The codes of generation gap

Popular social scientists believe that people with a difference of 15-20 years in their ages carry generation gap. This significant information defines whether communication between people of different ages ends in a learning experience or not. Ignorance or refutation of generation gap particularly by parents and teachers is one of the leading causes of distance and lack of communication between youth and them.

First of all, we need to know that there are no two people in the world who are identical, genetically similar and even identical twins are different because of differences in their exposure to environment and dealing. When we learn from the same sources (Parents or teachers) under a similar set of conditions (Time and social variables), the potential learning outcomes are likely to be similar if not identical. For example, me and my friend mesmerized in the same way in the year 1994 about the magic of putting 1.4Mb of data on a computer disk and about the wonders of 5G technology in the year 2019. The impact of a learning experience and the sources; examples or experiments are always connected but the same source, might not be able to generate the same impulse in the listener’s mind after a couple of decades. The primary mistake of parents and teachers is to use the same set of methods that inspire them at the time of their learning. The examples and experiments proved perfect at their time might not be the best option to be used today with kids or students living in an entirely different society.

Next is the miscalculation about the role of the internet and the use of gadgets in getting better learning outcomes. Over the last two decades, the internet reshaped the world order of communication and learning. We are living in an entirely new world flooded with all sorts of information accessible to everyone and it will grow exponentially in upcoming decades. To use these advanced sources of knowledge the parents and teachers are required to adopt these evolving methods.

This aspect of scientific advancement is deleting invisible boundaries and removing barriers in the minds of younger lads which are in place in their elders. Interaction beyond borders and with different cultures is creating a novel globalised behaviour with their norms. This new internet-based global culture enables our teenagers to live in a virtual world of their own. These new realities have deepened the fosse between different generations and making it difficult to exchange views for any fruitful learning.

In order to develop social strategies to ensure the effectiveness of communication, we need to learn some fundamental classification of generations we are living with. The people who are in their 60s to 80s now are “mature” ones they feel engaged typically with one to one interaction dialogues. Their effective conversation depends on the information provided and the time and mode of engagement.

The most common mistake the following generation used to have with them is the expectation of a clear understanding of all the jargon. Multitasking while having a soothing conversation with “matures” is a clear dinky signal to them which might be a regular norm in the following generation. The people who are in their 40s to 60s belong to a “competitive” generation. Most of them like to stick with their circle, satisfied with one job for a major part of their lives and used to plan long and have enough patience to follow it. Once they find a working way of doing a job they like to stick with it for the rest of their lives. “Competitive” generation believes in a stable attitude and seriousness since they believed they have spent all those decades of their lives to earn that stability. They don’t get impressed easily with unclear ideas and vague approaches since they can quantify the consequences of failures. They are living in an internet world but still hold the pride of their competitive mode of learning. A fecund chat with a “Competitive” requires supplementary information together with the practicality of ideas and thoughts.

Lastly, the People in their 20s and 40s are “smartens”, these are flexible likes to have freedom of work choice and believes in work-life balance. They have developed the bulk of their intellectual and social understanding based on the internet and social media. They learned multiple ways of executing a job from different sources and they consider multitasking as an efficient mode of using time. Due to flexibilities and attempts to switch plans, they incorrectly considered as barmy. Engaging “smarten” in a conversation to share thoughts in one to one conversation is difficult, expecting them to believe more in the competitive world than their smarter world is even more difficult.

The solution lies in the acceptability of new realities which is more or less like evolution at an enormous pace. The responsibility of keeping engagement with smartens lies more on the older generation.

Their universal principle of hard work and learning from practical experiences are a magic mirror to see the future and is required to deal with failures. The expensive experience of older generations if disseminated can help smartens to deal with the newer world in a better way. All we need to know is that time is cooking human thoughts differently due to the difference in ingredients. It produces “matures”, “competitive” and “smartens” which are evolutionary products, sooner we understand better we will be able to pass on the legacies.

The author is an Assistant Professor at Forman Christian College University, Researcher and Science Communicator. He authored numerous articles in national and international journals and magazines and can be reached at muhammadmustafa@fccollege.edu.pk