The Generation Gap-說說代溝

     Every new generation is different from the one that preceded it. Today the difference is very marked indeed.

     Old people are always saying that the young are not What they were. The same comment is made from generation to generation and it is always true. It has never been truer than it is today. The young are better educated. They have a lot more money to spend and enjoy more freedom. They grow up quickly and are not so dependent on their parents. They think more of themselves and do not blindly accept the idea of their elders. Events which the older generation remembers vividly are nothing more than past history.

     Just look at the teenage girls who scream hysterically over the pop stars and the teenage boys who copy the stars and grow their hair long and are no longer ashamed of wearing "pretty" clothes, are simply breaking through the Chinese traditional reserve and fear of showing their feelings. What is

more, nowadays most boys and girls are good companions and some of them even fall in "puppy love." A lot of older people sigh and say, "We did not use to do like this."

     Do you think the older people's criticism stems from jealousy just because they could not or did not behave in the same way when they were young?