I have a pretty diverse group of friends and people I know. Most of my friends are around my age but a handful of friends are a few years older than me. I also help coach a town basketball team where I live so I am around high school kids some too. At one of my summer jobs I worked with some people who could be my parents and also people my age so I have had experience encountering people of different age groups. It is an interesting dynamic but also very important because it allows me to find that I can relate to a lot of people, age not really being an issue. I feel I spend enough time with people who are close enough to my age to where we can still relate well with one another, while not spending much time with people out of that age range.
I think people who are not within the same age range can have difficulty relating to one another because society is always changing. The way people talk changes so misinterpretations may occur during said encounters. While I think this can be overcome employers may not want a possible issue to arise. Also, younger people are looked at in positive ways such as being technologically advanced yet are also widely considered less responsible than older people. While the idea of "respect for elders" argument is fair, one never hears of "respect your youth." Younger people are looked at as always "up to something" and elderly people as unable to do for themselves, which are two bad characterizations of both groups.
There is much to be learned by spending time with people of varying ages. It offers a different perspective than the one a person sees through on a daily basis. Older people, even though may have different views than someone younger, has seen more in their life so that says something about experience. I think if people worked together and there wasn't such a divide we could all learn from each other and then generational gaps would not be as signifcant or important.
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