A Comparative Study of Generations

Study of Generations: This article highlights certain traits of the generations born after and before the year 2000. You may have heard of extinct dinosaurs or endangered species, but today I will discuss a generation of human beings that is on the verge of extinction.

 Yes, of real human beings. 

Isn’t it humorous? 

This endangered generation, born from the mid-20th century until the beginning of the 21st century, saw many changes in science and technology. These changes are usually talked about, like, from fans to air conditioners to split units, etc. The evolution of technology is evident in the transition from TV to VCR to Netflix, as well as from PTCL to mobile phones. Waiting hours and hours for a trunk call from abroad to have a free face-to-face talk on a WhatsApp video call. Even the outdoor games they used to play are extinct, and now mobile games are the only indoor games this new generation can spend their leisure time on. These outdoor activities made them active human beings, but the generation replacing them may be more active electronically but in real life I think they are sluggish human beings. This is common knowledge and frequently discussed.

Therefore, I won’t talk much about it. What I really want to focus on is ‘we’ as human beings. This generation, which is becoming extinct, is also the target of jokes. One example is the joke that describes this generation as “a generation that listened to their parents and now listens to their children; unfortunately, their time never came.” 

They are the obedient children and the obedient parents. They were brought up learning about changes science and Technology brought, and they used to learn essays on them to secure the highest marks, but did they ever learn about the changes made by Science and Technology ethically, morally and socially and so on, and their effect on the future generation’s mind? This was neither asked for nor taught and now they can see its aftereffects and its implications so clearly. 

Strangely, this endangered generation is also learning a lot while intermingling with this new generation. They really add a lot to their vocabulary.  They never learnt to say ‘no’, neither to their elders nor to their younger ones. ‘No’ and ‘me’ were not words designed for their dictionary. It was all ‘us’. 

This generation born after 2000, I think, learnt from their elders’ experiences and tough times, and they carved an easy path for themselves. They utter big slogans and ‘little’ cute words like ‘happy me’, ‘me time’, ‘self-love’ etc. and they even need ‘space’, a word which, even if the previous generation would have thought of, they would really have got a good spanking from their elders for. This ‘me’ associated with them all the time has a deep and a very wide scope. They are all ‘me’ and the endangered ones were all ‘us’. The effect of this ‘me’ can be seen not only on them but also on all around them with whom they interact. This is definitely not a generation gap.

This is a wider and deeper effect of technology that was left unseen, untaught, and unlearned. If ‘self-love’ had a face, it’d be them. It is also a fact that with too much sacrifice, the previous generation usually got nothing, except depression, frustration, and health issues. So this generation learnt by themselves and carved a path much easier and self-satisfying, though a bit selfish. 

This generation also has the guts and ability to teach the previous ones to say ‘no’ when they have spent more than half a century saying ‘yes’ all the time. This is not criticism at all. This is the true face of this generation. I see a brighter future for them, in fact for ‘themselves’ and for their very ‘selves’.  

All our sympathies for this new generation and the endangered one too.