Young And Old Culture

I'm thinking about the "generation gap". Oh....that itself is an outdated term and an indicator that I might not be as "with it" (Oops! another 60's term) as I think. That generation gap term first used in the 60's was coined to define the vast I differences between the old and the young. It's way too broad of a concept to analyze as a whole, but my thinking about the existence of a generation gap is that it is real in one form or another. I think there is still one but it is much more narrow today, probably because society much more easily allows the mixture of the established culture and the young one.

I think older people have one big advantage of the young in that they have already been young and can thus understand it better. Young people are clue less about being old apart from societal stereotypes about being old because their only frame of reference toward the old are those stereotypes and their guesses about the older members of society Since they have never been old they can't understand that age as well as the old can understand youth.

I think I am rambling on like an....old man...so let me get back to what I was thinking about those two ages. That is that the older and younger are far more alike these days than they were in the past. Just look at the fat old woman in spandex for proof. Yuk! Society would have had her committed for wearing that in past generations. But the older members of the culture do wear "youthful clothing", listen to many of the songs the youth also listen to (many teens love the Beatles), read many of the same books and see the same films. If you listen to an oldie speak, he or she will use some of the same younger crowd slang and if you spy on the oldies chatting I bet you will see plenty of "lol" remarks in their dialogue boxes. Even the old madras shirts are popular again now with the young.

Both generations are addicted to the same technology, the same TV, even the same fads (but the youth start the fads and they come much later to the oldies). Go to a college campus and you will see the average age is way up these days. That's because so many old timers are under grads. The old started the counter culture with their hippie and drop out movements. Today's punks, goths, rockers and B Boys are also counter culture movements.

You get the idea. These days there are lots of similarities among age groups. I think the communication revolution has pushed the old and youth cultures closer. There seems less division between the too. But despite it all, I sure hope those old ladies will give up their spandex pants. Only the young should wear that.