福建师范大学外语学院2001级1班  吕妹仔

Recently I heard someone boasting that today’s youth may encounter the problem of generation gap with people who are only five years older than they are. Obviously, it reflects that the society is really developing rapidly. However, I optimistically believe that such generation gap could be narrowed through our efforts.

How to narrow the generation gap? To answer this question, firstly we are supposed to find out the factors that have brought about generation gap. For one thing, young people today are exposed to an environment totally different from their parents’ or grandparents’. Confronting knowledge explosion, the youth are obliged to learn more and more. Owing to the globalization, the younger generation have daily contact with the outside world. By logging on to the Internet, they can see, hear, feel the newly emerging tendency. The influence of such kind of environment shapes the new generation’s characteristics. They tend to be more open and dynamic than their elders. As a result, some of their conducts and tastes are hardly acceptable to the old.

For another thing, nowadays people are busily involved in various kinds of matters, so that there isn’t much time left for interpersonal communication. What’s more, younger people have gradually replaced face-to-face talk with chatting on the net. In this case, parents have great difficulty in reaching their children.

The barriers between generations do exist, yet, they are removable. Firstly, I suggest the older generation try to learn more about the new things. And, they should seize every chance to talk with their children about their new “discoveries”. In this way, both sides may find something in common between them. Secondly, young people should also learn to appreciate the hobbies or tastes of the old. Do not undervalue those traditional treasures, like Peking Opera. Thirdly, the two generations are supposed to spare some time for communication regularly, or write to each other, as writing is a good way of communication.

To sum up, to narrow the generation gap, people should regard mutual understanding as the most important thing.