I never see age differences as bothersome, with some of my best friends being either younger or older. It never really bothers me how their mind works, and it barely crosses my mind how they can be childish at times because most of them tend to be mature and have the same mentality as I do. But when it comes to pop culture, there's a gap that is not relatable for them.
Lately, I've noticed the domination of popularized TikTok songs in the top hits of music streaming platforms like Spotify. And to be quite honest, I also have joined the bandwagon, although not as much. With the TikTok generation that keeps growing, I don't have the interest (yet) to participate in the sphere. This issue brings me to the generation gaps that are also felt vividly at my workplace between myself and Dinda, a five years younger co-worker. She doesn't know any popular band from my generation, such as Oasis or a few old hits from the same era, while I'm humming to them in the car, and she would be silent but would sing along to Olivia Rodrigo instead. "I don't know them" or "my parents sing that song" are two common sentences we use while I interact with her at work daily. She doesn't know the slang I used, which is understandable since that language gap will always exist from one generation to another. She is a Gen Z, and I'm a millennial or Gen Y. How we perceive things are also different. Her peers are far more outspoken, proven at work where she would demand certain things that I would prefer not to ask for since it would create problems that I would rather avoid.
With this outspoken attitude, her generation is far more expressive in issues, such as environment, politics, or even Women's rights. They would use social media heavily to speak, teach, and preach about it non-stop for 24 hours. Everyone is given the same platform for free, and they're using it wisely to promote some issues the public tends to avoid discussing. Being given a space to do so, it's a pleasure to see how this current generation helps each other. Although virtually and basically a complete stranger, some of them make friendships online and will have online discussions to teach the even younger generation. Even though they're strangers, some of them would dare to make friends online, create discussions, and teach even the younger ones. Some non-English speakers would learn English through social media instead of a more rigid format such as school.
There will always be a gap from one generation to another, but basically, we raise the new ones, right? We want the best for them, we want them to not go through what we went through, and it's nice to see how they're together in so many causes and care so much about so many issues around this bitter-sweet world.
