The principal differences between my generation and my parents' generation are in how they relate to others. My generation is more tolerant of other people's choices, less concerned about what others think, and more self-centered.
My parents' generation has stricter standards about what kinds of behavior are acceptable. They sometimes have a hard time accepting the fact that other people may have different ideas about what's right and what's wrong. My generation thinks people should have a lot of choices. For example, they choose whom they want to live with, whether or not to have children, whether or not to practice a particular religion, and what to do for a living.
My parents (generation is much more concerned about what other people think of them. Many grew up in tightly knit communities where people knew each other's families. Fitting in meant that you had to act a certain way. Many of my generation grew up in loosely knit communities, where we only knew about our closest neighbors. We didn't care what the rest of the community thought of us. Also, we were a very rebellious generation and often did things just to shock people.
Wherever we grew up, most of my generation didn't have to worry about having enough to eat or a roof over our heads. My parents' generation did. They grew up during the Great Depression, when many people were poor. For this reason, my parents didn't have time to analyze their feelings or think about their inner selves. They were too busy trying to get by. Children of my generation were well taken care of by their parents. Because of that, we had time to think about ourselves and our place in the universe. As adults, many of us have continued to be self-absorbed. We join health clubs to be perfect in body and go into therapy to be perfect in mind.
When I think about our actions, it seems that my parents' generation is more "outer" directed and my generation is more "inner directed."
Everybody talks about a conflict between generations. This is a well-known expression, used as an explanation for misunderstandings between people of different ages. Although sometimes this is an excuse for not recognizing who is wrong or right, it is certain that every generation of people is different in important ways.
Even though everybody probably thinks this way, the differences between my generation and my parents' generation are striking. The technological progress is a certain cause for these differences. My parents did not have access to information as teenagers nowadays have. Television, for example, was a luxury that not many people could have afforded, and even if they could, the television programs were very poor. I remember my mother mentioning how eager they were to watch TV series like "Samantha" or "The Giants' Planet." Those films seem so trivial these days.
Another important difference between our generations is caused by the type of political power that governed the country. My parents grew up under a communist regime whose main characteristic was censure. This censure prohibited them to speak up their mind in public. Strict rules must have been obeyed; otherwise they could have been seriously punished. Nowadays, we live in a democratic environment that cannot possibly be compared with the pressure of a communist government. This means that people are encouraged to think for themselves and not to fear to express their true opinion. Of course, this leads sometimes to violent acts from people who misunderstand the role of the democracy.
Differences between generations have always existed and it is natural for them to exist. Progress leads to differences of opinions and points of view. My generation and my parents' generation are different, but this does not mean that one is significantly better than the other one. I think we all should remember that before starting to judge one another.
