Generation gap within a generation

A generation means all the people born during a particular period of time.

So we have now Gen Z, the kids born after mid-1990s.

Before that, the Millennial, the Gen X, the Baby Boomers etc.

Generation gap is the difference of opinion between people of two generations. This gap or difference becomes apparent in different ways: like use of language, style of dressing, social value systems, attitudes in workplaces and at homes, etc.

I don't know if you have noticed, nowadays, this generation gap is becoming apparent among people of the same generation. Earlier, one spoke of children differing in their opinions with their parents or grandparents. Which means, one saw major attitudinal difference between people separated by around 20 years or more. Like, someone of 20 years and 40 years. Today, a 20-year-old and a 30-year-old have a much wider difference of opinion than what one used to see during 1980s or earlier.

My theory is that it is because of the changes that technology is bringing about. There is some invention or innovation every six months to one year, bringing major changes in our society. The changes in our lifestyle between 2008 and 2018 are far more dramatic than the changes that took place between, say, 1998 and 2008, or between 1988 and 1998.

We have had television, internet, mobile phones, broadband, now artificial intelligence and internet of things. And each of these have been changing so rapidly. Mobile phones of today are far different from those 10 years ago. Social media itself has changed so much in a span of 10 years or even less.

A child born in 2015 and a child born in 2005, though separated only by 10 years, grow up with entirely different frames of references which in turn influence their attitudes, value systems and behavioural patterns. This difference wasn't so much for two children one born in 1965 and the other in 1975. 

If this generation gap becomes more pronounced between people who are separated by very few number of years, will we have around us more and more people having differences of opinion.

Is the strife that we are seeing world over today, a result of this change in the nature of generation gap?

(This blog entry is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2018")