New Delhi: In every family, the conversation between generations has always been a delicate trod—sometimes resembling a waltz, but more often, a chaotic tango. With the rapid advancements in technology, pop culture references, and evolving social norms, it’s not just a generation gap we’re staring at. We used to have the luxury of a few decades separating trends. Not anymore.
Take, for instance, the curious case of emojis. For Millennials, the laughing face emoji means exactly that—laughter. But try sending the same to Gen Z, and you will be met with judgmental silence. Apparently, it’s not ironic enough. Instead, they favour the skull emoji, implying they have laughed so hard, they are practically deceased. Who knew humour could be such a morbid affair?
And let’s not even start with phone calls. For anyone born before 1995, the concept of answering a phone call is simple. The phone rings, you pick it up. For Gen Z, a ringing phone is nothing short of an existential crisis. Why call when you can text? A missed call from a millennial parent, for them, is the equivalent of a Morse code message from a distant relative—both alarming and unnecessary.
Social media, too, offers fertile ground for intergenerational miscommunication. Parents, finally getting the hang of Facebook, are horrified to discover their children have abandoned it for Instagram. By the time they set up an account, the kids have moved to something called Threads or BeReal. The chase is endless. It’s a communication arms race, where no matter how hard the older generation tries, they are always a few platforms behind.
Meanwhile, the workplace is a battlefield of another sort. Baby boomers, who grew up with typewriters and carbon paper, find themselves nodding at Zoom calls, pretending to understand acronyms like AI, KPI, and LOL. Yet, they can’t figure out why their 23-year-old colleague insists on emailing them at 1 am and expects an immediate reply. It’s as if different generations have fundamentally different clocks—some running on “who sleeps at 1 am”.
And nothing illustrates the generational divide better than the world of entertainment. Try telling someone under 30 that you used to wait an entire week for the next episode of a TV show, and they’ll stare at you as if you’ve confessed to using a rotary phone. Waiting? That’s what Wi-Fi is for! To make matters worse, today’s parents are now subjected to phrases like “shipping” and “stan culture,” leading them to believe their children have suddenly become sailors or groupies. The reality is far more perplexing.
Of course, the reverse is also true. Mentioning how you used to “burn CDs” or “record mixtapes” will have young people gazing at you like you’ve casually mentioned your time in the Stone Age. Technology has sprinted so far ahead that our once-cool tech prowess now feels like embarrassing relics best left in the attic.
At the end of the day, these communication gaps are less a product of misunderstanding and more a reflection of our collective evolution. The younger generation is no less bewildered by our insistence on grammar, punctuation, and actual face-to-face interaction than we are by their emoji hieroglyphics and baffling TikTok dances. And yet, beneath the generational bluster, we’re all just trying to make sense of this fast-moving world in our own ways.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that confusion is universal. Each generation has its quirks, its baffling lingo, and its unique way of viewing the world. The challenge is learning to laugh at the misunderstandings, even if it means sending the wrong emoji in the process.
In Indian society, these communication gaps are further amplified. Families spanning three, sometimes four generations, each have their own distinct language—both literal and digital. The elders may still rely on handwritten notes and face-to-face interactions, while the younger lot fires off texts at breakneck speed, expecting instantaneous responses. The inevitable misfires create moments of frustration but also lead to endearing anecdotes that become the family’s inside jokes.
In the end, though we may be separated by apps, gadgets, and our very approaches to communication, what binds us is the shared effort to remain connected. It’s as if every Indian family, in its own way, is participating in a long-standing game of Chinese whispers, where the message gets garbled and reshaped, but the intent—to communicate, to care, to bridge that generational divide—remains gloriously intact. And perhaps that’s what makes these gaps bearable, even amusing; the fact that we’re all, no matter our age, trying to make sense of the other, one misunderstood emoji at a time.
Despite the frequent misfires and amusing generational disconnects, there’s no denying that digital communication has brought people closer in ways we could have never imagined. Video calls let grandparents see their grandchildren grow up in real-time, even if they can’t figure out how to unmute. Family group chats, while occasionally overwhelming, allow for the constant sharing of life’s little moments—whether it’s a picture of lunch, a birthday greeting, or the latest in a series of forwarded blessings. What was once an occasional phone call now blossoms into a daily connection, all thanks to technology, which, for all its quirks, remains a bridge between the far-flung branches of every family tree.
In the end, communication is about bridging gaps—whether across a room or across decades. Bridging the generational gap is like updating your phone—just when you think you’ve got it, a new update leaves you hilariously behind. But anyways, just don’t expect anyone below 30 years to pick up the phone when you call.
(The author is a Policy Researcher & Corporate advisor. He tweets @ssmumbai)
