Bridging the generational gap: Insights and solutions for a harmonious society

Differences between the old and the young are ubiquitous and referred to as the generation gap. This can be seen as the differences in their views with regard to perceptions, appreciation, acceptance, values, ethos, preferences, and lifestyles.

Let me share an example in this context. Kate and Fraser with their daughters Sophie and Hannah on a beautiful Sunday will be visiting grandfather Richard. “Not that dress, please”, Kate advises Hannah as they are getting ready. “But I like this one”, Hannah politely objects. “No, please”, her mom insists. They get in the car and start driving. “80s again! Please change it Dad”, Sophie complains about the type of music her father is playing. “Something modern, please”, Sophie suggests. At grandfather’s house, Kate, Fraser, and Richard are having their coffee, chatting as they read the morning newspaper, while Hannah and Sophie are on Facebook.

The sociological theory of a generation gap first came to light during the 1960s and trying to understand how the generational changes started and why. This highlights the role of Karl Mannheim in studying generations and specifies that the term generation is not only a cohort clustered by a specific year but is a group of contemporaries that share a history and a set of experiences. This gap has been growing wider between the old and new generations.

A consequence of a generation gap can be a language gap that could lead to miscommunication or misunderstanding between individuals from different generations. For instance, sometimes younger people create new words that could be indecipherable for older people.

This language gap is not confined to words only but also to whole languages. An example of this is language brokering where members of the same family speak different languages at home. To exemplify, when a family moves to another country, kids learn the local language faster and more fluently than their parents, ending up working as interpreters and translators in their families to help their parents understand others and vice versa.

Another manifestation of the generation gap can be observed in the workplace. A serious gap in people’s epistemology (how they justify their knowledge, beliefs, values, opinions, and attitudes) can cause misunderstandings, arguments, and decreased cooperation. That is why we should always stay calm and respect others regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, or cultural/linguistic background.

At the family level, more communication and interaction are needed between family members

Relevant to this, studies show that employees from Generation Y get bored quickly and seek new jobs in a short period of time. They also prefer to work autonomously rather than taking directions from seniors, unlike people from older generations, who stick to their jobs and accept given orders.

A number of factors contribute to the creation or expansion of the generation gap such as rapid changes in society, increased life expectancy, and mobility of the community. There are a number of solutions that could bridge the generation gap, one of which is that social media allows people to communicate across cultural, linguistic, and geographical boundaries.

With the current and future technological advancements, especially through the use of instant communication tools, it might be difficult to delineate the future generation gaps as the phenomenon will shrink dramatically seeing the world becoming one ‘village’.

At the family level, more communication and interaction are needed between family members. There should be discussions between children, parents, and grandparents. Setting a specific time for the family to discuss topics, issues, news, successes, failures, and opinions will help maintain a gap-free, smooth, and healthy transference of values, attitudes, principles, manners, and knowledge between the three immediate generations (child-father-grandfather). The gap could similarly be bridged when adults help children learn cultural values, traditions, and life habits, as well as improve emotional and social skills.

Children could also ask seniors for guidance when life gets tough since they have already experienced many things in life, while young people with more knowledge and skills of the current times could share these with seniors to help them be abreast of the new changes in the world.

No matter what we call the differences across generations and regardless of the many differences between people in society, we are just like puzzle pieces: we need to be able to stick together to fill up the spaces and be more substantial.