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Social media: The remaining hope for inter-generational dialogue
Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT)
June 06, 2012

View this article on the YETT website

"In the current family set-up, we can go for 3-4 years without physical contact but with the advent of internet we are constantly in touch with our friends however the problem is our older generation of parents and aunties are not available on these platforms where 1 in 100 young women might not be using social media. So if it is possible we would like to interact more often with our older peers on these platforms", said 22 year old Onai, one of the panelists at the recently held Intergenerational dialogue held in Mutare.

Open Society Institute of Southern Africa (OSISA) is supporting YETT to create platforms for open communication among different generations of women that will enable increased communication across the boundaries of age.

So far, the dialogue has taken place in Bulawayo, Mutare as well as through a partnership with one of Zimbabwe's most celebrated talk show, Mai Chisamba Show where the ripple effect has been the identification commonalties which build bridges to address tensions and unspoken expectations so that women from different generations can agree on mechanisms of inclusion.

However, true to the apparent "tension" between the younger and older generation most older women blame the younger generation for deliberately isolating them from the transfer of modern skills.

"Now there is a big gap because they are saying we should do this and we are saying they should do this, while in our homes we are also so keen to learn about the recent trends like Facebook but you have spread the knowledge among all of your friends but you are leaving out the mother that you are always with everyday" said Cathy McMilladge.

"Let us move with the times because I don't think we are going back, we should make use of technological advancement to keep track with what is going on in our younger colleagues, therefore, teach us how to use the such tools like Facebook and Whatsaap", concurred another elderly participant.

In addition to simple communication, it was also agreed by the participants that ICTs are an ideal tool for transfer of skills without physical interaction, for example during the dialogue in Mutare Mrs McMilladge presented various creative crafts they used to make during their interaction at women groupings such as Women Institute but that knowledge has been kept in her drawer since 1964.

Participants also noted that with Internet tools such as YouTube, the knowledge can be documented and shared with young women across different societies.

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