Your name Student Name Professor Name Subject 30 September, 2012 Every Generation of People is Different in Important Ways.

How is Your Generation Different from Your Parents Generation?

The youth is a special social and age group, differing by an age framework and a definite status in society: transition from the childhood and youth to social responsibility. The youth is understood by some scientists as a set of young people, to whom the society gives the opportunity of social formation, providing them with privileges, but limiting in the possibility of active participation in certain spheres of social life. Nevertheless, maturing, people find out with surprise that the generation which goes after them, strikingly differs from the previous. Their values are not always clear. The problem of the fathers and children was repeatedly arisen by the writers and philosophers and becomes more and more actual in the modern world of quick changes. Generation gap can be a frustrating lack of communication between young and old, or a useful stretch of time that separates cultures within a society, allowing them to develop their own character. From their position in the family, and with more life experience than younger family members, grandparents are uniquely poised to see that differences between generations can be positive for all those concerned (Adcox: 2012). Why are the distinctions between generations so appreciable? The theory of generations, created in 1991 by the American scientists Neil Hove and William Strauss, gives the explanation of this phenomenon.

Your name

The authors of the theory analyzed the conflicts of generations and came to the curious conclusions. It was found out that the systems of values at the people, who were grown during the different historical periods, considerably differ. It is connected with the fact that the values are formed not only as a result of family education, but also under the influence of public events. Everything has its value: economic, social, technology, and political factors, the accepted model of the family, developed ideas of what is good and what is bad. According to the theory, each four generations make a certain cycle. The time interval, in which the representatives of one generation are born, makes about twenty years; therefore, the duration of one cycle is equal to 80-90 years. A cycle repetition begins after the end of the cycle: the values of the fifth generation are similar to the values of the first one. The children, born on a conflict of generations, are subject to the influence of two groups of the values and form the so-called transitional or echo generation. To Generation X (Unknown Generation), the generation of our parents, born in 19631983, formed their values up to 1993. This generation was brought up in the days of the continuation of the Cold War and a sharp increase of the informational stream (the change of a number of heads at the national level, the change of political regimes). The theme of AIDS and drugs was widely discussed at the times of their childhood. This time was characterized by the boom of divorces, so children were compelled to show flexibility - to be arranged under a new partner of a mother or a father. They despised a rigid control, preferring to be free and independent. The representatives of this generation struggle for the balance in life: they work to live and live to work. The Generation Y is also called the Generation of the Network and the Generation of the Millennium as its representatives, born in 1983-2003, graduate from schools in the new millennium. The key events of this generation are: the terroristic acts and military

Your name

conflicts, atypical pneumonia, development of digital and biotechnologies. Mobile phones, the Internet and brands compose the basis of everything. The people of the Generation Y live during the era of unprecedented variety and openness between the cultures. They grow quickly, very quickly. They are self-confident and want to change the world. The civic duty, morals and responsibility are already included into the system of the values of the Generation Y. However, the psychologists note their naivety and ability to submit. According to scientists, the values throughout the life continue to change under the influence of the especially significant events. The main lines created in the childhood pass through the whole life as a keynote. The disagreements of generations are connected with the distinctions in these initial, defining the direction of our life, values. For this reason it is so difficult for people to accept the views peculiar to the representatives of the other generations; after all, their values enter the conflict with the values considered to be important and correct. The rates of human life continue to increase during the last decades. Every day people receive more and more information; they are compelled to be guided quicker all in the events and to accept more and more decisions. The prompt changes in technologies, economy, and social environment lead to the distinctions between the generations become today more and more striking and even drama, but at the same time give an inherent color, experience and values to each of them. Therefore, today the theory of generations acquires the increasing urgency and importance.

Your name Works Cited

Adcox, S. (2012). Looking at the Generation Gap. Identifying at the Generation Differences and Their Causes. Available at:

http://grandparents.about.com/od/grandparentingtoday/a/GenerationGap.htm