Differences in communication between generations

 No one can deny that the way we communicate with our friends and family has changed a lot as new advances related to technology have been made. Nowadays it's easier to keep in touch with loved beings. However, is it true that the latest generations can't even establish a face to face conversation? Do teenagers know the cost of a phone call in the past or how often people wrote letters? In this blog we will answer to all these questions. Let's start by one of the oldest ways of communication, considered by many outdated, the letters:

                                            
      

We have interviewed Ariadna's mother to know more about  how people usually communicated in the past compared to the present. During the 80s teenagers couldn't send messages and Whatsapps as mobile phones didn't exist at the time. Nevertheless, they used to write letters to their relatives and close friends but the frequency depended on the distance: whereas some people would write some lines every week to their family who lived abroad, other didn't use to write letters apart from Christmas. In fact, that was one of the most common times of the year for sending letters as well as sending a postal with a short review of how the summer was when you went on vacation. Moreover, some even wrote romantic letters to their partner confessing their love! Nowadays, people hardly ever use letters as a way of communication given the fact that messages are faster than letters. 

 

The way we speak has also changed. In all cultures and countries, every language has old sayings and phrases which are falling out of use. In English, some examples are 'scratch'  (which means money, cash), 'applesauce' (nonsense), 'to flip your wig' (to react to something with strong emotions), or 'have it made in shade' (to have an easy life or to be in a good situation). As for Spanish., thanks to one of the peope we have interviewed we know some expressions used in the 80s which remain to these days such us 'dar un voltio' (to take a walk), 'la cagaste Burt Lancaster' (you screwed up, this saying is the result of the mispronuntiation of English), 'guay del paraguay' (cool), or '¿De qué vas, de BitterKas? (making reference to a famous drink) It goes without saying that all these phrases were and are used in really informal contexts.

One of the people we have interviewed has talked about how they were treated between generations 80 years ago. When this person was young she used to talk to her parents with "you" in a familiar way, but always with manners (in Spanish "de tú") and she treated her grandparents with "you" in a more formal way (in spanish "de usted"). However, there were people of her age who treated their whole family with a formal language and very respectfully. In general, the elderly were treated with a lot of respect and never with bad manners. Nowadays, people don´t talk so formally as before with everybody, like with teachers, parents and with all our relatives in general.

 

 In the past, text messages and calls used to have a high price, which was   settled through telecom providers, who charged based on the duration of calls and the number of text messages sent these messages also had a limit, so if you wrote more than the allowed, whether it is one more word , they were counted as different messages. In response, people used creative methods to reduce expenses. One common approach was the abbreviation of words in text messages, such as using "thx" instead of "thanks" or "u" instead of "you"(grax" en lugar de "gracias" o "q" en lugar de "que"). Additionally, to avoid lengthy phone calls, the practice of giving "missed calls" or "hanging up" before the other person answered became popular. Essentially, this involved calling and immediately disconnecting to convey a brief notification without incurring the high costs of a full call.

Before, when people met up with their friends they used to talk for hours. When they got bored, they used to invent games or activities to entertain themselves, which developed their creativity.Nowadays, when we`re bored, we watch videos online or chat with friends. In the present, if you need something from a friend, you cand send them a message, but in the past, if it was urgent, you had to call or meet up with them. Before, when you talked to someone in person, you had fun watching their gestures and facial expressios, whereas nowadays messages can cause misinterpretations. In addition, when young peope hang out today, they spend the time using their mobile phones instead of talkig to each other and having fun.

 

Today, it's very easy to know what's happening all around the world just by looking at the mobile phone or switching on the TV, but it has not been always this way. In the 18th century, many people got to know things by going out to the streets or to some restaurants and talking to each other. Another relevant way to know things was to read the newspaper, it was a great way to know about foreign countries or politics. In the 19th century people continued using the newspapers to get informed and the telegraph was used as a long-distance comunicating device. Later, they started to use the radio to spread the information and get to know news. Nowadays, there aren't many people who daily read the newspaper or listen to the radio news, most people prefer to read online newspapers, enter any online website or watch any program on TV with news of all the world along. Do you think newspapers will disappear and they will be replaced by online ones? How do you prefer to know what is happening around the world?

 

To sum up, the way we communicate it's different in every decade in many ways, such as where we receive the news, how we talk to our parents, what expressions we use when we speak, but something hasn't changed at all: our desire to keep in touch with our beloved ones and spend time with them either through letters, videocalls or messages or through newspapers and the TV.