One of the largest obstacles anyone can face in life is realizing that another generation is slowly and surely taking over. Every item, action, and memory won’t have the same importance as what comes after. Cassette tapes are outdated by CDs, MP3 players take over CD’s, and now the most recent version of the iPod has taken over. The same issues come up in every area of life, from manners, to linguistics, to social attitudes and perspectives.
This is what it’s like to be born in the mid 1990’s. You were old enough to remember and be a part of the twentieth century. However, you really live and prosper through the twenty-first century. It’s not easy to notice that gap is present until you’re exposed to it. Exposure usually starts to take place after high school graduation. The high school classes that graduated between the years 2011 to 2014 have been exposed to the generation gap that only they can belong to.
What is the gap you might ask? The gap is the small time you have left in high school before graduation. In that small amount of time left, you learn the basics of the new generation’s culture. Before you could really dive in and immerse yourself in the new culture you graduate. You take the step from involuntary schooling for young children to adulthood. Once adulthood is reached the new generation starts to prosper and slowly but surely you start to become the old generation. You never really realize that your culture becomes old. When you continue to hang out with the same crowd that you’ve always hung out with it’s hard to see any other perspectives. Recently, old habits are coming back.
90’s babies are seeing their childhood make a comeback, while also mixing in with the newest culture. The hard part is realizing that instead of belonging to one generation, we belong to both. Most 90’s babies are only in their early twenties in age, and technically belong to the twenty-first century generation. That means that 90’s babies are lucky enough to learn two different cultures. Sadly, no matter what we do, we will still feel old when we see Doc Martens and overalls come back into style.
Now it’s time for us to take those childhood memories and relive a couple of them. As I said in the beginning of this article, it’s difficult to watch another young generation of children move in and release a new culture, however we’re lucky. We aren’t old and we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so it’s time for the 990’s babies to become one with this slightly younger generation.
The differences between the two generations are miniscule and shouldn’t add more to the generation gap. It can be difficult at times to see how the younger people act, and what they’re given at a young age. Where these young people have iPhones, iPads, and laptops, we were given flip phones, coloring books, and outside times. Our way of creating memories was extremely different yet somehow these younger people want to bring it up again. Who are we to stop such a curious generation?
