We spend the first half of our life trying to understand the older generation and the second half to understand the younger generation. Every age has its own way of looking at things and it is these changes in perceptions that create the generation gap. There has always been an opposition – implicit and explicit, between the old and the young. The old people, having seen much of the life, consider their experience and wisdom as infallible and tend to dictate the young according to their own ideas and notions. They forget that the world as a whole has grown older than what it was in their younger age. Failing to adjust themselves to the rapidly changing world, they find it very difficult to accept that does not conform to their perceptions. A generation gap refers to the chasm that separates the thoughts expressed by members of two different generations. More specifically, a generation gap can be used to describe the differences in actions, beliefs, and tastes exhibited by members of younger generations, versus older ones.
The term "generation gap" was first used in the 1960s. During that time, the younger generation in question—commonly referred to as “baby boomers”—showed a significant difference in their beliefs and opinions, compared to that of their parents' generation.
A generation gap is defined as the different thoughts possesses by different generational members.
A generation gap can be used to distinguish the view of both actions and beliefs.
Different generations can be categorized as Traditional, Baby boomers, Generation X-ers, or Millennials.
Distinguishing Generation Gaps
Language use
It can be distinguished by the differences in their language use. The generation gap has created a parallel gap in language that can be difficult to communicate across. This issue is one visible throughout society, creating complications within a day to day communication at home, in the workplace, and within schools. As new generations seek to define themselves as something apart from the old, they adopt new lingo and slang, allowing a generation to create a sense of division from the previous one. This is a visible gap between generations we see every day. "Man's most important symbol is his language and through this language, he defines his reality.”
Slang
Slang is an ever-changing set of colloquial words and phrases that speakers use to establish or reinforce social identity or cohesiveness within a group or with a trend in society at large. As each successive generation of society struggles to establish its own unique identity among its predecessors it can be determined that generational gaps provide a large influence over the continual change and adaptation of slang. Most slang terms maintain a fairly brief duration of popularity, slang provides a quick and readily available vernacular screen to establish and maintain generational gaps in a societal context.
Technological influences
Every generation develops new slang, but with the development of technology, understanding gaps have widened between the older and younger generations. "The term 'communication skills,' for example, might mean formal writing and speaking abilities to an older worker. But it might mean e-mail and instant-messenger savvy to a twenty-something." People often have private conversations in secret in a crowded room in today's age due to the advances of mobile phones and text messaging. Among "texters" a form of slang or texting lingo has developed, often keeping those not as tech-savvy out of the loop. "Children increasingly rely on personal technological devices like cell phones to define themselves and create social circles apart from their families, changing the way they communicate with their parents. Cell phones, instant messaging, e-mail and the like have encouraged younger users to create their own inventive, quirky and very private written language. That has given them the opportunity to essentially hide in plain sight. They are more connected than ever, but also far more independent. Text messaging, in particular, has perhaps become this generation's version of pig Latin."
Language brokering
Another phenomenon within a language that works to define a generation gap occurs within families in which different generations speak different primary languages. In order to find a means to communicate within the household environment, many have taken up the practice of language brokering, which refers to the "interpretation and translation performed in everyday situations by bilinguals who have had no special training". In immigrant families where the first generation speaks primarily in their native tongue, the second generation primarily in the language of the country in which they now live while still retaining fluency in their parent's dominant language, and the third generation primarily in the language of the country they were born in while retaining little to no conversational language in their grandparent's native tongue, the second generation family members serve as interpreters not only to outside persons, but within the household, further propelling generational differences and divisions by means of linguistic communication.
Generational consciousness
Generational consciousness is when a group of people become mindful of their place in a distinct group identifiable by their shared interests and values. Social, economic, or political changes can bring awareness to these shared interests and values for similarly-aged people who experience these events together and thereby form a generational consciousness. These types of experiences can impact individuals' development at a young age and enable them to begin making their own interpretations of the world based on personal encounters that set them apart from other generations.
Demographics
In order for sociologists to understand the transition into adulthood of children in different generation gaps, they compare the current generation to both older and earlier generations at the same time. Not only does each generation experience their own ways of mental and physical maturation, but they also create new aspects of attending school, forming new households, starting families and even creating new demographics. The difference in demographics regarding values, attitudes and behaviors between the two generations are used to create a profile for the emerging generation of young adults.
There is a large demographic difference between the Baby Boomer generation and earlier generations, where earlier generations are less racially and ethnically diverse than the Baby Boomers’ population. Where this drastic racial demographic difference occurs also holds to a continually growing cultural gap as well; baby boomers have had generally higher education, with a higher percentage of women in the labor force and more often occupying professional and managerial positions. These drastic culture and generation gaps create issues of community preferences as well as spending.
Every age of generation must be free to act for itself. The dreams, ideologies, values and aspirations of the young and the old will always differ. The old generation stands for traditional values, social norms and moral codes of conduct which the young cannot readily accept. They make their own analysis of good or bad, right or wrong and clamour for changes in the whole socio-economic set up. They are against anything that suppresses their individuality, They struggle to mould their lives and actions according to their perceptions, while the old generation discards and denounces them for being rash, thoughtless and irrational. The conflicting ideologies of the two generations thus cause frustration and tension among the youth, and fury and anxiety among the old. The generation gap thus continues to grow.
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