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Essay, term paper, research paper:  Sociology Term Papers

Every generation of people is different in important ways. How is your
generation different from your parents" generation? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your answer.

As compared to us today, my parents never had TV, video, computers and jet planes. Their lives are not cluttered with so many consumer goods that we find today in supermarkets and shopping complexes. For that matter, they never had supermarkets nor complexes. They did their occasional shopping in simple shops, devoid of air-conditioning or price-tags.

Nowadays, cars are a common sight. Traffic jams have become a daily affair. My parents never sat in a car when they were young. They says that in their youth, people got around on foot or on bicycles. Cars and buses were rare. Only a few rich people could afford cars. The streets were unpaved and not dangerous. There was no pollution nor the deafening roar of
timber trucks.

The lack of effective mass communication during the old days probably meant that my
parents were not besieged by all sorts of information, relevant or otherwise. They did not become square-eyed because they have no TV to watch. They knew one another better and willing to help each other. Today, we have too much free time. Our chores are done by
washing machines, vacuum cleaners and the likes. So the more affluent of us join clubs and societies to fill in our free time. Status and snobbery are the result of growing affluence. Neighbours do not know one another anymore.

For us today, travel is a matter of hopping on to an express bus or an aeroplane, depending on the distances involved. London is only a few hours away and the moon is not unreachable. In the days of my parents" youth, travel was a great event. Most people never moved more than fifty miles from their place of birth all their lives. So only a few adventurous people bother to travel at all. Even for these few, elaborate preparations were needed for the months of
arduous travel by land and sea. It was no unexpected that they never return. Travel during those days was filled with danger. Today we take travelling far distances for granted. The risks are negligible. People are more concerned about whether they travel first-class or economy.

As a whole, life in the old days were simpler. They did not have so many problems that we face today. Diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease were rare. They did not have fast foods and aerobic exercise. I am not saying that their lives were better or worse, only that they were different. They had no TV but they knew one another better. They did not have cars nor pollution. We have so many modern benefits but at the same time so many accompanying ills as well. Which period is preferable? Neither, we live in our own inescapable period. We make the best of what we have.