Recently, one of my friends after coming from family
vacation shared his experiences of being together with his father and his
teenage children. While in car, his father wanted to listen to Bollywood music
of 70s and children protested that they can’t bear those drowsy songs. While
having the breakfast when my friend sipped the tea from cup, children started
shouting “Dad, please be courteous, slurping is very indecent behavior”. My
friend found it difficult to react to this observation.
It was very annoying for my friend to realize that both of
his teenage kids were hardly talking to each other or to their grandfather. The
younger one was busy with games on his tablet where as elder one had earphones
and most of the time listening to music. My friend also realized that this
situation was unlike his childhood when the entire family enjoyed with each
other during any outing.
The progress of technology in 20th century has lead to inevitable
differences in taste, attitude, opinion, thoughts, style of fashion, values,
beliefs and interests. This may comfortably be called a generation gap and
dismissed, but it has deeper meaning into “family co-existence” and well being
of society as a whole.
With advent of so-called fast food joints like KFC,
McDonalds, Pizza Hut and many others, the difference in taste and food habits
between parents and present day kids have widened. Many would argue that
food-is-a-food , irrespective of traditional home made food or fast food. But,
the pertinent fact is that number of calories in fast food is immensely high in
comparison to homemade food, resulting into obesity at young age. The problem
is compounded by fact that Television, Internet in home computer, Tablets and
Mobile phones has forced children to enjoy more with these gadgets and
restricted them to play in open field, at least in urban areas.
Children of 21st century have begun to challenge
their traditional customs and adopt some of new cultural values which are
highly influenced by social media, television and music. Children enjoy the
company of their friends rather than to spend time with their parents or
grandparents. Today’s communication and emotional gap between children and
parents will eventually yield separation between parents and children when they
grow up. And the major reason that parents live an isolated when they grow old.
