Writing Feedback / People in huge cities either live alone or in small family units instead of a large, extended family [4]

generation gap - ielts task 2

In many nations, people in huge cities either live alone or in small family units, instead of a large, extended family. Is this a positive or negative trend?

In these days, family structure is a major topic of concern in society. While I accept that living separately or in nuclear families instead of extended family are beneficial, I am strongly opinion that the advantages are eclipsed by negative disadvantages.

On the one hand, there are definite advantages when city dwellers lead alone life. One of the biggest profits is that this situation can prevent members of family from conflicts involving in generation gap. For example, the young tends to champion the cohabitation before marriage, while the old may consider this trend as a cultural degradation. As a result, if youngster stays alone, they cannot come in for criticism from elderly. Another clear benefit is that people can spend much time for themselves. Living on their own or in nuclear family might create chances to pursuit their hobbies such as taking up exercise and traveling instead of heavily focusing on caring for grandparent.

On the other hand, I am strongly convinced that aforementioned benefits are at the expense of greater drawbacks. One of the most significant disadvantages is that people cannot grasp profound and thorough knowledge. In large extended parent, for instance, children might obtain understanding about not only deep rooted cultures from grandparents, but also progressive opinions from siblings. In contrast, children living in small parent may not grasp chance to dig deeper into cultural values. Another fundamental shortcoming is that living alone or in small family units cannot enjoy collective experiences. A clear illustration of this is that in Tet holiday, grandparent wrap Chung cakes while mother worships ancestor and children play around, which is sacred bonding time that members in small family have never experienced.

In general, although I accept that living alone or with parents can get substantial benefits such as avoiding problems associated with generation gap and investing more in themselves, I am firmly believe that this situation may exert severe impacts including lack of knowledge and gathering.