What is this Generation Gap? Why did it arise?

Till 1950s & early 60s there was a scenario of "Children obey Parents". At that time life was not complex. People had a lot of time for family and social gathering. Joint families were prevalent in the society due to mutual understanding. Old-aged people were taken with utmost loving care. Let it be urban or rural, there was no question of quality assurance because life was simple & not complex. After WWII people worldwide searched for peace, worked hard & respected the values they were brought up with. Does that mean everyone was happy in that era? Not exactly. There were bias towards some members of the society on the basis of gender, age etc. Health issues, poverty & famine was also ruling the world.

From the mid & late 1960s things started to change because of a revolutionary movement happening in the world due to socio-political issues. Women started fighting for voting rights. In the 1960s & 1970s many young people started doubting value system due to existing bias. They protested against society and everything that was mainstream. Lifestyle & standard of living started to change. Young generations preferred for a lifestyle filled with fun & talent. But the society neglected such demands. This shift started to increase in the 80s and 90s as well. Developing countries like India saw a rapid change in the lifestyle especially in urban areas. Migration from rural to urban happened extensively right from mid 70s & 80s. High Income, Middle income, Low income & No income were the four brackets of society that started to exist right from 80s. Accordingly the way of living also varied to suit their earnings and spending.

Family values started to change accordingly due to rising standard of living. Joint families started getting fragmented to nuclear families having one child or at the most three children. People's purpose of gathering changed from a value based approach to a for-the-sake-of-society approach. This chased everyone to move towards a lifestyle where every individual or a family will prefer to live to compete for a classy lifestyle. It also involves pushing the kids to a career chase which can give a guaranteed income and and elite life survival. Now this leads to an unhealthy rat race.

Coping up with this pressure was indeed challenging for everyone. So the mid 90's generation kids preferred an answer with justifiable reason for every rules put by their parents like, "Why should I put more efforts? Why can't I search an alternative to survive. I will ensure that I will not cheat to achieve success. But I don't want to do this. I want to be creative".

The reply of the parents will be "Shut up. You should do this. Don't argue me. Even I have followed my parents advices than why can't you? I have never argued them the way you are arguing me".

Sociology experts interpreted that parents of 90s kids (generation before us) didn't communicate with their previous generations the reason to follow such principles & values. Obviously they obeyed their parents. But they pass on the message to their kids like, "My father taught me this. So I am following! My mind didn't ask to question as I trusted him". If our parents would have asked the reason, definitely they would have answered. After all who are they? They are the 90s kid's grandparents (our grandparents!) who love to spend quality time with their grandchildren. On the contrary a lot of advices we learn from our grandparents with reasons which we would have not got it from our parents. But that doesn't mean our parents have less knowledge of it. Here the problem was - time factor. It is a matter of "Just follow. Tomorrow if anything happens then that time we will think about it".

Here the issue is that the purpose of developing values changed after migration to cities which they ignored to see. Imagine how miserable we feel for ourselves! Shifting our base from the world of cool breeze and sounds of mooing cows to the world of smoke and pollution with only stress & no peace. Yet we found a life as it was luxurious after every monotonous working days. Migration not only changes the approach in the way of living but also it changes the nations outlook towards progress. Accordingly laws and procedures arises to live in cities to ensure safety and security which was not required by our grandparents when they were staying in rural areas or mid-towns. Wasn't this a change? This change made us adapt to the new environment.

Then why Generation gap is perceived as an "Unacceptable gap"?

This gap can be filled by communicating the changes and accepting it with some culture & values following it. The only thing the young generations & elders both have to promise each other is good ethics, manners, trustworthy relationship, strong mutual understanding, healthy communication with a peaceful living.

Here it is very necessary to analyze why this argument is arising. This is definitely a conflict of interest arising due to the generation gap. A lot of things observed by the 90s generations in the world outside or the so called "society outlook" differs from what their parents had experienced in their young age times. Probably this negligence of viewing the change is creating an issue. If a civilization or a geography of a country changes in the long run then why can't an individual, family or a society go through the same thing? Change happens naturally by itself. In Hindi there is a proverb which states "Parivartan jeevan ka vibhina ang hain". It means that change is an essential part & parcel of life. Change originates in the process of increasing gap. A human being grows up from a toddler to a matured human being physically, mentally & emotionally. So if that change is sure to happen then why this generation gap based change is not welcomed? The gap can be filled by updating with a general group discussion.