GENERATION GAP

AN EMERGING ISSUE

PAL PATEL
STD/DIV: 12TH-C
ROLL NO. 9
 INDEX
❖Acknowledgement
❖Statement of Purpose
❖Certificate
❖Action Plan
❖Material evidence
❖Report
❖Conclusion
❖Reflection
❖Bibliography
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It would be my utmost pleasure to express my sincere

gratitude to our chemistry teacher MS. PRIYAVADINI in
providing a helping hand in this project. Her guidance,
support and supervision all through this project is
responsible for attaining its present form. I would also
like to thank my parents as they encouraged me to put
forward my project.
 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

I chose to go with this specific topic being the generation gap

as I often find myself confronted with the situations
demanding a solution to the issue. It is a major problem in
our society that tends to block or limit our ways to
communicate with the variety of people we live with. I was
interested to know more about this topic, regarding others
perspective on it and also about the ways we can solve it and
become more open minded to each other as individuals.
 CERTIFICATE
RYAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
2021-2022

This is hereby to certify that the original and genuine

report work has been carried out to observe the
subject matter and the related data collection and final
portfolio has been completed sincerely and
satisfactorily by PAL PATEL of CLASS XII-C regarding the
project titled ‘GENERATION GAP (AN EMERGING ISSUE).’
 ACTION PLAN
To complete the following project it required my complete
focus and determination. I first researched about the concept
of generation gap and the problems that it can cause. I then
gathered my material evidence in form of interviews
conducted by myself. After getting well equipped with
information and perspective on the topic I have scripted the
report while putting in view everyone’s understanding of the
subject , problems caused and the solutions we can use to
bridge the generation gap.
 MATERIAL EVIDENCE
Given below are the interviews taken of my parents and
neighbors regarding the same issue.
Question: How does the generation gap affect your
relationship with your child?
Answer (Mrs. Gayatri Patel): I myself being a mom to a 17
year old and an 11 year old can say that it does affect our
relationship at a certain level when it comes to transparency
and willingness of guidance from us by the children.
Question 2: What steps did you take on recognizing the
problem?
Answer: As a solution I tried to approach them as their friend
and not as someone in authority. When I was a child, we
never thought of undermining our parents and elders
authority and do something we were told not to do which I
feel is lacking in the generation that came after us as they
might have forgotten the difference between standing up for
themselves and questioning someone’s years of experience
of living in the world. So, I thought the solution of being their
friend would be the best way out.

Question: Did you feel a generation gap during your

childhood or youth?
Answer (Mr. Sushil Patel): I did feel a difference of thoughts
and interests between myself and my elders but that being
 due to every person being different and having a distinct
perspective and point of view but never did I feel a
generation gap. There was never a time where I felt a
disconnect among me and my parents or other elders.
Question 2: Do you think that is true for the generation after
yours? If not, why?
Answer: I do not think that is true for the generation after
my own and I can say that as I am a father to two children
feel like the thoughts still remain poles parts on occasions
but a rather prominent disconnect is felt. I think it is because
of the fact that we as a generation knew and accepted the
fact that the elders went through the same age, struggle and
phases as we are going through which this generation misses
to see.

Question: Do you think the drift that is caused by the

generation gap is a loss to the new generation?
Answer (Mrs. Veena Shukla): Yes, I personally believe that
the loss is huge for the generations to come due to the
generation gap. As I feel that the knowledge the older
generations have to give us is something we should treasure.
But due to such technological advancements around us they
feel it’s a waste of time to listen to what we as parents or
their grandparents have to say to them. What they don’t
think about is that these generations of their elders have
survived in the world for decades and they have years of
experiences and knowledge and life lessons to share about
 how to live your life, how to be street smart and how to
know people and lead a happy and successful life. What live
the newer generation do of technology when they wouldn’t
know how to live their precious life
 REPORT
If we look around, we see people of every era. The era of
reserving a seat in the bus by putting a handkerchief, era of
communicating through letters only, era of new introduced
cinema and the era of everything being possible online. Yet
instead of using it to our advantage we see more of conflicts
between people belonging to different eras, like the ones
between parents and children, especially teenagers.

Age is one big reason for the natural gap between

generations. However, the major issue arrives due to the
mental gap in terms of thinking pattern & current trends.
Children believe that they are grown-ups and it is high time
for them to be independent. This helps them to gain more
self-esteem. This in other words can also be called
Generation gap which can be defined as the chasm that
separates the behaviors and beliefs of people from two
different generations, like the sapling having contrasting
beliefs and understanding than the already grown fruit
bearing tree. Major causes of generation gap are increased
life expectancy and our rapidly changing society.

Life expectancy refers to the number of years a person can

expect to live. With the world we live in we are advancing in
technology with impeccable speed and as a result we have an
increased life expectancy. Which would imply that we would
have more generations will be interacting, working and living
together. The more the generations there are, the more the
possibility of gaps occurring between them.
We live in a world where the only thing constant is change.
As a society, we are changing like the seasons. From pen and
paper to touch screens, human labor to robots and
automated machines, face to face conversations to video
calls and from living in mud huts in small villages to living in
cemented apartment building in big cities. We as a society
change every decade, every 10 years we can see a new
version of the society we share, build and live in. Change as
we know is not easy and what we also know is that life moves
on, so the rapid increase can also cause the generations to
further drift apart and can cause the cracks to expand.
The ages between parents and their children are often large
enough that they experienced their most impressionable
years during a different culture than each other. Adolescence
is often the time when people are most influenced by the
society around them and as our world keeps developing and
changing, things rarely stay the same, causing generation
gaps between parents and their children.
Here are a few causes of the generation gap between parents
and child:
1. Lack Of Understanding
Different generations sometimes seem to speak a different
language. Due to the changes in society from when parents
 were growing up, to how it is in the time of their children,
even their way of thinking and what they deem to be normal
tends to be different.
2. Mistakes Are Rarely Tolerated
Parents often do not tolerate mistakes and tend to tell their
children off. Children need to make mistakes to learn and
grow in life, but if they only get punished for it, it widens the
gap and creates a lack of proper communication.
3. Children Are Expected To Be Replicas Parents often have
dreams for their kids, and a lot of the time tends to force
them in that direction without taking into consideration what
their child wants.
4. Too Many Comparisons
Comparing children to each other or even to how you were
as a child is another reason the gap becomes wide. This often
causes them to lose confidence in themselves and can
destroy any enthusiasm they may have previously had.
5. Not Enough Interaction
Due to the responsibilities of being an adult and the stress
that comes from work life, parents often find themselves too
tired to spend enough time with their kids every day. This
causes a lack of communication and interaction that widens
the generation gap.

I, as a child also feel the gap mainly because our parents

being humans and having a difficult time accepting the
change that is brought time to time. Them being used to
 things happening in a particular way, and us changing and
challenging everything, clashes and drifts are bound to
happen. We as new generation feeling the disjoin because of
the changed society we were born in is not something our
elders grew up in.

On the whole, both parents and their children do not see

things from the standpoints of each other. Thus,
misunderstanding is a great cause for the formation of the
generation gap. They talk about some issues that can cause
tension between teenagers and parents: homework, sibling
fights, boundaries and trust. Some teenagers feel their
parents need to show more trust and give them more
independence, but they also know that parents are mostly
just concerned for their safety.

Like every problem this too has a solution. We as a society

but more importantly as individuals can bridge the
generation gap.
1. Keep An Open Mind
The way that kids think is different from how parents do.
Parents often feel like because they have already been the
age their child is currently, that they understand how their
child thinks. The truth is, the world and way of life were
different then than it is now and their mind-set will be very
different and can also be shocking for some parents. This is
why keeping an open mind and not assuming that they must
be just like you were at their age is very important. You must
also understand that there are some things that are
acceptable in society and therefore acceptable to your child
that may not have been acceptable when you were the same
age. It is especially in those areas where parents need to try
and keep an open mind so they can better understand their
children.
2. Communicate
Making the time to communicate with your kids every day is
very important. The simple act of talking about each other’s
day at the end of the day can help you get to know each
other and make it easier to speak freely around the other.
Children need to know they can approach their parents with
anything, something that can ultimately give parents peace
of mind since they do not need to worry about their children
hiding things that are important.
3. Listen
Parents need to allow their kids time to talk without
interruption and listen to what they have to say. Learning
your child’s thoughts and opinions makes them feel like what
they want or feel matters to you, which in turn makes them
feel much closer to you than before. Having a parent who
listens as well instead of only talks and lectures will give your
child more encouragement to listen to you in return.
4. Understand
With listening comes understanding and this means that you
have to learn to put yourself in your child’s shoes and trying
 to understand how they feel and what they want from what
they tell you. If you are able to understand where your child
is coming from, you will be able to close that generation gap
to some extent.
5. Unconditional Love
Love has a way of crossing boundaries and bringing people
together if acted upon. So show your children how much you
love them. This unconditional love and support that they get
from you is very encouraging and makes children more
inclined to show that same love and understanding back.

If we use these solutions to bridge the gap between

generations, there will be stronger bonds between
individuals of different generations which will affect the
communication levels and the ease with which they work
together. The younger generations can have the knowledge
of how the world works by the experience of the older
generations. Technical ability is also important. How
technology affects the generation gap is impacted by how
well older people can learn and use new technology. This
tends to be written by Millennials for the younger
generation, so many older people can become left behind
when things move too fast, the older generations can learn
to make themselves up to date in this rapidly modernizing
world with the help of the already tech savvy younger
generation.
Let’s use it to our advantage that we live in a world with
different generations.
 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we can say that every generation has
something to offer to another. Like the kids have innocence
and honesty to put on the table, teenagers have time
management and socializing to put forth and elders have the
experience of control and balance of emotions and life in
one’s life. All we need to do is listen and see the abundance
of knowledge we can get, tons of memories that we can
make and be closely weaved as a community, if only we
approach every person of any generation with an open and
happy mind.
 Reflection
With having done the survey and report of this topic, I learnt
how important it is for the generation gap to be mended as it
soothe out the conflicts caused by the mere cause of the
generations being different. I learnt how listening to our
elder generations could warn us or protect us from the
problems of the future and how their experience of the
world would help us be a better, more kind and happier
person.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
For my project I have taken help from the following sources:
❖ Internet- www.wikipedia.com
❖ Individuals for the interview: -
• Mrs. Gayatri Patel
• Mr. Sushil Patel
• Mrs. Venna Shukla