I went to my high school reunion last night.
Kinda.
Sorta.
It was on Zoom.
And there were only three of us.
But it was great to reconnect with the old gang.
We go way back.
But it had been a long time since we spoke.
Here’s what I learned…
A Generation Gap
One of our classmates became a congressman.
The valedictorian disappeared.
Another guy became gay.
And another became a woman.
My friends didn’t have such juicy news from their lives.
One worked in tech and now lives in California, and the other is a lawyer in Budapest.
But I did discover something interesting about them that I had never known before: they both had older fathers.
They are now in their 50s, but still haven’t reached the age yet that their fathers were when they were born.
I asked them, Did that create any problems?
Yes, there was a generation gap.
Their fathers fought in World War Two and became men early.
While they played video games and listened to Duran Duran on their Walkmans.
It was hard for them to connect.
I went to bed thinking about this.
Isn’t this true with every generation?
Especially these days?
The children being born today will grow up in a world very different from what we’ve known.
What are your thoughts?
We should never stop learning about new issues. If we continually live in the present time, and if we accept and use new things, there would be no generation gap. Excluding the natural gap related to life experience.
Yes, every generation has a new challenges, which are not understandable to their parents. My mom was born in 1935. I was born in 1961. We had a lot of problems when we were together. She couldn’t understand my preferences in music, literature and others. I couldn’t understand why she loved folk and loved to recall her childhood. I have my son. He has his own preferences and I sometimes can’t understand it. My granddaughter has her own preferences and this is very different from mine.
It was always a gap between generations, but especially now when things change faster than anytime.
The generation gap truly is an issue that often creates tension and obstacles in all kinds of relationships, both personal and professional: between parents and children, among family members, between students and teachers, between colleagues, etc.
There are some rare exceptions when seniors are flexible enough and capable of taking the initiative to overcome or at least mitigate the generation gap through constant personal development, self-improvement, and self-actualization to meet the younger generation’s needs and adapt to contemporary life. Overall, the generation gap is a significant challenge, though, and it will deepen in the years to come due to the longevity trend and rapid technological development.
Well, how else. We´ve all felt it. Of course, it create problems, but we just have to overcome them. But that´s good. Let some things in our lives be permanent, because everything around us is changing at a terrible speed anyway.
But thinking about it, shouldn´t we both (younger and older) do our best to make sure that the gap doesn´t get too big?
It’s curious because my grandmother was 20 years old when my mother was born, my mother was also 20 years old when I was born and I was 40 years old when my son was born…. The gap between my son and I is big… but it has never been a problem in our relationship and activities we shared.
Playing video games is the only thing that I never did…
I agree, there is a gap in generations and not for better. It was never as big as the one we’re witnessing nowadays. The youngsters have quick acess to everything and without guidense they can get mentaly disorded. This is my humble opinion.