9 replies to this topic

[nakulgupta]

What is a generation gap?? According to the Oxford Dictionary it is a difference in attitudes between people of different generations. The key word here is "ATTITUDES". Now attitude is A way of thinking or feeling about someone or something. Thus this gives us a clearer picture of what a generation gap means and when it occurs." A generation gap occurs when older & younger people don't understand each other because of their difference in opinion, experience and nature". I for one feel that this difference is definitely existing in our society today. Let me explain.

Most of today's youth are deeply influenced by the growing reach of western standards and culture. To them it seems as the "Global" standards and the "In " thing to do. Everything about them today is influenced by the west. Be it Music, Fashion, Behavior, Trends, Clothing EVERYTHING. This I must add is good to a certain extent but beyond a certain point...it leads to differences between the generations. Earlier when the extent of the reach of the west was just growing, people did well to avoid it. It is in our nature to go for something we believe is true and will make us a better person. It may occur but is also leading to many rifts in today's society. "It is one of nature's ways that we often feel closer to distant generation then to the generation immediately preceding us"

The next thing that I feel further aggravates the situation is today's education system. Earlier the importance to academics was not very important and there was not much competition. focus was on the all round development of a person. Sports, ECA, everything played a role. but today the focus has been shifted to academics. Learning by rote is very common. A student gives more time to academics. This leads to lesser time of interaction between parents and children. Parents too have a role to play in this by pushing the child beyond his limits and causing a "burnout" effectively making things worse. A recent study by a leading institute states that the amount of time spent with each other has effectively decreased by 75% over the last five decades.

We today live in a smart world. The internet and technology has also played its role. That a child spends more time on the computer is too obvious to dispute is obvious and I will not go further. But that a child's social skills suffer is a very alarming situation. Today we spend time chatting with friends and relatives seven seas across may seem a good thing, but we are also losing the same amount of time that could have been used for interacting with a person personally. Thus social skills also suffer. Even a telephone conversation is far better for improving social skills. Thus we are not able to express ourselves properly. This further bridges the divide.

Another difference that plays a role is the difference in upbringing. Earlier parents were authorative and children felt a bit scared to interact with their parents. Respect was invincible. Till date my mom is quite scared to speak to my "Nanu" (Grand father). But today the situation is more friendly. Children treat their parents like friends. This is another thing influenced by the west. Parents may or may not realize this due to the difference in upbringing and it is often treated as rude behavior and that today's children lack respect. In some cases it is even blamed on the school where the child studies." People often talk of the younger generation as if they never had anything to do with it". This further divides the gap.

There are a few more things that can be blamed. Lack of spirituality, The media etc. which play their part in their own way.

When I heard of this topic, like most of you would have I ran a Google search. But I didn't search for points or arguments, Instead I decided to let Google decide the truth. I ran two searches. One was Generation gap exists, the other Generation gap does not exist. Both were in quotes mind you. The result was quite convincing. For the former I got 474 results while for the latter just 19. Thus the writing is on the wall, The gap out there is present and increasing. PERIOD.

This is the exact copy of my opinion as put forward in a debate competition

[jet]

Your arguments are understandable, though you would do well to link them together and relate them to each other more. Was the point of this post to see whether we thinnk a generation gap exists? Technically soud, because the whole point of "generation" would be lost if there were no gap between parents and sons .. But attitude-wise, it all depends on where you were brought up.

If your parents were part of the 60's hippie movement and such, there would not be too much of a gap because hippiedom was basically teenagedom forever. Hippie parents would be happy to let their child have as much freedom as they wanted. Ex-hippie parents may either let them have reasonable freedom or none at all, according to how they now view their former life. Non hippies may do the same, being reasonable and ignoring what happened with the hippie movement and letting their children have their personal space or lock them up in case they become modern day hippies. Though we call them juvenile delinquents or something along those lines.

Hippies, of course, are not the only thing affecting the existence (or non-existence, depending on your view) of the generation gap. Many modern day parents were brought up under "Victorian" conditions, having to do everything right and proper. Depending on how well they understood and agreed with those conditions, they may have turned into the obese 50-somethings who live to smoke and drink beer as "revenge", you could almost say, on their former lives, or they may be responsible parents bringing up their children with or without the same amount of rigidness.

It is my belief that those afore mentioned middle aged, lazy parents (having become so by the aforementioned reason or otherwise) do not usually produce a generation gap. Those people usually marry people of the same idyllic personality, and common sense tells you that their characteristics, being both the same, will end up concentrated in their children. So their children grow up with the same lazy ideals and goals in life, becoming almost clones of their parents. If they are the same, there is obviously no generation gap.

The main generation gap exists not between the younger people of today, who for the most part get along tolerably well with their parentals, but between the parents and grandparents. The mid 90's was the main era of social revolution, of becoming less "upright and proper" and more relaxed in their ways of life. The parents of people growing up then, most likely our grandparents (or perhaps even great-grandparents) would have been brought up under very different social conditions. The classes (lower, middle and upper) rarely intermingled, and there was basically a rule for everything, a right way to do everything. Our parents, after the social reforms, would have been much freer in their lives and decisions. Their parents, however, having grown up and lived for so long under more oppressive conditions, would not really be able to change like the teenagers/young adults. To roughly quote from the Matrix - "they cannot free their minds".

To finish off this brief argument (I've left out many points which could be covered), the generation gap both exists and does not exist. Like most things, the generation gap is a natural thing which occurs and is induced by certain circumstances, like the coat of an arctic fox turning white in winter.

[praise]

Generation Gap usually creates issues as thinking differs, dressing style is different also the way our parents have been brought up is very different from the times we are in.

[Ananya]

Generation gap carries along with it a host of differences.There are things that had been better in ancient times and with changing times there are things that are far better in today's times.

Earlier parents were authorative and children felt a bit scared to interact with their parents. Respect was invincible. Till date my mom is quite scared to speak to my "Nanu" (Grand father). But today the situation is more friendly.

Above is a remarkable point in distinguishing how much the parent/child rapport has changed.But then this change is for good.Friendliness and frankness can only bring a parent and a child closer.
If a child feels comfortable in telling all his secrecies to the outside world but doesn't feel comfortable in revealing them to his own family.Then anytime he gets in to big issue it will all depend on the kind of friends he hangs around with to save him /not to save him.But on contrary when parent /child rapport has improved so much there is hardly any time left in the hands of our parents to peep into the life of their children to check what 's going on in their life.If parents hardly find any time to interract with their children then what help frankness will do? Even the great role that our grandfathers and grandmothers used to play in our ancient family structure has also diminished to a large extent when nuclear family has taken over the joint family structure.Migrating to cities for seeking job oppportunities plays a pivotal role in establishing nuclear family structure which was absent in ancient times when children used to rely mostly on inherited property.So somewhere hard headed careerist attitude is creating the huge difference we see between generations.