Nowadays, the majority of younger people in different nations no longer communicate with older people as frequently as they once did. It is therefore worth examining the underlying reasons and suggesting methods to address the issue.
There are numerous reasons why younger people rarely communicate with older people. First and foremost, the young generation is more tech-savvy than their predecessors. To be more specific, they are accustomed to interacting with others through social media platforms and other technological tools whereas the older generation finds it a daunting task to use them and tends to use conventional forms of updating news such as radio, newspaper or television. Another reason is that a clash of mindsets can result in misunderstandings and intergeneration conflict. More precisely, the young generation is often exposed to progressive values, which enables them to have open-minded perspectives while older people stick with conservative views about social issues such as marriages or gender roles. In fact, young Vietnamese people have a tendency to marry later or remain single to focus on their career, whereas the elderly people consider this against the traditional family values.
There are various measures for people to tackle this problem. Chief of these is that the local authorities can organize intergenerational activities to lessen communication barriers and strengthen bonds among family members, which allows them to bridge the generation gap and understand the values and perspectives of each other. To exemplify, the Fureai Kippu program in Japan helps strengthen intergenerational bonds by encouraging the young to support the senior citizens in return for future care credits. Added to this, the young generation can instruct older people how to use some cutting-edge equipment. Consequently, this can make older people feel less lonely and broaden their horizons about cultural shift and value disparities. They can use Messenger for texting and contacting in order to stay connected with their grandchildren who study abroad.
In conclusion, this issue is mainly due to the technology gap and conflicting perspectives. In order to solve this problem, the individuals should take necessary steps.