Topic 9: Generation gaps

The generation gap (1)_____ to the difference in attitudes or behavior between a younger generation and the older one. In my opinion, different attitudes towards life, different views about certain problems, and a lack of communication can cause a generation gap in most societies.

The first factor is that parents and children generally see things from different (2)______. Choosing a career is a good example for this. Many parents try to impose certain careers they favor (3)_____ their children, based on their own perceptions. However, young people don’t always understand their parents’ points of views. Instead, they prefer to be free to make their own decisions on their future career. Another factor lies in differences in musical tastes, fashion, and political views between young people and their parents. (4)______, having a pierced nose might be viewed as fashionable by some teens, but for many parents, it is considered to be an act of rebellion against social norms.

The major factor (5)____ the generation gap is lack of communication between parents and their children. Parents tend to be dominant and not to trust their children to deal with crises. Also, they keep talking too much about certain problems. That is the reason why young people seldom reveal their feelings to their parents. When facing problems, young people prefer to seek help from their classmates or friends.

(Source: https://www.sachmem.vn/trial/books/32/exercises)

Generation gaps form when two age groups begin to see the world from significantly different perspectives. Generation gaps existed long before the 1960s - in the early 19th century, political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville commented, “Among democratic nations, (1) ____ generation is a new people.” But they tend to emerge with greater frequency as the (2) ____ of societal change increases. For example, in the 1800s, chances were that your father’s world looked a lot (3) ____ your own. In the 21st century, even a short span of 20 years can bring radical changes in technology (and the way we use it), moral and religious beliefs, and attitudes about education, work, friends and family life.

Longer life spans also increase the prevalence of generation gaps. For babies born in 1920, life (4) ____ in the United States was 56.4 years. For babies born in 2009, it’s 78.7 years. Longer life spans mean that more generations are living and working simultaneously. That means (5) ____ for the first time in history, there are four distinct generations (and four generation gaps) in the workplace.

Generation gap refers to a vast difference in cultural norms between a younger generation and their elders. It’s a distressing thing for the phenomenon (1) ____ occurs around the world. The (2) ____ of communication, different views on certain problems and different attitudes towards life may cause the generation gap or even widen it. First, one of the major factors for this misunderstanding between two generations is that parents and children lack communication. Young people (3) ____ reveal their feelings to their parents, and often complain that their parents are out of (4) ____ with modern days, that they are dominant, that they do not trust their children to deal with crises, and that they talk too much about certain problems. So when young people meet some problems, they would rather (5) ____ to their classmates or their friends for help. The lack of communication widens the generation gap.

Another factor is that parents and their children see almost everything from different (6) ____. Take choosing career as an example. Parents generally believe it is their responsibility to plan the career for their children. Some hope their children will (7) ____ professions that will bring them greatest prestige and economic benefits. Some hope children will have a stable job with a regular income. But the youth may think they should be free to (8) ____ their own decisions as to their future career. Young people explain that true success is not a matter of money or position, instead, it is a matter of self-fulfillment.

Finally, with the change of the world over decades, the attitude of the young has altered too. There are differences in (9) ____ matters as musical tastes, fashions, drug use, sex and politics between the young people and their elders. Nowadays long hair on young males is viewed as fashion by the young, but it is frequently considered a shocking act of rebellion against (10) ____ norms by parents.

Seniors in China are still highly likely to believe rumors and pseudoscience, according to reports. In recent years, China has seen more scientists and science communicators using digital platforms to combat pseudoscience, which is classified as rumors, statements, beliefs, ideas or practices that are stated as fact, but are often fabricated and scientifically untested. Despite that, many young Chinese have experienced difficulties when trying to pass on that message to older people.

For example, last year, Dingxiang Doctor, a digital platform that debunks medical rumors online, released 101 articles that disproved common, inaccurate claims. However, many netizens said that when they forwarded the articles to family chat groups, they were questioned, scolded and even removed from the group by older family members. An online survey last year by Tencent, one of China’s biggest online businesses, indicated that nearly 40 percent of middle-aged and senior people had experienced online fraud, mostly related to healthcare products.

Yun Wuxin, a food engineering expert who has popularized food science for more than 10 years, believes that, in general, members of the older generation lacked training in logical or critical thinking when they were young, so they have an exaggerated belief in personal experience, tradition or superstition. He said young people, especially today’s younger generation, have received better training and tend to hold skeptical or critical attitudes toward convention. He added that new media that popularize science in fresh, innovative ways － such as short videos, video blogs and animations － are very effective with young people. However, traditional methods, including television, community visits by scientists, neighborhood exhibitions and science columns in newspapers, are very important for middle-aged and elderly people who really need to understand science.

(Source: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/)

Catering for the diverse digital habits and capabilities of each generation is key for managing the generation gap in modern work life and attracting multigenerational talent.

To working Millennials, technology means flexibility. From cloud-based platforms to video conferencing, they’ve embraced the freedom of remote working and the change in work culture that technology affords them. How a company embraces technology is so important to this tech generation that 71% say it influences whether or not they take a job at the business in question.

Gen Z, who are currently entering the workforce, are even hungrier for sophisticated enterprise tech. According to a Dell report, 80% want to work with cutting-edge technology to satisfy their tech-literacy skills - rated by 73% as good or excellent. Arming your team with the latest tech solutions to appeal to younger generations does however yield tricky generation gap problems, especially when older employees are expected to keep up with the pace that comes naturally to their younger colleagues.

CompTIA revealed half of Millennials felt older workers are too rigid and set in their ways. Echoing concerns around a workplace divide, nearly half of Gen X workers said their older employees were not as technologically skilled. Boomer’s views on younger generations are equally damning; two-thirds consider Millennials as disloyal, and six in ten felt younger employees seemed entitled. It’s easy to see how generation gap issues in work life can result in workplace tensions and hinder vital processes of team collaboration. Add to this the issue of different levels of tech adoption, and you’ve got potentially worrying effects of the generation gap on productivity, culture, and output.

(Source: https://info.templafy.com/)

GENERATION GAP

The term “generation gap” may have been coined not long ago but the problem itself is as old as the hills. All sorts of conflicts and misunderstanding between younger and older generations occur in probably every family. Adults complain about arrogance and insensitivity of young people whereas the latter claim that their parents have no idea about what they are going through. There seems to be no perfect solution to this problem as the young and the old find it difficult, if not impossible, to communicate and accept opposite views. The fact that teenagers develop different values from those held by their parents leads to numerous conflicts.

There are many reasons why the problem of generation gap arises. First of all, the period of adolescence is difficult. Teenagers are not children any longer, but they are no adults yet. They search for a sense of identity and crave independence. On the other hand, they depend on their parents financially and still need their parent consent when they want to go out, go for holidays, buy something expensive, invite friends home, etc. Very often teenagers treat their parents like enemies especially when they are not permitted to do one thing or another.

Obviously, it is understandable when parents insist a teenager returns home before midnight. They have a wide knowledge of the world and all kinds of risks involved – reckless youngsters see no danger in walking alone in the middle of the night or getting a lift from a stranger who might be a serial killer. When children grow up and start their own families they are able to admit that their parents were usually right, although a bit overprotective at times.

However, we must remember that adolescence is the period of making important decisions. Sixteen or seventeen-year-olds want to choose their career path or at least develop their talents, which in turn will enable them to decide upon a job later on. Secondly, it is in their late teens when they form their lifelong friendships, go for their first dates, analyze what qualities they will look for in their future partners. Unfortunately, a lot of parents do not want to accept the fact that their child is growing up and has the sole right to choose who she or he wants to become in the future. Such mothers and fathers often have their own idea what their child’s life should be. To my mind, this kind of behavior is really harmful and it can result in a very serious family conflict. Every now and then we meet forty-year-old people who accuse their parents of making them study the subject they hated or marrying the person they never loved. The generation gap problem, which usually disappears a few years later, in such families turns into an emotional wound which might never heal and the feeling of a wasted life on both parts.

To sum up, although conflicts between teenagers and their parents are unavoidable, they definitely do not have to lead to an open war. My advice to parents is to try and treat teenagers as their equal partners and to accept their ideas. Teenagers should respect their mothers and fathers more, and be always ready to discuss serious problems with them. All in all, who else loves them more than their parents do?

(Source: http://aleklasa.pl/)

When it comes to cooking, boomers cook one, Generation X cooks another way and the beat generation does things that must be recorded now, because once they have passed out of fashion, they will never be discovered again.

They have weird skills, derived from scarcity in their early years. They keep their spices in brown glass because they last longer. For practical purposes, this means everything is in an old Calpol bottle with “sumac” scrawled over it. Some of them are, and will fish an empty packet of sugar out of the bin, shake a quarter-teaspoon of sugar from it and put it back. They can often make a cake by eye, without weighing anything, which I find incredible, and they know what to do with leaf gelatine, which is great until it isn’t. My mother once made avocado in jelly and then said: “I don’t know, the proportions may have been slightly off.” I said, recklessly: “Don’t worry – I’m sure I’ll choke it down,” but when it came to it, my cutlery bounced off it, like a prank played on a very hungry person in a cartoon.

The beat generation canon is Meat at Any Price and Fish at Any and anything to do with mince. The descent of mince from a sacred food to a bolognese-only staple is one of the great mysteries of progress, because it is delicious even when you don’t shove a load of tomato in it. But you can’t just shove cheap meat in a pan and watch while it sweats out watery grey juice. This seems to be something that only wartime generations understand.

Hip parents in the 70s, or regular parents in the 80s, or quite trad parents in the 90s had a horror of overcooked carrots and waterlogged cabbage. The very smell of cooked vegetables evoked for them every bad memory of British cuisine, before anchovies and Italians and radicchio arrived, when all dinner was a school dinner. So they would all just tease their vegetables with a hint of boiling water, before turning them out, still basically a salad, only a bit warmer. Then you, their offspring, would leave home, and accidentally encounter a vegetable that had been cooked, and realise how delicious it was and now you probably overcook your vegetables a bit, and your children will go the other way.

(Source: https://www.theguardian.com/)

A generation gap in the workplace can make workers both young and old feel inferior, as well as hamper productivity and teamwork. Differences between generations can be seen in work ethics, habits and communication styles. Younger workers might fear not being taken seriously by their older colleagues, while older workers might fear that their experience is not valued but replaced by workers with knowledge of more current technology. However, members of each generation can close the gap between them if they’re willing to meet one another halfway.

Older workers can show respect to the younger set by asking for their opinions and recognizing their contributions to the workplace as valid, or complimenting them on a job well done. Younger workers can show their elders respect by asking for advice on how to manage a situation with work, based on the older worker’s many years of experience. It’s important for both entry- and senior-level workers to see each other as equals, regardless of the type of position in which they work. No one wants to feel inferior or irrelevant just because of their age. Rather, a generation gap at work can be a learning opportunity.

Workers can also put themselves in their colleagues’ shoes to determine what might be bothering them about their generational age difference. If a person is much older than another, perhaps it is bitterness about fewer job opportunities, or fear that a younger worker might seem more relevant and edge him out of his job. If workers open their minds to understand where co-workers are coming from, it can help ease any tension between them and appreciate each other’s work contributions.

If age seems to be a problem for someone at the workplace, it can be helpful to do the very opposite of what a co-worker might expect from someone of a different age set due to stereotypes. For example, if a worker is considerably younger such as right out of college, she can share researched information to indicate that she knows what she’s doing, or show curiosity instead of upset to indicate emotional maturity if the person makes a disparaging remark about her youth. Older workers can maintain an enthusiastic attitude about work instead of showing boredom or bitterness from past experiences.

Workers can, moreover, directly address the concern of age differences at work with the colleague at odds with them by asking the person for constructive advice on how to handle the issue. For example, older workers who are unfamiliar with new software that younger colleagues understand might acknowledge to them that they did the same tasks differently in years past but show interest in learning the program to keep up with modern technology. Learning to speak their technological language can make them feel more connected. Likewise, a younger worker can admit to being green on the work scene, but eager to gain experience by learning from senior colleagues.

(Source: http://work.chron.com/ )

The elusive “generation gap” is construed as being widest when one of the two generations is the adolescent. While the gap exists in almost all facets of social and personal domains, never is it more evident than in the field of technology, where one of the generations is a digital native and the other, an immigrant or even an alien, depending upon the stage of the continuum of adulthood. The use of gadgets itself is markedly influenced by age, as shown in Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project that studied how different generations use technology.

Although cell phones are now the predominant form of interpersonal communication, the way they are used significantly varies between generations. Youngsters use their phones for a variety of activities such as taking photos, texting, going online, instant messaging, emailing, playing games, listening to music, and even recording and watching videos while adults progressively according to their age progression, restrict the use of these devices to fewer and fewer activities. Interestingly, Pew Research found that the one cell phone activity that transcends age is taking photos, with adults just as likely to click photos on the cell phone cameras as the young. However, the type of photos taken differs, with adolescents clicking more selfies that adults.

The Internet seems to be a good leveler of digital use, at least within the US. While fewer than 60% of senior citizens (ages >65) are conversant with and use the Internet in 2014, the percentages are comparable for all other age groups; 92% for teens, 97% for young adults (18-29 years), 94% for the mid-lifers (30-49%) and 88% for older adults (50-64%). How the internet is used also varies among age groups. While teenagers and young adults under age 30 use the Internet to find information, socialize, play, shop and perhaps conduct business, older users visit government websites or seek financial information online. However, this gap is narrowing, according to Pew Research, and activities such as emails and search engines being increasingly used by all age groups that are online.

Social media is another area where there is an age difference. While the percentage of adults who use social media (72%) is not that different from the youngsters in it (81%), there is a difference in the type of social media applications that is favored. Youngsters (teens and young adults) seem more prevalent in social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter while adults dominate tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest. Adults are largely passive or semi-active users of social media as seen in that adults typically add contacts only on request while adolescents actively seek new friendships. Adolescents use the social media platform as a conversation space and an outlet for self-expression, aimed largely at building new relationships while adults use social media to maintaining existing relationships. Adults have fewer contacts with a third of the adults in social media admitting to having family as their main contact group. Contrast this with the fact that only 10 and 15 percent of adolescents reported to have family in their social media contact list.

(Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/)

There are many types of family systems around the world. In North America and northern Europe, the nuclear family (with two generations - a father, a mother and one or more children) is often seen as the most typical. In contrast, in most other parts of the world, extended families, which include other family members such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, are seen as the norm.

The common view is that the nuclear family has become the norm in many Western societies as a result of industrialization and urbanization. This trend began in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when people were forced to move to cities to find work in the factories that sprang up during the Industrial Revolution. In the twentieth century, greater industrialization resulted in even more people leaving their large extended families. Urbanization also meant that people lived in much smaller houses, which were not big enough for an extended family.

The trend towards nuclear families meant that many of the duties and responsibilities of a family, such as providing food and shelter, cleaning the home, preparing the food, caring for children and their education, and caring for the sick and elderly are no longer shared among the members of the extended family. The parents (or parent) now have to do this, with some help from the state. However, this is the price that people pay for the higher standard of living that may come from living in a city.

We may think we know what we mean by a ‘nuclear’ family and an extended family, but reality is more complicated than most people believe. Most nuclear families are part of extended families: children have grandparents and, in many cases, aunts, uncles and cousins as well. Part of what makes them ‘nuclear’ is that they live in their own separate household, but it is not the whole story. In Greece or Italy, for example, a nuclear family may live in its own flat, but the extended family may live in the same apartment block or in the same street and family members see each other and even eat together every day.

There is at least one more factor to consider. Family members may be separated from each other by geographical distance, but they may have close emotional ties. Even in North America and northern Europe, grandparents usually have close bonds with their grandchildren, and families often travel long distances so that they can see each other. Grandparents often help their adult children, for example, by cooking and looking after their children in emergencies. In the same way, when their parents become too old to live on their own, adult children may take them into their own homes. As a result, they turn their nuclear family into an extended family.

The structure of families changes over time. The effects of urbanization and industrialization are enormous, but they are not the only reasons for the changes. People marry, have children, become widowed, divorce and die. Children grow up and adults grow old. Nuclear families become extended families and extended families become nuclear families. Family ties stay strong or become weak. One thing is certain: in a changing world, the family will continue to change, but ultimately, it is likely to continue to be the basic unit of society.