America's Gift To My And My Grandparents' Generations

Have your grandparents ever told you about their life and how things worked in the past? I have of course. They simply said things have changed dramatically, but the changes have made today’s society even better when compared with their generation. They added that many works go smoothly and quickly with new approaches as opposed to their generation. As a result, after listening to their words, I have realized with some of the most obvious differences between my generation and my grandparents’ generation such as decision-making, the internet, and a similarity considered as a tradition.

One difference is how they make their decisions. Back in my grandparents’ generation, children had to follow every advice from their parents though that advice could not be accepted or not. In other words, they had no right to make their own decisions. Take choosing partner as an example, though each partner loved each other, it didn’t mean they would be together; likewise, if their parents didn’t agree on their relationship, both parties had to fall apart. As a result, arranged married are merely found in the old generation as well as my grandparents’ generation. However, in today’s generation, parents cannot force their daughters or sons to marry someone they don’t love. Moreover, they are more likely to respect their children's decision-making as opposed to my grandparents’ generation, for they fully understand that forcing someone to do something never ends up with good results.

Another different aspect is the internet. Because of the arrival of the internet in my generation, many things work faster and easier. Specifically, it does help to advance my communication with my distant friends, family, acquaintance and so forth. For instance, I spend only 1 or 2 minutes reaching my messages to them via smartphones or any forms of social media. Unlike my grandparents’ generation, they took days and weeks to reach their words to their distant family and friends because they wrote them as letters and sent them through the post office. Furthermore, not only does the internet improve my communication, but it also accelerates my learning advancement since I can do a self-study easily, and search for reliable sources on Google to uncover any questions which are related to my learning quickly. Otherwise, without the internet during my grandparents’ circumstances, they found it hard to find the answers because they needed to read and looked for books at a library or somewhere else to unlock their doubts. In doing so, they also spent much time on their work, but they achieved less when compared with today’s situation.

In contrast, one similarity between my generation and my grandparents’ generation is the tradition. As you can see, up until now, our people have always celebrated our national ceremony annually such as Khmer New Year, Pchum Ben Day, Water festival, and so on. Most importantly, we maintain believing in the same God “Buddha”. Simply put, in spite of many things that have been changing from one generation to another generation, the tradition has never been changed.

Overall, the differences between my generation and my grandparents’ generation are decision-making and the internet while a significant similarity is a tradition that has been holding and practicing as normal. Besides, I can say that I am luckier to live in today’s society where stuff can be worked easier, faster and less time spent as opposed to my grandparents’ generation.