It is common to find different generations living together. Though this may seem good, no doubt clashes due to miscommunication and conflicts over different thinking is likely to occur.
For example, the older generation (grandparents) are not English educated so they are unable to converse in or comprehend English when English has become the common language amongst young people these days. Instead they are more comfortable with dialect that the younger generation is less familiar with. Hence there have been reports about the elderly feeling left out due to the lack of communication between generations.
In addition, there are also conflicts between the older and younger generation’s perception of things. On one hand, my grandmother tends to favor the boys over girls, my parents, on the other hand do not have such favoritism. There have been a few occasions where my parents told my grandmother off for showing favoritism. My grandmother despite being told off a couple of times still thinks she has not done anything wrong. Resulting in unhappiness among both parties.
I feel that for different generations to live together harmoniously, everyone should try to understand the reason behind the other party’s behavior. However I feel that the younger generation should play a bigger role in trying to adapt to the elderly to reduce communication problems and conflicts.
What do you think of conflicts between generations? What else can be done to reduce communication problems or conflicts between generations?
For example, the older generation (grandparents) are not English educated so they are unable to converse in or comprehend English when English has become the common language amongst young people these days. Instead they are more comfortable with dialect that the younger generation is less familiar with. Hence there have been reports about the elderly feeling left out due to the lack of communication between generations.
In addition, there are also conflicts between the older and younger generation’s perception of things. On one hand, my grandmother tends to favor the boys over girls, my parents, on the other hand do not have such favoritism. There have been a few occasions where my parents told my grandmother off for showing favoritism. My grandmother despite being told off a couple of times still thinks she has not done anything wrong. Resulting in unhappiness among both parties.
I feel that for different generations to live together harmoniously, everyone should try to understand the reason behind the other party’s behavior. However I feel that the younger generation should play a bigger role in trying to adapt to the elderly to reduce communication problems and conflicts.
What do you think of conflicts between generations? What else can be done to reduce communication problems or conflicts between generations?
I feel that this is prevalent in our society. It is the genration gap that sparked the unhappiness between us. I agree with you that the young ones should learn to adapt to the older generations. To support this claim, younger generations nowaday are well educated and they should learn to empathise the older generations. We cannot fault the older generations as resources for education were limited in the past.
ReplyDeleteI believe the difference in mindset is the main cause for the conflicts between the generations. On one hand,the younger generations are fast in their speech, "cool" in their dressings and also open for experiments.On another hand, the older generation carried with them years of knowledge and experiences. Conflict occurs because both generations have different focus.
ReplyDeleteThe society must be gracious to other generation and consistently put in effort to build the bridge of trust and understanding.
Trying to empathize the older generation is a good strategy and should be used always. However I think, in addition to empathizing, we should make our views known to them in a polite manner. This is especially true if we have to interact with them on a daily basis. Otherwise, I think even the most patient people will lose their patience one day if such intergenerational clashes occur every day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jackson's point about making our views known to the older generation in a polite manner. Reasoning with others politely instead of going into an arguement will definitely aid in reducing the tension between both parties. This may also lead to the other party being more accpeting of a different.
ReplyDeleteI think that this kind of conflict is inevitable since these 2 generations are growing up from 2 totally different backgrounds. We have different way of speaking, thinking and expressing ourselves nonverbally. But i feel that the way of showing love and care to each other is the same and common language between the 2 generations. And if we do love and care of our grandparents, i believe that they will feel it and also show us the same attitude despite of how different we are from each other.
ReplyDeleteJust as in any other relationship,as you point out, we need to try to see things from the other's point of view. Adapting to others is always necessary to some extent whatever their age. People ( maybe older) with very different views on things may be more of a challenge. Acknowledging differences and even some gentle teasing about them is better than keeping people at a distance, I think.
ReplyDeleteMrs Richardson