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Ashutosh Tiwari, Psychologist, MindGlass Well-being, Delhi, attributes this to three major reasons:

Impact of Global Village: When our parents were young, the world didn’t share as much with each other as it does today. Nowadays, we find ourselves behaving in a way that makes everyone around the world feel like they are from the same village and school in terms of dressing, consuming rapidly changing viral social media trends, and food preferences.

Tech dependency and pop culture: The dominance of the newest technology has reduced both parents’ and kids’ dependency on each other, including community members. Moreover, youngsters have already disconnected from most people in the market more than our parents did, spending time at home without interacting with others, which has reduced their engagement with people around them, including parents and the elderly.

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Dominance of English Culture: The dominance of foreign culture and language has consumed younger years so much that they feel like they have no time and need to learn and develop attachment to the local language, cultural jokes, and understanding what their parents love and what makes them happy.

Additionally, it can’t be denied that most of our elders’ humour contained stereotypes, prejudices, and biases. Over time, such jokes may be taken with a grain of salt because of a more aware culture and greater awareness of concepts such as gender, race, and domicile; this has reduced stereotypes and created more sensitivity toward differences, along with a greater need to respect cultural and personal boundaries.

Tiwari suggested initiating open communication between younger and older generations (Source: Freepik)

How can you bridge this gap?

Tiwari suggested initiating open communication between younger and older generations with both closed-ended and open-ended questions that further encourage discourse and discussion.

“It is important to ask kids if they feel any joke is not good because it encourages body shaming or calls others inferior, including the leaders who may not always talk in a public consciousness. This will help them develop an emotional connection and build bridges with adults who sometimes say politically incorrect jokes,” he advised.

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“Share your funny experiences with kids while also letting them know if the incident was awkward or funny in the past and how it makes sense now. You can embrace differences by discussing the differences between adult jokes and family jokes and when it’s right to say such jokes and when not,” said Tiwari. According to him, parents can also help kids navigate the difference between good humour and bad humour that is used for leg-pulling or to put other people or genders down.