Generation Gap

 Hi Everyone! It's me again.. welcome back to my blog and today we will be talking about generation gaps.

Sudiksha Budhrani / 2440043811 

Writing Fundamentals Assignment  

30 September 2020 

Topic: How Technology Affects Generation Gap 

 

The Pew Research Center study found that 79% of Americans see major differences between younger and older adults in the way they look at the world. A generation gap is a difference in how people look at things in terms of outlooks, opinions, beliefs, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. There are different generations such as gen-Xers, Millenials, and Gen Z.Gen-Xers are people that are pretty familiar with technology but are not very fond of it. Gen Y and Millenials are the type of generation that grew up with technology and are active users of social media but also experienced life without technology. Gen Z is young people which have not seen the world without technology. (“How to Bridge the Generation Gap in the Workplace - Deputy”). I would like to explain the differences in communication styles and differences in work ethics between the generations. 

Firstly, I would like to talk about the differences in communication styles in different generations. The older generations such as baby boomers prefer to communicate through face to face interactions. Gen-x ers such as some of our parents are used to technology but sometimes prefer the old way of life and face to face interaction. They find it difficult to adjust to technology and use online methods of interaction. For example, my mom sometimes still asks me to log into zoom for her because she is not really used to it. However, the pandemic has hit long enough now that she is slowly learning to use the zoom. Some differences are that some of us find it easier to text our friends on WhatsApp or on Instagram. However, the pandemic has made us miss the outside world so much that we now learn’t to appreciate face to face interaction. If the pandemic did not hit, I don’t think I would have been grateful for physical interactions with people because there is something missing, the human touch is taken away from you.  

 

Secondly, between generations, there are differences in work ethic. I think my parents have a different mindset from me in which they usually finish their work first before doing a leisure activity while my generation is kind of different because we procrastinate and we usually put off things till the last minute before actually doing it. Moreover, we also are used to very fast-paced lives because of technology while our parents are more of the slow lifestyle kind of life. Technology has also made our life so much easier, that we have not seen the hardships of life before technology which our parents have seen. This is why my generation is usually referred to as lazy by my parents' generation. For example, in the older generation if they have to send a fax or important work-related paper, they usually deliver it personally but what will my generation do, we will simply just send it by Go-Send. 

 

To conclude, technology has changed the day we do things nowadays. Everything seems to be instant nowadays sometimes I think it even affects our patience to some point we are not as patient as our parents are. We are so used to everything instant to the point we don’t know how to wait anymore.  

 

Inspiration/ Resources used :  

1.“How to Bridge the Generation Gap in the Workplace - Deputy.” Deputy, https://www.facebook.com/deputyapp, https://www.deputy.com/blog/the-generation-gap-how-to-bridge-the-gap-in-the-workplace. Accessed 30 Sept. 2020. 

2. Software Designed for the Digital Workplace | IOFFICE, https://www.iofficecorp.com/blog/communication-between-generations-in-the-workplace-4-different-generations-in-the-workplace. Accessed 30 Sept. 2020. 

 

Reflection of yesterday's activity:

Yesterday we were broken into break-out rooms and we were told to discuss a topic that could cater to the readers 18-45. At first, we wanted to talk about the photography class and how it was such a pain. However, Mark said that it was such a niche topic, and not many people aged 18-45 would know the topic. Yesterday's planning was way harder than last week's planning because if you give me a topic I

can easily write about it. However, if you tell me your readers have this and that qualities I

somewhat struggle to decide on a topic to satisfy their needs and interest. To be honest, deciding a 

topic is also scary in this case because something that might be interesting to me might not be to

someone else. In terms of brainstorming, my team and I somewhat have a similar thought process. 

How we usually brainstorm is that we choose a topic that must have caught our eye or an issue that is

on-trend and then we do some research, make a plan, and then start writing. I think my plans are 

usually super messy because my hand just does not synchronize with my brain. I am gifted with the 

talent that once I am given a topic like ideas just flow through my head so fast that it does not take me so much time to write. Other than the topic, we chit-chatted a bit too and had some kind of "bonding" 

session. Like we told each other some random stories about ourselves and I told my friends this story

about how I was initially a science student and now I made a 360 degree turn into a communications 

degree. One of my friends also told me his story of how he went to this party and his friend gave

him this unknown drink which made him light-headed. One of my other friends also was also talking

about how her friends used to easily cheat in their previous high school. In addition, my friends were 

also ranting about the insane amount of assignments that we have this week. Personally, it is through this kind of chit chat sessions and random talks where the creative ideas magically appear.