Closing the Generational Communication Gap

We aren’t going out on a limb if we claim that generally teenagers and young adults are more technologically savvy than their elderly counterparts. As a consequence, we are faced with a communication gap. One generation grew up on landlines and the U.S. Postal Service; another on the iPhone and Myspace.

While members of the older generation might leave a long-winded, thoughtful voice-mail to relay a message, their younger counterparts are perfectly content with an abbreviated, to the point, text-message. These categories might not be true for all, but it pertains to an overwhelming majority.

Yet, the generation gap doesn’t have to stay open for an eternity. A great article in The Spokesman-Review suggests a number of ways to foster more effective generational communication. Obviously, it is important for seniors to become familiar with texting, and for teenagers to actually listen and leave proper voice mails. But, as the article suggests, ultimately “the responsibility rests with the older people to adapt.”

So we want to suggest a few more tips for seniors who want to get up to speed with digital communication.

-Start a Facebook account; build a profile; upload your photos into albums; become “Facebook friends” with your grandkids.
-Join Twitter and share your thoughts and ideas, as long as they are 140 characters or less, with your friends and family.
-Create a Youtube account; show the world your homemade videos.
-Get a BlackBerry and learn how to send a Black Berry Message (BBM); it’s not hard. Trust us.

Any sort of communication gap isn’t going to close overnight but a few steps in the right direction could to foster stronger inter-generational bonds.

As side effect, technology creates communication gap between generations [The Spokesman-Review]