The phrase "Generation Gap” was first popularized during the 1960s in western countries such as the US and Europe to refer to the differences in ideas and attitudes between one generation and an older one, usually the current youth generation and their parents.
The 1950s and 1960s saw a bigger "Generation Gap” than probably ever before emerge, as the differences between a generation who had been to war and their child were significant. These years experienced more rapid social and cultural change than any generations before, as technology made rapid advances, with television become more prevalent, cinema taking a wider hold, and popular music that was vastly different to anything that had come before.
The 1950s really saw the emergence of the first "teenagers”; previously, children effectively became little adults at the age of around 13, and many thousands of 16 year olds (or even younger, as many lied about their age, caught up in the supposed romance of war) had fought alongside grown men in the second World War. The children born in the late 1940s grew up in a world changed by war, and the influence of television and the counter culture created a "youth” generation like never before.
These young adults usually had a very different outlook on life to their parents - many were anti war, for example - which led to clashes between the generations, and the idea that there was a significant "Gap” between them which had never been so wide. Each following generation has examined it’s "Generation Gap” with the generations that came before it, as youth generally likes being different to its parents.
It could be argued that no "Generation Gap” has been as large as that between the 1940s and the 1950s/60s children, as no world generation has been so affected by war, though Vietnam in the US often divided the generations in the 1970s.
Baby Boomers - those people born in the baby boom which followed the soldiers returning from the Second World War - often feel a significant gap between themselves and their offspring, sometimes known as Generation X and Y who were teens in the 1980- early 2000s and whose cultural perspectives were shaped by the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of the internet and MTV, plus a number of economic problems.
For more information, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_gap
The 1950s and 1960s saw a bigger "Generation Gap” than probably ever before emerge, as the differences between a generation who had been to war and their child were significant. These years experienced more rapid social and cultural change than any generations before, as technology made rapid advances, with television become more prevalent, cinema taking a wider hold, and popular music that was vastly different to anything that had come before.
The 1950s really saw the emergence of the first "teenagers”; previously, children effectively became little adults at the age of around 13, and many thousands of 16 year olds (or even younger, as many lied about their age, caught up in the supposed romance of war) had fought alongside grown men in the second World War. The children born in the late 1940s grew up in a world changed by war, and the influence of television and the counter culture created a "youth” generation like never before.
These young adults usually had a very different outlook on life to their parents - many were anti war, for example - which led to clashes between the generations, and the idea that there was a significant "Gap” between them which had never been so wide. Each following generation has examined it’s "Generation Gap” with the generations that came before it, as youth generally likes being different to its parents.
It could be argued that no "Generation Gap” has been as large as that between the 1940s and the 1950s/60s children, as no world generation has been so affected by war, though Vietnam in the US often divided the generations in the 1970s.
Baby Boomers - those people born in the baby boom which followed the soldiers returning from the Second World War - often feel a significant gap between themselves and their offspring, sometimes known as Generation X and Y who were teens in the 1980- early 2000s and whose cultural perspectives were shaped by the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of the internet and MTV, plus a number of economic problems.
For more information, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_gap
