CHAPTER FOUR

Intergeneration

 

Between the generations

In this chapter we will explore how emerging adults and previous generations differ from one another and how they can profitably communicate with one another.  Of course, one can argue that there is nothing to explore since people, whether young or old, are first and foremost human beings who all struggle with the same problems of humanity and, as a matter of fact, regularly communicate with one another about these problems.

Furthermore, one can always point to older adults who act like the emerging adults and to emerging adults who act like older adults.  So, where does one draw the line?  Developmentally speaking, when does a younger generation end and an older generation start?   The literature generally pegs the time frame for emerging adulthood between 18 and 30.   That would make age 30 the start of the older generation!  So, lots of problems exist in defining the precise boundaries of the generations. 

Yet, generational differences do exist.  Many of the parents of emerging adults find the views and behaviour of their children more than a bit puzzling and quite different from their lives when they were growing up.  On the surface then, there seems to be a decided difference, or even a disconnect between the older generations and the younger ones.  All this entails that today the generations tend to live along side one another with very little dialogue between them about life’s most fundamental issues.