difference of opinion

With the passage of time I have noticed that the older generations (parents and grandparents) will invariably have much different opinion of most things then we do. Whenever a discussion arises there will always be some sort of differences in the opinions. But some how my parents’ and grandparents’ opinions will be some what same most of the times, but the younger generation (like mine) will be entirely different at times. Because of this I noticed that our elders are not ready to take advice from the younger ones even though we are usually correct most of the times but instead they argue with their opinions though it’s wrong in some cases.

After giving it some thought I think it’s very natural that there will always be some generation gap will exist. The older generation tends to speak out of their personal experiences gathered over a period of time while the younger lot will speak of new things and new ways and this tends to disorient their thinking. There should be understanding between the two and also there should be acceptance to some extent between the both generations. The youngsters should think that what elders are saying, and accept the information if its right and also elders should not think that they are always right, they should also accept some changes that always occur with the passage of time, as nothing is forever in life, it keeps changing and we should have that spirit, that makes life easy and compatible.

I think that what is called a 'generation gap' should not mean that one generation is right while the other is wrong. What really matters here is that though times do change over a period of time, previous ideas and thinking cannot apply to today's set of problems. But, this previous knowledge can be used as a foundation stone to build up newer knowledge data base to solve the current set of problems. Age indeed gives us more knowledge. However, because of the contrast of things right now from how they were back then, I think the older ones 'miss' the things they've had in their yesteryears while the new generation now can't appreciate how things were before because they haven't actually lived it.

In the end, I think generation gap only exists if a person stops learning and absorbing in new ideas and insists on sticking to his/her generation in terms of ideas and thinking. This is why there are arguments. Nothing in life is static and life constantly provides new opportunities to learn and adapt out thinking no matter how old we are. One must also remember that the brain is like a sponge which is constantly trying to find new data to process and once we stop learning we tend to stagnate and stop growing mentally. Once this happens differences will start cropping up leading to tensions between different groups of people. I think one solution to lessen the generation gap would be to talk out the problem areas with the elders and if possible have them interact more with the outside world. This might change their thinking once they adapt to newer ideas.