A generation gap can be a
frustrating lack of communication between young and old. It can also be a
useful stretch of time that separates cultures within a society, allowing them
to develop their own character. This can create a gap. From their position in
the family and with more life experience than younger family members,
grandparents are uniquely poised to see that differences between generations
can be positive for all those concerned. As grandparents ease into the role of
family patriarchs and matriarchs, they may wonder: What happened to the
generation gap? Is it gone or just on hiatus? Or it is still present but mostly
underground?
Before the twentieth century,
society was not very mobile. Young people typically lived near their extended
families, worshiped in their childhood churches, and often worked on the family
farm or in a family business. With the advent of television and movies, young
people were exposed to cultural influences alien to their own families and
cultures. Performers like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and James Dean won adoration
from the younger generation but were often met with scorn from the older
generation. Then came the 1960s, and civil rights and the Vietnam War exposed a
more serious chasm between young and old.
Today, the two largest areas of
difference—technology and music—are less emotionally charged than political
issues. The older generation is likely to be proud of the younger generation's
prowess in technology rather than to view it as a problem. As for the musical
differences, each generation wants its own style of music, and the older
generation generally can relate to that desire. In the areas of difference, the
younger generation tends to regard the older generation as superior to their
own generation
Realizing
how many of the things you’re familiar with will be archaic to your children
can understandably make you feel old before your time, but it’s wise to keep in
mind that technology is progressing at an unprecedented pace these days. By the
time today’s babies are adults, there are likely to be many more innovations
that change the way society operates until they’re replaced by something
smaller and better. Below are simple things that previous generations took for
granted, but are likely to be a mystery to children growing up in today’s world:
How
to Execute a Perfect Prank Call-Before the advent of
caller ID kids would get their kicks with a few good-natured prank calls. It’s
a pastime that’s morally uncertain, but isn’t likely to even exist by the time
today’s little ones are teenagers. These days they are called cyberbullies.
How
to Operate Rotary Phones-Unless one of today’s babies has a
great-grandmother that’s still holding on to an old rotary relic, there’s
little to no chance of them ever encountering one outside of old movies? By the
time today’s infants are adults, in fact, they may not even remember a time
when homes had landline telephones at all.
How
to Use a Card Catalog to Look Up a Reference Book- When kids need
to find a fast fact or research a report today, they turn to the Internet and
their favorite search engine. The art of searching through a card catalog in
the library to find the reference book you’re looking for, and then combing
through it for information, is one that will likely be lost to a significant
portion of tomorrow’s youth.
How
to Use a Phone Book- With directory assistance at your
fingertips and every smartphone featuring a web browser, when was the last time
that you even opened a phone book? By the time your children are adults, they
may not even remember a time when the phone book was still delivered to every
door.
The
Joy of Cassette Tapes- Spending an evening meticulously
crafting a mix-tape playlist or waiting for hours to catch your favorite song
on the radio so that you could record it onto a cassette is probably a
cherished memory. It’s also one that today’s kids will never be able to fully
understand, because cassette tapes are all but extinct. Which is a shame,
because who didn’t love taking 45 seconds to rewind your favorite song, then
going too far because you forgot and having to spend another two minutes
finding it again.
What
it Was Like to Get Lost- When every phone has GPS directional
capabilities and every child has a phone, it will be difficult to understand
that people were still routinely getting lost or writing down questionable
directions as recently as the early 2000′s.
What
Pagers Were- If you’re above the age of 25, you
probably remember a time when cell phones were prohibitively expensive and
pagers were all the rage? These days, you’d hardly find a pager that’s still in
operation.
What
the “M” in “MTV” Stands for- Kids of the 1980′s and 1990′s remember
a time when the lineup of MTV still consisted largely of music videos, with a
few reality shows and special programming aired sporadically. Today, there’s
almost no music on what was once Music Television, and the only people around
to savor the irony are you and me.
What
the “Save” Icon Actually Represents-The little square
icon that denotes a the “save” feature in any word processing program is
immediately recognizable to today’s adults, but children will never understand
that it’s designed to resemble a 3.5 floppy disk. In a world of flash drives,
the icon now symbolizes a piece of dead technology.
Why
VHS Tapes and VCRs Used to Be Amazing- As cloud
storage becomes the wave of the future, even physical copies of DVDs and CDs
are becoming rarer. The same VHS tapes that Gen X-ers grew up collecting are
little more than relics now, meaning they’ll be all but unrecognizable to the
generations of tomorrow. But at one point, these little wonders meant you could
watch what you want when you wanted instead of waiting for it to show up while
you happened to have the television on and turned to the right channel.
“A father must lead his children; but first he must learn to follow.
He must laugh with them but remember the ache of childhood tears. He must hold
the past with one hand and reach to the future with the other so there can be
no generation gap in family love.” (June Masters Bacher)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“Generation
Gap: 10 Things Children Today Will Never Need To Know” TeachThought Staff
·
“What Research Says About the Generation Gap” By Susan
Adcox
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