In the recent article “The Three Email Challenge” The author, Abhijit Bhaduri makes mention about how many teenagers continue to express deep angst at the enhanced generation who have now taken over as Facebook users.

The statement struck a deep chord of identification with me as I experience it everyday. My son who is experiencing the very best and worst of teenhood at 17 is the self-proclaimed champion of teenagers. Facebook was his independent fiefdom till my wife discovered it and shortly thereafter I also signed on.

Recently he made a dire prediction that this would mark the migration of youngsters away from Facebook. He believes that Orkut lost its young members because older users were overpopulating the social network. Interesting perspective! I am waiting to see if his prediction would come true.

Meanwhile I was struck by the depth of the feeling with regards to oldsters venturing into the youngsters” domain!

I recall being a rebel and usually one without a cause in my teenage years. However I don’t recall having any such youngster space which could be or was violated. At best the school/ college culturals could be termed as a youngster’s zone. Also, our oldies a.k.a our parents were not too keen on participating in such events.
So, what is the key difference between the generations and how do we bridge and manage the great divide?

I often refer to my generation as the bullet speed generation. We went from AIR, Doordarshan to DTH and from the black rotary phone to I Phones in a space of 3 odd decades. We grew up conditioned by thrift, waiting one’s turn, patience, joint living, joint spaces, so on and so forth.

Whereas youngsters today are born with a remote in one hand and a mouse in the other. Possibly with a Bluetooth handsfree tucked in the ear, too! They cannot imagine a context where one would book a scooter and the delivery date was celebrated in the neighbourhood or that you had to book a trunk call and wait to be connected!

This generation was born with computers, personal space, youth spaces, youth icons and so on. They take the business of being young very seriously. The moot point is that what happened to people like me? Why am I in Facebook?

My perspective is that we are seeing too many things that are great fun and enjoyable and want to be a part of the scene. Having grown up in a relatively deprived context, the child or rather youth inside all of us wants a second chance in this fabulous new environment. It’s almost like Alice in Wonderland.

For the youngsters, the context today is a part of their evolving environment whereas I am wonder struck and want to experience this as much if not more. This has a dual implication. On one hand we are demonstrating that one can be young at heart and experience life regardless of age. I hope the youngsters of today grow old without letting go of the child in them. However, the downside is that most such indulgences are largely materialistic and usually consists of superficial interfaces. It has very little reinforcement of core values.

The concern is whether we are actually setting an example that should not be followed.