The Alarm of Generational Gap in Iran
According to Iran Gate, we are experiencing the most significant generational gap in our entire history, meaning that the current generational gap is even greater than the time when Iranians converted from Zoroastrianism to Islam.
According to Iran Gate, today in Iran, the issue of generational gaps has become one of the most important social and cultural challenges. According to Hatam Ghaderi, we are experiencing the most significant generational gap in our entire history, meaning that the current generational gap is even greater than the time when Iranians converted from Zoroastrianism to Islam.
Ghaderi adds that when we talk about a generational gap, it does not mean a complete and absolute disconnect between generations, implying that the new generation has no affinity with the beliefs of previous generations. The behaviors of this generation in some areas turn into new combinations that did not exist before or are reinterpreted, not that there is no connection with the previous generation at all.
In fact, the fact that there are many conflicts indicates that there are also many points of intersection, and it is over these points of intersection that different interpretations or behaviors are expressed and formed.
Considering that the new generations in Iran, due to economic changes, the advancement of mass communication tools, and the possibility of expanding interactions with other cultures, are more exposed to modern values and new methods of socialization than previous generations, identity differences between the new and past generations are increasing more than ever.
The main reasons for the value differences between generations in Iran, which generally include the new middle class, can be listed as follows:
The growth of self-expression values among the new generation
Self-expression values indicate the movement of societies from material values based on survival towards post-material values that are based on self-expression and quality of life. These values emphasize freedom and independence and the importance of human choices. These values grow in conditions of economic improvement where individuals feel more secure in terms of physical and material survival.
The growth of self-expression values is one of the factors of value differences between generations in Iran. Economic reforms that took place after the end of the war in Iran caused subsequent generations not to face the economic problems that the revolution and war generation dealt with in the first decade of the revolution, and economic security and physical survival were not as much of a concern as they were during the war period. New generations were confronted with a different environment and different experiences, which led to the growth of self-expression values in them.
Individuals do not necessarily learn all the desirable values of their societies during their formative years; rather, they are likely to accept those values that are compatible with their direct experiences during their formative years. They distance themselves from values that are not compatible with their direct experiences, making value change between generations possible.
If the young generation is socialized in conditions very different from previous generations, the overall values of society will gradually change with intergenerational replacement. In Iran, new generations did not experience the revolution and war periods, so the values of these periods differed from their direct experiences. Conversely, new generations experienced periods of political and economic stability and the expansion of communications with the world, and the values of these periods were compatible with their experiences. This is one of the factors of generational differences in Iran.
Change in Reference Groups
A reference group or model group is one of the tools of socialization and refers to a group to which an individual refers in comparisons and considers its behavior, manner, and conduct as a criterion, whether positively or negatively. In contrast to reference groups, there are avoidance groups or outsider groups, whose values and norms an individual considers negative and tries to distance themselves from as much as possible.
Reference groups have an idealized state, and an individual aspires to reach them and tries to pay attention to their values and norms. If the values and norms of reference groups align and match with the overall values and norms of the social system, the legitimacy of the social system increases, and the intensity of issues such as identity crisis, social anomalies, and generational value gaps decreases. Today, with the expansion of various satellite channels and advances in communication technology, we are witnessing that new reference groups in Iran have replaced traditional religious and national reference groups, and even these groups have been downgraded from reference groups to avoidance groups.
Parents, who in the past were the most important traditional reference for the socialization of young people, have lost this role, and new reference groups have replaced them. In fact, the new generation, with an autonomous and individualistic perspective, wishes to model themselves after reference groups that are more aligned with the values accepted by this generation. Today, in Iranian society, traditional reference groups have, in a sense, entered a process of devaluation, experiencing a noticeable crisis of acceptance, legitimacy, and authority.
On the other hand, if we divide reference groups into two types: positive reference groups and negative reference groups, we must say that the positive reference groups of Iranian society are undergoing a metamorphosis and transformation into negative reference groups. This phenomenon has paved the way for the emergence of a new need and demand for access to different and unfamiliar reference groups.
According to Rafipour, this process can advance to the point where a significant number of society members, especially young people, become disenchanted with their own society and attracted to other countries. The new generation in Iran is modeling themselves after reference groups that, in many cases, do not align with the social, cultural, and especially political structures in Iran, and this has led to the formation of different political tendencies among the new generation.
Strengthening Individualism and Independence-Seeking
Strengthening individualism and the sense of independence are among the factors that can lead to new tendencies and different worldviews among the new generations compared to past generations, reducing the conformity that is a characteristic of the traditional family. The reduction of conformity and the increase in individualism and independence-seeking have caused the new generations not to accept the collective values accepted by the family and society as they did in the past, especially since the new generations, for various reasons, are exposed to different and attractive values and worldviews that play an important role in shaping their identity.
Expansion of Rationality and Reasoning
The expansion of rationality among the new generations has caused them to believe in different ways of looking at the world and to emphasize the relativity of rationality and the plurality of reasoning methods. The concept of generational rationality is based on the assumption that only one type of rationality does not shape the mechanism of reasoning in humans. Generations, by utilizing their biological characteristics and lived experiences, gain an understanding of the surrounding world in a way different from neighboring generations and different from ancient generations.
On the other hand, it should be noted that if there is a generational gap but the channels for expressing and articulating the gap are not multi-faceted and are limited to a specific channel, young people will express other things they want through that channel. Because in our country, there are no channels through which young people can show the manifestations of the generational gap in various ways.
They are forced to do so through limited channels. For example, participating in mourning ceremonies in a special and non-traditional way, which is outside the conventional definitions of such ceremonies, is an example of this, or the way of dressing in many cases is among the channels through which young people display the gap between their values and official values.
In fact, due to the rigidity and closed nature of most channels through which young people could show their different desires and perspectives on various issues compared to the previous generation, they use the existing platforms and redefine them to express their values and even resist the defined and official values in society.