“Youths in Singapore are spending more
time online now than ever.” (Sim, 2013) This has adversely affected youth’s
social interaction within their family as they are spending less time on
face-to-face social interaction. This leads to a widening of the generation gap
and there is a chance that youth will be unable to interact with senior
citizens in the future. (Yeo, 2002) Because of the increase in young people's
reliance on ICT (Information and communication technology), which takes away
family time and communication with members of the older generation, the Central
Singapore Community Development Council (CDC) should organise large scale
events to bridge the generation gap. This essay will talk about how the digital
divide between grandparents and grandchildren in a family leads to
miscommunication as well as a generation gap and evaluate the solutions taken
by some group of people in Singapore to bridge the gap.
The Ministry of Social and Family
Development (MSF) states that “family is the basic building block of society.”
However, the over reliance of technology by youth is hindering the “building
blocks” within the family which threatens the stability of the Singapore
society. According to the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA),
statistics show that over 95 per cent of teenagers used the Internet in 2012.
Many youth use the internet to play online games, browse social networking
websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr and watch their favourite shows online.
On the other hand, IDA statistics show that less than 20 per cent of the
elderly, 60 years and above, used the internet. This results in youth
exchanging social interaction for online satisfaction. The lack of face-to-face
interaction leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding based on
stereotypes. These stereotypes were created within the family, such as
grandparents being frail and not techno-savvy. The differences in attitude
between each other will lead to a widening of the generation gap (Serra, College, & Barracks 1971). This can cause grandparents and
grandchildren may conceive negative images of each other which will inevitably
build an invisible wall within the family.
According to the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, a Brazilian study
published in 2007(as cited in Stepp, 2008), by bringing unconnected teenagers
and grandparents together, grandparents could be closer to their own
grandchildren. The youth who took part in the project thought that the elderly
were “not able to do anything”, impatient, callous and demanding while the
elderly people within the project deemed teenagers to be disrespectful. After
interacting with each other for two hours, interviews with the two groups shows
that the perception of the opposite group became better. The teenagers found
the elderly knowledgeable and admired them for working so hard to survive in
the past. On the other hand, the elderly felt appreciated by the teenagers and
had an enjoyable time. Therefore, overcoming the “intergenerational
barrier” and becoming familiarised with unknown elderly broke the invisible
wall and made it easier to communicate within their own families (Stepp 2008). This
solution may not work out for Singapore as Singapore is a more developed
country as compared to Brazil. According to IDA’s statistics, at least 87% of
the population in 2013 have access to a computer at home. Computers and
cellphone acts as catalyst to distract teenagers from focusing on their task
(Richtel, 2010). It requires more than two hours of interacting with strangers
to change the mind-sets of Singaporeans where technology is already deeply
ingrained into a child’s life ever since they are born. Nonetheless, it still
holds some good points such as getting teenagers and elderly together. If we
could remove the gadgets from teenager, they will be more focus on
communication on the elderly.
To raise communication levels between
grandparents and grandchildren in Singapore, the CDC can organised an annual
movement to bring them together to socially interact with one another. Doing so
can help break the invisible wall within the family that prevents grandparents
and grandchildren from communicating. In the year 2013, a similar project, The
Silver Yarn Project, was created by four students from Nanyang Technological
University for the same purpose. This project is a “youth movement” whose goals
are to get more young people to socially interact with their seniors (Zhuang,
2013). Communicating with their grandparents allow youths to form closer bonds
with them. The internet was used to promote the movement and it received
"600 Likes on Facebook which translate to about 200,000 people
reached". This includes roadshows at universities and an annual Instagram
competition. Today, the four graduates are actively searching for more schools participate
in their project. This project could be a basis for a more effective solution
in the future. It was started in the year 2013 and received quite a number of
positive responses from their targeted audience. Looking at the Pink Dot
movement, a movement to raise awareness regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT), it has grown significantly since 2009. According to
statistics from the Pink Dot, it had about 2500 supporters in 2009. However in
2014, it has garnered over 26000 supporters. This shows that it requires a lot
of time and effort to raise awareness for a cause. If the CDC is able to
actively promote and organise an annual event to bring about related
grandparents and grandchildren together, it may be successful in breaking the
invisible wall between the two groups and improving family ties.
In conclusion, to achieve cohesiveness
within the family, both parties (grandparents and grandchildren) should take
initiative to communicate with each other. The younger generations can teach
the elderly on how to make use of technology while the elderly can be
optimistic to learn more about technology. If one party is not interested,
miscommunication is bound to occur. It also requires the collective effort of other
family members and government sectors such as CDC. As the saying goes, “Rome
wasn’t built in a day”. Communication between people will not change overnight
and it may take years of using campaigns to bond members of families together.
If everyone involved believes in the same purpose, slowly but surely the
miscommunication and generation gap in Singapore will be reduce.
(1018 words)
References
Infocomm Development Authority of
Singapore. (2012). Statistics of
individual usage of computer and internet. Retrieved from
http://www.ida.gov.sg/Infocomm-Landscape/Facts-and-Figures/Infocomm-Usage-Households-and-Individuals#4
Ministry of Social and Family Development.
(2014, July 30). Family Protection &
Welfare. Retrieved from
http://app.msf.gov.sg/Policies/Strong-and-Stable-Families/Supporting-Families/Family-Protection-Welfare
Richtel, M. (2010, Novmember 21).
Growing Up Digital, Wired for
Distraction Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Serra, R., College, A., & Barracks,
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