How often do you find yourself in a conflict of interest and opinion with your (Gen-Z) kids at home over a particular issue? Is the conflict fixable, or does it sometimes go out of hand, increasingly pushing you to opposite extremes day by day? What does it feel like when you give up your hard-earned convictions simply to prevent your children from drifting away completely? How logical is it for the youth to take the wisdom of the elderly as outdated or irrelevant?
Today, this has become an omnipresent issue. The youth view social, cultural, and political issues through a different lens, widening the generational gap and challenging long-established beliefs and values. The generation gap naturally arises from age differences that lead to different ways of understanding and perceiving the changes and new developments that take place all around.
Easy access to the internet, technological developments, the availability of smartphones and laptops, social media, the impact of globalization, issues of unemployment, problems including the unaffordability of essentials, and the gap between expectations and what is available are among the key contributors to the current widening of the gap.
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The gap is likely widening further as the majority of youth are increasingly busy on screens most of the time and in most places. The Pew Research Center found that younger generations are far more immersed in digital technology and social media than older generations. This gap in technology has greatly impacted the way we communicate, socialize, and see the world around us. It has often led to a lot of misunderstanding between parents and their children.
The act of comparing themselves with friends, imitating the edited lifestyles displayed on various platforms, being influenced by randomly available fake information, and adopting foreign cultures as a trend, accompanied by youth instability, incomprehensibility, vulnerability, and unpredictability, are some additional stimuli that further provoke existing generational differences, leading to unexpected consequences.
It's argued that most of the tragic incidents of September 8 and 9 were due to a generation gap, during which 76 priceless young lives were lost, and national landmarks like Singha Durbar, the Supreme Court, and the International Conference Hall, along with many private properties, were devastated in a protest led by Gen-Z youths. The government did not understand the depth of the young people's aspirations, while the protesters could not have imagined that their demands for social media freedom and an end to rampant corruption would be badly suppressed by the authorities and abused by invisible forces. The reason behind the emergence of many recent revolutions, including the recent Gen-Z revolution of Bangladesh and the agitating Cockroach Janta Party of India, may primarily be the result of a generational gap, as the deep aspirations and expectations of youth and the customary delivery systems of governments may have failed to match.
Similarly, experts claim that technological innovations are changing society at a speed never before seen, and the generation gap today is wider than ever before. This often creates different expectations, lifestyles, and priorities between younger and older generations. There are disagreements over various things, including dress codes, marriage choices, career preferences, and personal independence. When I prefer face-to-face conversations, my daughter enjoys conversations through social media, messaging apps, and digital platforms. I enjoy traditional music, literature, dress, and customs, while my daughter's preferences are influenced by global culture through the internet.
Indeed, the cultural gap has grown wider than ever before. Recently, there was a heated exchange with my daughter over the inclusion of wine and Band Baaja in her cousin's marriage party. She claimed that it wouldn't be a decent party without wine and that its absence would simply be an issue of embarrassment within her circle. This was extremely against my wishes and was considered a 'NO, NO' item in our Brahmin culture, where Naumati Baaja would be the best practice to reflect the real flavor of a traditional arranged marriage, in my view.
Moreover, it is realized that the new generation has moved far ahead into a new phase of progress. With a smartphone in hand and a laptop on their lap, they are heavily engrossed in their screens; as a result, they are excessively detached from their immediate surroundings. Before the screen, there is no value in sports, personal fitness, relatives, society, household chores, and even food. Immediately after reaching home from school or college, their engagement with screens begins and continues until their mother brings food and politely asks them to eat. Sadly, the food is abruptly rejected if it does not meet their expectations. Getting help with household chores, including cleaning their clothes and rooms, is a far cry, as they do not have enough time for such nonsense, which, according to their belief, could tarnish their image. The matter gets worse when you are threatened for violating their rights and accused of child abuse if you speak to them in a raised voice. Still, it would be unfair to ignore the positive aspects of this trend. There are also some young people who are harnessing technology to expand their horizons, seek information, develop independent thinking, highlight corruption and social injustices, and drive a large volume of social and political change.
Knowing about the generational gap is therefore very important, as its impact can either divide generations through conflict or bring them together through dialogue, tolerance, and shared understanding. Open and honest dialogue, practicality, mutual respect and cooperation, common ground and shared values, inclusiveness, and empathy across generations can effectively bridge this gap, turning division into understanding, conflict into cooperation, and differences into a source of collective strength and social progress.
(The author is a journalist and a freelance writer)
