OLD VALUES VS YOUNG LOGIC

On a Sunday evening, I was enjoying my tea time with my grandfather. After I finished my tea, I started reading my eBook. After a couple of minutes, my grandfather asked me what I was reading with so much attention and interest. So, I explained to him the whole concept of e-books, and then he said with almost a shocking expression, "What, you can read a whole book on this small screen?" I replied with a bit of unusual thought that" Yes, what's the big deal in that?" And then he told me that, when he was of my age, he had to purchase the books to read, from a far-off store from his home. Many times, he had to return empty-handed because many books he used to ask for were unavailable in that store. He realized and told me that technology is a boon for the students of this era, as they won't ever run out of materials. But the very next day when I was relaxing on the sofa and scrolling the feed on my cell phone, he said to me that this technology had made youngsters such lazy and sluggish. Don't you get bored using that small device whole day, whenever you get free from helping in the home, you start using that little thing again. This technology has destroyed your brainpower. Then I just realized that this all are consequences of the generation gap that we have between our parents, grandparents, and us.

REASONS FOR THE GENERATION GAP

Have you ever thought about what are the reasons that have led to this generation gap? Most of the reasons are so common, but we don't ever think or give attention to it. Let's have a quick look at some of them: 

Ø  As we all know, the period in which our parents grew was not a technology-driven era. Our Parents were raised when there used to be a single television in the home of a neighbour of a colony. And after that, the world changed so rapidly that our parents are still trying to cope with that speed. Due to such a sudden and rapid change in our societies and technology, somewhere our parents are still there in their old period. Many parents have adapted to this technology-driven world, but most of them struggle to handle such a significant change in their lives.

Ø  The Values of our parents differ a lot from ours. Because the environment around us now and the environment around them have a huge difference, they were brought up with those old beliefs, which no doubt, we think, are baseless. But does everything they believe and say to us have no logic? We need to think twice before accusing them of having ancient thinking and not believing in today’s scientific words.

Ø  There are many differences between our parents and us related to our likes and dislikes or our decision to choose our carrier. Most of the parents want a safe future for their children, but the youth of today's generation wants to pursue his dreams and passion. And most of the parents disagree with them because they don't know whether this thing is going to work out.

Undoubtedly, the parents have wisdom, practical knowledge, and immense experience in almost every field, whereas youth have uncontrollable energy and passion. But neither the world runs along with understanding nor passion. Both of these things need to be integrated to have a happy and successful life.

EXAMPLES OF THE GAP

In our regular life, we come across many incidents, which are examples of the generation gap. But we ignore them by saying that, it's normal, they (our parents) behave or react this way every time. We don't understand why they are acting this way. We just hurt them many times by saying some hurtful things.

Ø  As youngsters and youth, we are adapting to the digitalization era, but our parents are still not habituated with all of the technology. Whenever we talk or try to tell them about the advantages of paying digitally, they just cut us off by saying that this is not secure and if our money is displaced.

Ø  Nowadays, many teenagers love to throw a party on their birthday. But most of our parents don't even know when they were born. They indeed don't find any logic behind putting a show regarding throwing a party.

EFFECTS OF THE GENERATION GAP

Most of the time, we don't know how these things affect the whole environment when both parents and children suffer due to this rising issue of the generation gap. There can be some severe effects of this problem and we need to get more attentive.

Ø  Due to a lack of understanding between the generation, the misunderstanding occurs now and then, and as a result, the bond between them starts to get loose.

Ø  This thing results in another issue, an increase in the communication gap. The communication gap is not suitable for teenagers and even adults. Now that period is gone where youngsters used to have problems related to finance only or education. Today's youth has a lot more to deal with, such as to fit in social life, relationship problems, job issues, and many more. Sometimes the kind of problems about which parents never thought that this could be a severe problem.

Ø  The denial of the consent over trivial matters and small quarrels frequently occurs and breaks the peaceful environment in the home. It affects the mental health of both parties in a severe manner.

WAYS TO TACKLE THIS ISSUE

The conflicts that arise due to the generation gap create a lot of disturbance, and the person mostly goes into depression. But there are still many solutions by which we can solve this problem and get our relations back in the track. The most important thing is that both parties must be willing to resolve this issue with the same dedication.       

Ø  Both parties must understand each other and realize where the problem is lying.

Ø  Parents must try to open up in front of their children and tell them that its ok to make mistakes. There is no big deal in making mistakes as long as they learn a lesson and don’t repeat it.

Ø  Parents should tell them the story about their childhood and tell them every incident that has made them laugh, cry, their mistakes. This will help in increasing the strength of the bond between them.

There is no doubt that today's youth must try to take a break from the screen and spend time with the family; this will help decrease the gap. The screen keeps us in a small box but provides us with access to the whole world. The problem is that this screen does not give us access to our family, we need to make some efforts for that if we don't make efforts we can't expect that this issue will ever be finished.