Who is the Seenager?

A senior teenager, at home with

boomers, millennials and zoomers.

Watch Neerja’s YouTube Channel

There is an impression that the generation gap is just one of those things. Today, it has the potential to cause parental alienation, mental sickness, and in extreme cases, loss of life.

Watch these insights to help you ease the gap and feel some genempathy.

FORTHCOMING BOOKS

TOUCH ME NOT

(THE HERMIT iGEN)

Gen Z face their watershed moment with the pandemic. Predictions are that they will emerge from this with a high level of stress over events involving large groups of people. Given the masks and headphones that blunt identity, expression and interaction, they may end up creating new signs and signals for relating from behind masks. They are also expected to grow up being less coddled what with parents stressed out over lost jobs and full-time parenting. Expectations are that they will step in and vote for change. As communities repeatedly open up, encounter danger and close down again as the virus mutates and reoccurs, Gen Z digs in harder into the home scene. They will value the security of home. Gen Zs have often been called Globals for their inclusive, world-wide outlook, and they have always been a fundamentally urban generation. That will change. They will travel less and see fewer foreign countries.

Today, Gen Z looks to us as parents and grandparents, as educators, community leaders and policy makers.  It is up to us, to Gen X, Boomers and Millennials to model resilience, create community, and be protective of our link to the future.

NO TIME TO BE YOUNG

( 30 INSIGHTS INTO GENERATIONAL EMPATHY)

Young adults isolating themselves behind locked doors in homes. Young people sucked dry in the aftermath of emotional rejections. Young souls suffering existential angst unusually early in life. Heavily invested parents hunkering down to see their hopes and plans die unheard, unseen. Grandparents surrendering the jewelry they saved up for grandchildren who will not marry. Children struggling with a sense of not being enough.

In a culture of careful appearances and prescriptive voices, we are allergic to washing dirty linen in public especially if it has to do with the family. But crisis having come home to roost, should we not begin by bringing this inter-generational friction out of the echo chambers where it currently rages?

Testimonials

WHAT PEOPLE SAY

Neerja Singh was involved in the communication and language component of the Foundation Course conducted for the first year MBBS students at Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital , New Delhi .

I was impressed with her ability to connect with the diverse group of our new MBBS students who came from all over the country . She did her home work well , was punctual and eager to deliver value . Our students were informed , entertained and motivated by the end of the sessions .

Her contribution for a holistic development of our students was indeed remarkable and noteworthy I am grateful to her for helping us conduct the Foundation Course so succesfully.

Dr Supriya Gupta

Director professor

Department of Physiology ,

Vardhman Mahavir Medical College <

New Delhi

Neerja Singh as I see her:

Neerja Singh packs a mighty punch in her multifarious avatars in cyber space. Wearing many hats as an author, columnist and professional speaker on generational empathy she focuses on being a catalyst for societal change. Her themes are topical, well researched and put across with conviction and passion. As she puts it, she likes to ‘stir the pot’ to make people get out of stereotypical thought bands.

Neerja gives the lie to the perception that boomers should be invisible. Straddling across almost the entire spectrum of social media with verve combined with gravitas she engages the young and the old without being patronizing. Being digitally savvy she is most suitable for the virtual world. A communicator par excellence.

Ushi Kak
Taught at Miranda House and Indraprastha College, columnist in national papers, published a book in Feb 19 ‘Idris and Bilkees Latif: The Fragrance Lingers On’.

Love puns and word play!

Blogger on WordPress as Kashpundit.

She’s fierce, she’s authentic, she’s someone who you’ll never get tired of chatting with!

Fantastic collaborator of the new age and her piece of work speaks to me – literally. Be it her articles and her videos,

I am amazed by her energy and her never ending quest for solutions on a myriad of topics.

What I love best is the angle with which her messaging is framed. As a young father of a 3 year old and as a HR professional in an IT firm

Her range of work is really a breath of fresh air. Can’t get enough of it.

Rock on Neerja…’

Charles Vinoth. F

HR Business Partner & Assistant Manager

Mphasis

In our turbulent and often confusing times, it’s hard to know what to do to prepare ourselves–as parents, educators, and even as individuals. Neerja Singh’s reasoned and well-informed voice offers us some clarity as we approach the dilemmas that contemporary life throws at us and our wards–whether it is to do with our immersion in digital spaces, the demands and expectations of society, or the pressures from peer groups. Teacher Plus has benefitted from Neerja Singh’s association for close to a decade, and her recently launched column in the magazine, “Ahead of the Curve” has been a space where we are pointed to solutions, or given a way to think about them.

Usha Raman
Editor
Teacher Plus

Think of me as a millennial with the benefit of hindsight. Like them I am ambitious, engaged with my environment, tech-savvy, bent upon giving shape to my ideas, and excited at sharing them with the larger world.

COMMUNITIES

Latest

READ BLOG-POSTS

• 
  Screen Time PanicJuly 13, 2020
  There is a moral panic about screen time today. Is it good or bad? What kind of screen time is positive and what may be detrimental? Is it right for certain states in India to ban online learning? How much screen time is recommended? What are the best practices and safeguards necessary for maintaining the physical and mental well-being of kids during the virtual mode of learning? Every generation faces disruptive technologies, yet why does today’s version seem like the end of civilization? It is not as though humans have not panicked before. Enlightenment, literacy, the industrial revolution all brought fear and uncertainty to us but we shifted gears, metamorphosed and moved on.
• 
  New Age ParentsJuly 7, 2020
  There was a time when children were economic assets. They worked and contributed to the family income. It was a reciprocal arrangement. Then along came the concepts of “a child’s right” and schools. Children stopped working, the school became work and the load shifted to the parents. And it kept growing in radius because now there was the child’s happiness and self-esteem that began to be held up as the absolute moral values. Everyone forgot that these two elusive and ephemeral notions are tied up with effort and pushing and doing things one does not want to do. For the earlier generations, the parents provided this discipline and structure and hateful nagging but for this generation, there was no one after school/college. Not for want of trying but the young themselves developed a very private, independent, and individual sense of self. The personal choice became a virtue and failure began to be celebrated. More confusion. About this time they began to ring true, the words of sociologist Viviana Zelizer, that children have become “economically worthless but emotionally priceless.”
• 
  The Whipping BoyJuly 6, 2020
  It would therefore not be farfetched to say that this segment’s “selfishness” in fact makes up the stable, productive, sane fabric of India. They are the class that harbor and nurture the “value system” of the nation. It is another matter that some WhatsApp groups today have become unsafe and unsavory. These were supposed to be safe spaces of solidarity but are now broadcasting divisive content that some are hard put to trust. You either clap or beat utensils or you are against us.
• 
  Zoomer’s TeacherJuly 5, 2020
  The 7th pay commission is supposed to justify all of this as also the accompanying ringing of the ears, spinning of the heads, and palpitating of the hearts. And it goes without saying that there is always that universal echo permeating the busy hullabaloo, “But what does the Primary teacher do the whole day?”
• 
  Bring Back The HobbiesJuly 4, 2020
  How do you spend your free time millennial? Other than scrolling through Instagram, taking to Twitter, or browsing Netflix? You will blame the technology of course and perhaps you are right. But how do I tell you the joys of watching a bedcover take shape under your needlepoint? It breaks my heart that you will never know the sisterhood of sitting under a ‘kikkar’ tree in Punjab with the womenfolk in the humid afternoons, humming folk songs, and knotting a ‘dhurrie’ by hand. From scratch, let me tell you.
• 
  Death From WorkJuly 3, 2020
  Now Japan’s managers were rated the least likely to approve worker leave in a study surveying 19 countries. Is it any wonder that according to the most recent government figures only 52.4% of the workers took the paid leave to which they were entitled in 2018. The main reason is said to be guilt –it’s considered normal for workers to take the last train home every night. And apparently the words “Japan” and “holiday” rarely feature in the same sentence. Not taking holiday leave is a normalized part of working life. No one thinks about the impact on my family, health, or well-being.
• 
  Public Display of AffectionJuly 2, 2020
  India had never before been in so much love! And because I was such an Aunty my mind went to the parents of these lovelorn pairs. What were they told about their children’s coordinates? Did they think their kids were at college or some coaching class? They looked too carefree to be employed anywhere. The earth seemed to have come to a stop for them. They were entirely and wholly in the moment.
• 
  Millennials EnvyJuly 1, 2020
  Disinformation deserves to be beaten back. A responsible online conduct needs to be canvassed. We ought to care that so much hate is snaking around the web links. Adults, kids, everybody who gets online needs to be watchful, critical, and analytical. Is the website genuine? What is their purpose of existence? Is the information they post accurate, current, and comparable? That there are so many disinformation artists and agents clogging the net-ways is hardly reason enough to give up the desire to hear and speak the truth. Silence can be a very deadly sanction!
• 
  High School DatingJune 30, 2020
  There is something else palpable and alien, rearing, and growing up in our schools. It is the increasingly acknowledged phenomenon of dating. An entirely new and unfamiliar frontier for all concerned, this high school culture is cocking a huge snook at the hitherto acceptable definitions and parameters of teen discipline, safety, and security.
• 
  To Snap or NoJune 29, 2020
  What makes Snapchat so popular? The happiness involved in editing, filtering, and fooling around with goofy pictures, doodles, bitmojis, crazy filters, and other creative effects. There is a snappy snapping happening with this app. A “must-have app” among teens and tweens, it is winning over some older adults too. A whimsy way to the consumer’s heart Snapchat offers you a way to display digital versions of yourself and your friends in a fun way. And even though, there is a base age prerequisite of 13 years of age, how is the administration going to keep track?
• 
  Gen Z’s Watershed MomentJune 28, 2020
  The growing importance of this generation is reflected not just in these protests and rallies but also on the internet. Google searches for the Gen Z peaked in 2019. This cohort was born into technology. They are like fish in internet water. So at home are they with social media that it has earned them the stereotype of being tech-addicted, anti-social, or “social justice warriors.” This lot will very soon become pivotal to the future of retail. In fact, many of them are expected to have a sizable spending power by 2026.
• 
  The Snake PeopleJune 27, 2020
  The question being asked by those that dabble in psychology is, “Was this extension, deep down, an act of self-loathing? Have we reached the point where snake people wish to shed their skin and admit who they really are?” Who are they? It is the Generation Y that is better known as Millennials; those reaching young adulthood around the year 2000. Oh yes, they don’t buy cars or houses, they communicate primarily through text-heavy with emojis and they also periodically congregate at EDM “concerts”. They experience difficulty looking someone in the eye when talking to them. They often live at home and would rather hang out with friends than invest their free time in their 20’s on a worthwhile career.

WORK WITH NEERJA

Generation gap is a vast area that affects everyone in many different ways. Join me to identify specific problems so that we may save us all needless suffering and anguish. Please contact us for more info.