Bridging the Generation Gap between Young and Old

You must have observed that the generation gap is increasing more and more nowadays. Because the new generation is rapidly accepting the new technologies but the elders are not. There are many opportunities available to learn new things by bridging the gap between young and old.

What’s in it

What Generation Gap is Actually?

The generation gap is nothing but only the differences between the beliefs of elders and young. Difference between the beliefs related to religion, karma, god, diet, relations, superstition, money, job, etc.

Let me explain to you why beliefs have this big role in the generation gap. 

I think you will agree that whatever the person’s nature and behavior are, they are very much based on their beliefs. Believe me, if you were born in any terrorist group then, you were also a terrorist now.   

You must have heard this quote 

“You are the average of the 5 persons with whom you stay or hangout the most”

In short, your surroundings make a really big impact on you. So, the older people have lived in such conditions that everyone in their surrounding was very sensitive related to their religions, everyone was craving for government jobs and also that time many career options were not there.

In the past, social media was not there. Therefore, the older generation was living in such a different manner. 

Now, Why are We Different?

The Younger generation has got exposure due to technology that the previous one did not even think about. Technology is one factor, another one is our source of information and entertainment.

Two examples that show the Generation Gap Clearly

1. Nowadays, we have many career opportunities. Which were not available before. If you have the skill you can make a career in any stream you want. As of now, whenever you say that to your family that you want to become an entrepreneur, actor, musician, rapper, singer, video creator, nutritionist, gamer or anything, mostly your grandparents suggest you not choose these streams. In major cases, your parents also suggest you the same as your grandparents. Because, these career choices were also not available for your parents also(maybe available but, not trusted)

This is just because of their beliefs. We have shown Bhuvan Bam, Carryminati and many other young influencers who earn lakhs. So, we believe that we can make a career in this field.

2. The Younger generation has grown in the modern era. They have any information they want to see at their fingertips. So, obviously, younger people have very little patience in comparison to the older generation.

When younger people see an advertisement before the video they are very eager to skip that ad. Now, let me share a usual case that happens in my house. Whenever my grandparents were playing bhajans on YouTube and the advertisement came in between they just kept that ad playing also. When I ask them why they are not skipping the ad they replay like “It will finish in just 1 or half a minute, so why we need to skip it” 

This incident is not teaching us that we also should not skip the ad but, I am explaining the difference between patience level!

Bridging the Generation Gap

As mentioned above, every person is made of beliefs. The beliefs that are made by small/big and good/bad experiences. As time goes, those beliefs become more and more strong.

The older people that are living or working with us have faced many more situations than the younger generation. Now, if we have to bridge the generation gap, the younger ones have to understand the situations of older peoples.

The younger one should not give suggestions to the elders on every small thing. For example, let’s consider that your grandparents are doing fast, from a religious point of view. So, we should not try to convince them about their strong beliefs.

Obviously, we should give advice to them if they are doing any very wrong things like wasting food in events or any other bad thing. (I’m not saying that the older generation wastes food. I’m just giving the example of such things in which the younger can advise them) And let’s continue with the same example, If the younger person is doing such a wrong thing (wasting food) and the elder tries to correct him/her so, he/she should accept their mistake and should not tell them that “oh! common, nothing big is gonna change if I do not waste this food”

If possible in some cases, we should appreciate them if they do or say even small good things. If the younger generation will understand the older and behave as mentioned above the relation will become good in between two generations.

And if a young man or woman will learn to live with the acceptance of small mistakes of others, this skill will definitely help them to improve their relationships in their workplace, with their life partner and also family life will be happier.

Activities to Involve the Child with Older Generation

1. A child always follows the footsteps of what his parents are doing. If the parents of the child are using a smartphone continuously and then suggest reading books to their child, most probably your child will not obey your instruction.

It has shown that, if the children are not respecting their grandparents, it is just because their parents are also not respecting them. Obviously, your child will behave the same as you are behaving with their grandparents. 

As we know, the surroundings make a very big difference. So, the first step to involve the child with their grandparents is that the child’s parents have to behave the same as they are expecting to from their child.

2. Nowadays, everyone’s life is becoming busier. But still, we have hours of time to spend on social media! That means we have time. We should spend less time on social media and spare at least 30 to 60 min for our family.

If you two generations don’t have anything similar to talk about then the younger person should just ask the older person, what was the name of their grandparents. Try this once, I am sure they will start to talk about their time. And you will also know many new things about the past. You will find it very interesting, just try once.

We should remember that developing a relationship takes time. We have to keep trying to make our family more connected.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both generations should try to grab the good habits and other things from each other. And the younger generation should understand that whatever the nature of the older generation is if you were born to their place your nature and behaviour will also be the same. And most importantly don’t try to change the older generations in every aspect, try to accept them as they are.  

Also Read: Amazing Things You Should Know About Leadership Excellence

Frequently Asked Questions