During my travels across the states of the US, I am meeting with friends and families in cities I am driving through. My undergrad is from India, and I haven’t met with my undergrad classmates in years, actually more than thirty years. It’s amazing to see that most haven’t changed except for some gray, sorry my male friends, losing hair that’s visible. I say visible, because even I am losing hair, but doesn’t show as much as my male counterparts.

While I am excited to catch-up with my classmates and seeing them with their life partners, I must admit that the best treat has been to meet the next-gen, their children. It is a great dialog and discussion I am hearing this generation, who are born in the US, have with their parents. The one that affected me most was when I recently met my classmate whose child is thirteen. I would have interviewed this youth for my ‘Voice of the youth’ project, but they don’t fall in the age range that I consider youth. Also, I didn’t want to break the rule like I did in Knoxville, TN.

This youth is very confident, and the argument with the mom happened to be about spending too much time on the phone. The beautiful sound of the word ‘Amma’ (for mom), came out repeatedly out of the youth who argued that it was important for them to be on the social media so others knew who they are, and their identity. My generation has a hard time relating to this argument, because our social identity came through in-person interactions. But as I heard this youth’s arguments with their mom on why this was a necessity with a strong conviction, I could not think of any argument could with this youth. This dialog between the child and mother was very healthy, as each put their arguments with an understanding of where each came from.

My generation’s conversations with parents was always one sided. We were told, and not heard. Perhaps that culture of ‘not being heard’ in some way shape or form is still felt by the youth, regardless of what part of the world you are from. It is part of generational interactions or lack of. One of the youth (from Pennsylvania) put it very well in the interview (see below), how Generation Z is pushing back on societal norms. The truth is that each generation pushes back on the prior and born are societal changes.

I have to confess I have become this teenage youth’s biggest fan, for the way they were debating with their mom.