rare to see someone genuinely work hard for something. Also, they have this mentality that they can do anything they want without consequences or punishment. The technological advances play a great role in enlarging the gap as the younger generations are quicker to accept and adopt these technologies and consider the conservative elders of their families as very old fashioned in their, tastes, opinions and out looks toward life. On the other hand, the older people consider the young generation shallow, lacking knowledge and moral depth.
This difference can best be seen in the difference of interests and hobbies. The difference includes the moral and social values, as the different generations see notions such as marriage, love, happiness, decency, and decorum from different perspectives. Within the family sphere this leads to much arguments and sometimes clashes between the young people and the elder family members. Thus, generation gap is destroying the basic human relationship and is obviously a threat to the social stability of family relations. This can be curbed only if both hear the voice of the other carefully and with sympathy .
The youngsters must realize that the older members of the family are their responsibilities, as they have been taken care of by the elders during childhood. Close relationships with parents and trust are important. It so happens that many parents don’t approve of their children having their own way and frequently become unreasonable dictators trying to impose their views on them. Teenagers in their turn don’t understand that their parents are more experienced and they want only the best for them. These realizations may help to fill up the generation gap.