The Generational Gap Created by the Digital Age
The digital age we live in is confusing and becomes vaster and more intricate daily. The digital age also known as the age of information started in the 1970’s when the internet was created and generated a new era for communication and an entire new standard of living. The internet is a place of information, so much information that you can type keywords in websites it can complete your thoughts!
My perception of the digital age has changed a lot recently mostly due to the privilege of a college education. As technology advances we see more users clearly, but also noticing the diversity in the age range using technology. Today more than yesterday and this year more than last kids are using and absorbing technology. The smartphone has become almost a sort of necessity as Jean M. Twenge wrote in Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation? “teens poor and rich; of every ethnic background; in cities, suburbs, and small towns. Where there are cell towers, there are teens living their lives on their smartphone.”
There is a divide amongst generations created with the development of technology. In the film Future Shock (1972) narrator Alvin Toffler “modern technologies have conceived a degree of sophistication beyond our wildest dreams, but technology is the pretty heavy price, we live in an age of anxiety and time of stress.” The age of anxiety we live in has been linked to the declining connection people feel to one another with more time spent on technology and social media. Technology moves at such a rapid pace that each generation after some period of time feels disconnected. This generational disconnection essentially leading to where some of this anxiety occurs in digital age of new emerging technologies.
The age of anxiety between generations, becomes abundantly clear through communication. Social media since the beginning has entirely revolved, leaving some in a technology gap through the evolution of social media. A very recent example being TikTok, a popular social media app, where there are billions of videos of different age groups comparing their differences and creating a further divide. With the generational divide creates a feeling of being left out; constantly a group or generation finds that the younger generation or group has developed a new kind of social pattern or trend. The previous generation feels weird or strange if they are not apart of this trend. Therefore, creating an anxiety around “fitting in” and social popularity relevance that comes along with social media in society today.
Shown are popular hashtags on TikTok highlighting trends that further differentiate generational gap. Here is a popular TikTok video talking about some difference the internet has created: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJAPRqVR/.
A recent relevant example of this furthering gap between generations is the global pandemic. In 2020 we are adapting to a new way of life, with that seems to come the more abundant use of technology. In the light of this pandemic some families, friends etc have not been able to communicate unless through technology. The pandemic has only heightened the generational gap, earlier generations are feeling more of a need to be on social media today to communicate. Parents in the pandemic are forced to try to educate their children with technology communication. When sometimes, ironically, the child ends up being the teacher of how new media. Teachers are a group that many have tried to sympathize with in this pandemic. Education particularly has faced challenges, many teaching professionals especially at the collegiate level are accustomed to traditional lecture style teaching, and still rely heavily on in-person communication. Teachers are required to adapt to new media and age of teaching and learning new social media platforms, and how technology functions in general.
Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation? perfectly describes the relevance media has on people feeling a sense of anxiety around the generational gap “The experiences they have every day are radically different from those of the generation that came of age just a few years before them.” I personally along with most people I assume on media have felt anxiety around the ideological sense of “fitting in” on social media, conforming to the newest generation to stay relevant.
