Daria Kokozej
Essay 2 for IELTS courses (2020)
Young people in the modern world seem to have more power and influence than any previous young generation.
Why is this the case?
What impact does this have on the relationship between old and young people?
These days, it seems that youth has more influence and power than any previous young generation. I personally disagree with this statement to a certain extent, because firstly, the experience of older generations still appears to be valued. Nowadays, you must be a certain age to become a government worker or a president. Furthermore, with the population of most countries in Europe aging, it is only logical that elderly people have more influence on society. There are less and less newborns in countries like Austria, and thus more older people.
In countries like Japan, people live to a very high age and there are programs on how to integrate those elderly people into society. From my personal knowledge, many elderly people in Japan prefer to stay in the workforce longer than the official age of retirement.
Young people, on the other hand, seem to be very present in the media, advertisements, and pop culture. One can really say that there a cult of youth exists. Many young people are also very knowledgeable and interested in new technology and they are present on social media, communicating with each other, exchanging their ideas. Young people are also perhaps better educated in some areas than their grandparents for example, the number of university graduates is steadily on the rise.
The last question may suggest that a conflict between the younger and older generation exists, but I disagree with this view, because it is highly individual and depends on the values of each one of the generations and people in general how to live together without conflict and exchange their knowledge with each other and learn from each other.
gloriajoan 