Essay on Generation Gap !
There always has been generation gap since the dawn of civilization. The older people and the younger population complain of generation gap. There is a great hue and cry raised by the elders and the young both that the communication between them has broken down. They attribute it to generation.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The elders are more critical of the younger generation with a big inventory of complaints against the young and the young mostly tend to ignore the complaining, speechless and occasional loud protestations of the older generation.
But now and then they do protest. They resent the petting attitude of the elders.
The younger generation naturally differs in dress, food, habits etc, as all these were not available to the older generation. These changes are indicative of progress.
With the passage of time when the society, right from the basic unit of the family through society and the entire humanity, is changing, how can the new generation be asked to move backward to the ancestors’ way of life?
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It will be generally agreed that most fathers want their offspring to adopt the same profession that they themselves followed without giving due weight to the aptitude of the offspring. This causes tension between the elders and the children.
People are fixated on the music of their youth. The film songs, for example, of one’s youth are still attractive and the later music is rarely appreciated. The same is the story about
art and literature or the type of reading available in a given age. The tastes keep changing and no one should complain about this change. It is unavoidable and can’t be stopped. The ways people relax also change from age to age.
Traditions, culture, moral definitions keep changing. If one persists in it, one widens the generation gap and certainly has no business to criticize the youth. Those who are young today will face the same mess when they will reach their age.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
At least a quarter century separates the older generation from the younger one. In most cases the gap is of over half a century. Naturally an unnoticeable biological evolution takes place and the nature wants the survival of the fittest. The young generation can’t survive if it doesn’t change.
No power on earth can prevent the natural gap owing to this evolution. Nature equips each succeeding generation with mechanism to survive the rigors of the new environment.
The old have to leave early after having lived their lives. They would be wise not to interfere in the pace of development of the new.
It was high time they stopped complaining. The young should see this mess of the old and be tolerant and respectful towards them. It will ensure harmony in the society and add joy and peace to the daily life.
But every rose has a thorn. The younger generation should also be on their guard against the evils coming in train with the fast life stress, depression, frustration as a result of a race for ascendancy shouldn’t be ignored or they can rob them of the fruit of their labour and their dreams. The young are our future, the future of humanity, of the human race on mother earth.
Only they can save themselves by heeding early warning of the evils of the modern world and life based on their own assessment. The old can still tell them that they in their time faced these travails of transition and suffered now and then. They young should listen to the old but must take their own decisions with discretion and a balanced perspective. The coming generation will be better than each preceding one.