The Facebook Communication Generation Gap

In the 1960s, when the concept of the “generation gap” gained prominence, my parents straddled the line between their parents’ generation and their own. Married at 18 and 20, my mother and father held many of the same social and moral beliefs as my grandparents. Still, a quick marriage and fast family (two kids in the first four years of marriage) suggested a freewheeling live-your-own-life philosophy towards which the youth of America was moving. By the early '70s, television shows like “All in the Family” helped draw the line between the generations with the constant battle between Archie and his hippie son-in-law, Mike "Meathead" Stivic . My parents recognized Archie as a stereotype of their parents, but had no idea who Mike was supposed to represent. It certainly was not them.

Fast forward 40 years: My parents are now older than the Archie Bunker character, and my oldest is the age of Mike. The generation gap is now more about language then ideals. The Internet has made communication between the age groups easier. There is no question that my parents know more about my kids and their daily lives than my grandparents knew about my brothers and I.

Much of that knowledge has been supplied by Facebook. My mother is “friends” with both of my college-aged daughters. She will often make a comment like, “How come you didn’t tell me Beulah got that internship?”

“I didn’t know, Mom.”
For the record, I do not have a daughter named Beulah.

This is how the generations now communicate. A bit of information that domino-effects into a conversation.

The wildcard in this story is my wife. A modern woman, of the corporate managerial type: stockings,
heels,
glasses…sorry.

My wife spends all day on the computer, so when she is home she tries to stay screen-free. Subsequently, to the best of my knowledge, she has never read this blog…actually I’m not sure she even knows I write a blog…
it is over two years,
you would think she’d show a little interest…sorry.

So when my mother called my wife in a semi-hysterical state and yasked (i.e. yelled as she asked a question): “Beulah is sick?!” (See above)

My wife said, “I don’t think so.”

“Well, she posted it on her wall.”

“What wall?’

“Her Facebook wall.”

When my daughter got home, my wife asked, “Are you sick?”

“No.”

“Your grandmother said you posted that you were sick on Facebook."

“No, mom. ‘Sick’…it means ‘cool.’”

“Sick means cool?"


Now, to my credit, I knew that “sick” meant cool. But neither my wife nor my mother did.

This Facebook communication generation gap is making translators out of my generation. It forces us to answer questions from our parents that we were able to avoid when we were younger. “Who is the boy in that picture?”
“Who is the girl in that picture?”
“Is that a boy or a girl in that picture?”

My solution: Facebook should have a quiz that must be completed by both parties before a friendship can be made. Or if not an intergenerational compatibility exam, then how about an age range for friendship? A generation used to represent twenty-five years. I feel the Facebook Communication Generation should have a span of five years for friendship. If I am the only one who has had this issue, then there is one more thing I would like to suggest:

Girls, please de-friend your Grandma!