generation gap

[boxofdelights]

So fan_eunice mentioned That thing I saw on Tumblr with the argument between kids born in the 80s and kids born in the 90s over whether the former are too 'old' to be on Tumblr and I said

I was just thinking, when my 19-year-old was home for winter break, that we don't have a generation gap like the baby boomers and their parents did, at least not over culture and our ideas of fun.

We like different things, of course; we're different people. But when we talk to each other about what we like, it isn't a different kind of conversation than I have with friends my own age. And when I murmur "Socially Awkward Penguin moment" to her she knows exactly what I mean.

What do you guys think? Is there a generation gap? Between you and older people, or you and younger people, or both? What is a generation gap anyway?

Comments

[snippy]

Another thought-I am 50 and a grandmother. That's a generation gap: most people I know who are my age or within 10 years younger are raising pre-teens. I had my kids relatively early (between age 25 and 30) and I think a lot of my generation waited until their late 30s/early 40s. In parenting we have completely different issues!

[hobbitbabe]

I am a little older than you, and my kids are in their mid-20s. My parents were 25 and 34 when I was born.

My first response is to say that the gap between me/my sibs and my parents was way bigger than the one between us and our kids. And I could give some examples about sex, about music, and about gaming.

But I feel a little funny about being the one to say that there's no significant gap, because it seems like it's for the younger people to say that, somehow?

[oursin]

Heh: my gap is not so much generation as 'people who hang out online in my spaces' and 'people who don't and still think it is yay rad of me to have a website'.

[adrian_turtle]

I suspect an awful lot of the cultural disconnects called "generation gaps" are like this--they really cross generations, but people tend to select examples in terms of "old fogeys" or "kids these days."

[cimorene]

I think there still is a gap that's detectable in ways of thinking between generations, but it's less obvious than the pre/post-WWII split you're alluding to.

For example, I think part of the problems in the pro vs fan Racefails that occurred a few years ago in fandom, as well as part of the disconnect between the rising gen-X+ population and the political establishment (represented in both the Occupy movement and, to an extent, the Tea Party) can be traced to communication paradigms rooted in the entrenched power structures (in the pro-sf and political worlds) in hierarchies still dominated by Baby Boomers even though they now contain younger adults too.

I think these sort of paradigm conflicts also occasionally emerge between the 'old guard' and new generations in various civil rights movements - some of those in the feminist blogosphere have been pretty loud in the last few years, largely due to the old guard there being a bit deaf to intersectionality. I've run up against the same sort of surprise!impenetrability when trying to fit concepts such as institutionalized prejudice into the worldviews of my parents (tail end of the Baby Boom), who were highly engaged activists in politics and civil rights in their youth. I can explain the concept of institutionalized prejudice and they can seem to engage fully, only to have a brainspasm and go unable to compute when it comes up against some other issue (the right of muslim women to wear headcoverings if they so choose, for example).

As an 80s "kid" I can detect a gap between myself and 90s "kids" sometimes, but it's not one that's impenetrable to communication. It seems to be confined mostly to cultural references and dominant modes of engagement with media. There's no denying that Tumblr, which is a media stream and pretty different from the previous "generation" of social media models (livejournal model, messageboard model), is dominated by the 90ks and this is probably due to a majority of 80ks preferring the other mode, or being unable to adapt.

[laughingrat]

Hmm, it seems like I can get on just as well (or badly) with people younger or older than me!

[j00j]

This. I was born in the 80s. My parents don't understand Twitter or Tumblr, really, but could if they needed to-- they have enough general internet context to figure it out. I definitely think they would understand Socially Awkward Penguin if I showed them.

[jesse_the_k]

When I was young, I hung out with folks 10 - 20 years older. Now I'm an old fart, and the people I hang with include folks 10 - 30 years younger.

It's not the age, or at least not for me.

If you have friends in the computer, ones you really care about and don't care if you ever see in person, then we'll be OK.