The Ways of Normality Changes Over Time - Essay Sample

A short 10 years ago, same sex marriages were considered illegal in many countries in the word. When anti-discrimination laws were passed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, opposition was furious and impassioned (Peter, 2015). With a majority vote, the world elite had clearly taken a stand for equality for all. This was four decades ago, after the Second Word War, and the generations after that have either lived in a world where barriers are being removed, or a world free of discriminatory barriers.

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Conceptions of normality are shaped in a big way by the thought patterns of people concerning issues of public concern. With every new generation proving to be more liberal and open to change than the previous one, it is almost impossible to keep up with the changes taking place. Haukanes, (2013) attributes this to the tendency of all generations to adhere to a defined normal way of life, with a demonstrated lack of regard for norms and history.

Every new generation comes up with new definitions of what is normal, and the definitions are almost always in conflict with prior generations, in ways that often lead to generational conflict. Panteli & Marder concluded that the ways in which different age groups interpret normality vary, a fact that is especially clear in the current age of proliferation of social networking sites, a platform the older generation find alienating.

People born fifty or more years ago lived in a world that is completely different from the current world, with phenomenal changes that have completely changed the way of life for the current generations. For people above the age of 65, changes that have taken place from the time of their growing up to now are many and varied, and they include;

At an age when populations were not completely urbanized, rural life, where subsistence farming was practiced was rife. Currently, more than 80% of the world populations, especially in the first world countries, live in the urban areas. This makes the playtime activities engaged in completely different too; outdoors activities such as climbing trees, making cardboard houses and riding scooters, kids nowadays play indoor games or visit the zoo with their parents.

The free nature in which children engaged in play activities demonstrated in their independence, whereby youths would move out of their parents house at 18 to seek more independence. Of course the current trend is for youth at that age to join campuses where they are also able to lead different lifestyles, but dependence then was less as compared to the current generation.

In popular culture, generational variance is a mix of the old, the new and the norms which are borrowed from past generations. Styles of dressing that have rocked previous generations include bell-bottom jeans, long, curly hair among others. Some styles are re-invented in later generations, receiving small tweaks to make them acceptable to the newer generations, but definitely borrowed from previous ages. Music is an area where little change has happened, apart from the ways in which music is listened to, the musicians are still idolized, every new age rocks n rolls, and party-going is still very popular.

Technology is perhaps one area of normality where massive change has taken place. The generations born before the Second World War and the mid 20th century find it hard to relate with the changes that have taken place now, which have completely revolutionized the way human beings live, work and interact. The role it plays is especially big because of the applications across different sectors that technology is put to. Listening, watching and making of music differs now from 20 years ago, with the popular walkman that defined the late 90s getting phased out by music pods, head/earphones and mobile phones as the preferred music-listening devices. This is just one of the many changes that have revolutionized not just the music industry, but the world as well.

Family and marriage is another area where huge changes have occurred in defining what is considered normal in society. Graduating from the early ages where courtship was highly structured and socially controlled, the generations from fifty years ago still frowns at moving in marriages and bringing up children out of wedlock. The ways in which youth interacted, especially between male and female, has seen some marked changes too, becoming permissive and rather too casual for the older generations taste.

The older generation considers the changes in same sex relationships as some of the greatest changes that have happened in the recent past. The Civil Rights movement has also happened in their lifetime, changing the way different people interact. For those who have lived through the before and after periods of these movements, the perspective is rather interesting, being informed firsthand about the occasions. Leaders are attributed as the greatest agents of change, as they bring about most of the change

Another point that emerges from the evaluation is that the older generation and the new agree on the evils of big government. Both attribute much of the current world problems to bad leadership, and share a state of alarm on the chaos currently rocking the world. Most worryingly, the younger generation who have not witnessed the challenges of other ways of life such as feudalism and socialism, capitalism is viewed with increasing opposition (Peter, 2015); a factor the older generation agrees has contributed to the current isolationist society.

A subject from 50 of more years ago growing up today would be most possibly be most puzzled by the digital rudeness that is rife today, coming from an age of pure human centered interactions. Applications of technology such as gadgetry ranging from televisions, smart-phones, and others which have been invented in previous times would make the living experience very different in terms of leisure and interactions. Playtime cannot be possible to entail tree climbing now, due to the widespread development of concrete jungles in the cities.

Cited Works

Panteli, Niki; Marder, Ben. Constructing and Enacting Normality Online Across Generations. The Case of Social Networking Sites. Information Technology & People. 2016

Haukanes, Haldis. Precarious Lives? Narratives of Hope, Loss, and Normality Across two Generations of Czechs. Berghan Journals. Pp 47-57. 2013. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/fc/.2013.660105Peter, Drucker. Warped: Gay Normality and Queer Anti-Capitalism. 2015