The Young Generation

Been involved in academics for quite some time has given me an opportunity to observe and understand the mindset of youngsters (age 19-22 years) and how they choose to think/ react/ respond in everyday situations. Following are my observations regarding them, coming from a 37 year ‘young’ guy:

I think, being “young” can be understood as a state of mind that revels in the “moment”. This is a very crucial learning for me. The “moment”, here, means a state of mind that doesn’t seem to be aware of the influences of the Past and aspirations for the Future. Therefore, to me, it represents a kind of an attitude that appears to be unconcerned about forward movement of Time and appears in a suspended state.

To wiser generations (above 35 or so), the pressure of Time is felt – in terms of questions that arise in our minds such as where we are, where are we heading, is the pace correct or what needs to be done and some apprehensions about the Future. And this leads to making choices about things in life.

No such questions are evident in young minds. The young mind goes at its own rhythm - unconcerned about the issues that older generations seem to face. Seeing from the perspective of the older generation, the young generation’s attitude seems aloof, and arrogant. Fundamentally, I don’t think that is the case. Questions are generated by our mind depending on our age and gender and as we age in life, we encounter different questions and our perception of life differs. Thus, it is impossible to expect a young person to empathize with the challenges of old people and vice versa.

Thus, the young generation’s responses are embedded in the moment only and not with the Past or the Future. This can be seen as liberating experience. It can’t be helped why they wear clothes in certain manner, why they talk in a certain manner, why they prefer certain food habits and why their tastes about things in life suggests a certain level of casualness and naivety. I have begun to accept that it should not be treated as a problem or their fault. It is just their tendency representing their age.

Their tendency to live in the “moment” can be very refreshing and can also act as a healing agent for those people who can’t see beyond their traumatic past or are bogged down by continuous worries about the future. Just by observing these young minds unaffected by past or future, ‘we’ (the so called wiser people) may become aware of our own connections and imaginary projections of our past and future and can perhaps tell us if we are clinging too much to either past or future. It can tell us, that a “moment” may be seen as a continuous experience of past-present-future or may be also seen as a “fresh” start to alter a chain of events based on our decisions. Thus, a young mind has a potential to alter our own understanding of the Present and that too, in a subtle way. It is for this reason, that the advantages of joint family may be seen. It is also for the very reason that I do not agree with the concept of “Old Age Homes” since old age people are going to be recharged more by coming in contact with the tendencies of the young mind (kids etc.) rather than mass pooling of older tendencies at a common space. To see life in the eyes of the young mind is refreshing, since it can offer us new ways of looking at things and also generate a sense of opportunities.

Although it seems very obvious, we still fall short of acknowledging that the perception of life depends on the nature of our thoughts in that instant. A thought which arises in our mind at a later stage of life is extremely hard to be generated or even remotely visualized by a much younger mind. We may get a sense of what a young mind might be thinking, but to expect the young mind to empathize and understand life’s complicated issues that become evident through the process of aging, is perhaps demanding quite a lot from them. In short, what is learnt with maturity, cannot be fast tracked. And therefore, the appropriate learning will happen only at the right time.

Secondly, the young generation (just as any other generation) will think and decode situations based on their logic – one can’t/ shouldn’t/ needn’t enforce one’s interpretation or wisdom on the other person. What struggles one had to bear while growing up and reaching adulthood and reaching twilight years need not be told to the youngsters (in terms of warning or a threat or a regret or advice). They will learn and discover life their own way and they will ask for our guidance whenever they are comfortable and want to ask. Trust them. By loving them, they will definitely return the intention with equal measure, maybe in different language!