Essay on Youth Culture

Temporality of the theories of adolescent depict elusive culture as it shows adolescent culture is “contested, temporal and emergent” (Yon, 2000b, 144). The elusive culture of adolescence is “emergent and continually in the making rather than…foreclosed” (Yon, 2000a, 123).

The Functionalist theory believes that Social stratification, including age inequality, is necessary for the functioning of a healthy society. Their perspective of social inequality is the belief that "inequality is not only inevitable but also necessary for the smooth functioning of society’. Functionalists believe that Age has become more important in modern society; age provides the function of social integration leading to social cohesion. Parson argues that social cohesion is based on age groups knowing their place and their role. Children must be socialized into their adult roles. Eisenstadt agreed and argued that children have less status then adults. They must

During the 1950s, teenagers were starting to create their own identity. Compared to how teenagers acted in previous generations, teenagers in these years were different. Teenagers in this time period gained freedom and independent. Teenagers were able to have fun during these years. They also rebelled against being conservative and conforming into what the adult society wants them to act. Their beliefs and attitudes were distinct from what their parents thought. Teenagers had different groups that they belonged to. Hipsters, rockers, beatniks, squares and teeny-boppers were the five diverse groups of fifties teenagers. Also, they did not follow what their parents like. The way they talked, music and fashion evolved and became a part of the youth culture. Rock and roll became a great influence in a teenager’s life. Many parents did not approve of this music as they described it as revolting, vulgar and thought it was influencing their child in a terrible way. This created a generation gap between parents and the teenagers. The teenagers were starting to mark, able to express who they are, which had many

Adolescence describes the transitional stage in a teenager’s life, from childhood to adulthood, where an individual evolves physically, psychologically, emotionally, cognitively and socially. It is a defined social category that is expressed through immaturity and unpredictability and allows an individual to learn and discover their sense of self and identity. The idea of adolescence came into perspective after children were expected to take on adult roles as soon as they were mature enough to, going straight from puberty to adulthood. As society changed and moulded, so did the ideas about life stages, which is evident in Erikson’s theory.

The 1950’s was a time of great social change. The word, ‘teen-ager’ was recently coined and applied to people aged thirteen to nineteen. During this decade, people’s perception of youth and adolescents drastically changed as children became more rebellious. Previous to 1950. society consisted of two main stages of human development: children and adults. When the Baby Boom started in 1946, producing more babies, a new era of music, attitudes, practices, and dance began to appeal to kids that did not feel socially accepted by adults in society. This was the start of the teenage rebellion. With increased teenager presence came more disapproval because of rebellious behaviour. Teenagers were pitted against media, parents, and local authority. Teenagers started disobeying parents, getting expelled from school, and fighting back against authority. Indeed, the ‘50s were a time that saw upheavals towards the impact of the music, change of attitudes, new fashions, and new dances developed children into teenagers.

1.1 Explain why working in partnership with others is important for children and young people

The author supplies the idea of not working in the first paragraph with his own experience during the youth (Clausen 120); moreover, in all of the article, he utilizes plenty of examples, evidences and comparisons to enforce the topic; therefore, by means of the author’s effort, the article represent a clearly defined topic.

Parsons says that the purpose of youth sub-cultures is essentially to act as a transition between childhood and adulthood and smooth this pathway, providing links between the conflicting values of home (childhood) and work (adulthood). Functionalist research into youth sub-cultures has been criticised for emphasising the shared features of youth-subcultures and ignoring important differences, especially social class.

As the baby-boomer generation entered their teen years, the seeds of rebellion were planted into their brains. Rejecting the social normalities portrayed by parents became a common scenario. These obstreperous youth could not be contained, and this lead to the revamping of the American society. The culture was changing rapidly in a variety of ways. Music, clothing, and even morals changed drastically.

Youth culture in the nineteen fifties was a time that opened up the world to be integrated for whites and blacks. In this paper the fifties are analyzed through the clothing, styles, cars, family life, and most importantly entertainment.

The ‘60s were the age of youth, as millions of children’s from post World War II became teenagers and rebelled against the conservative fifties. Denying civil rights to African-Americans and liberation to teenagers in previous

The term youth subcultures was first made and studied at the University Of Chicago in America (Blackman, 2003) . The school was of the sociological discipline and looked at subcultures as 'deviant ' groups, much of the research was conducted on gangs. The theorists were in disagreement with the picture the mass media had been painting about youth. This picture was of a homogeneous group in which class was not a factor and all youth adhered to one unified culture (Dvarionaite, 2015). Early American theorist of the Chicago school believed class was a leading factor as to why there was social disorganisation. Albert K. Cohen went on further to explain how class created divisions in society. Cohen described subcultures as emerging when, ' a number of actors with similar problems of social adjustment interact with one another and innovate new frames of reference. ' (Gelder and Thornton, pp 13, 1997). Cohen proved this through he 's work with young male delinquent

The differences between the youth culture and the adult culture is that the youth culture was more willing to take risks in their behavior, probably due to the fact that they are young in the first place and having less responsibility than their adult counterparts. The youth in the 1960s had developed a bit of an edginess to them because of the changing political

The intricate nature of youth means that while some argue it is a universal stage of life, it is seen by many as a formation of sociocultural elements. Social construction can be defined as something that has been shaped by the values, interests or practices of a culture or society and this is evident in the youth demographic through its revolution in recent years. The markings of youth are social in formulation; highlighting the way in which young people have been influenced by differing trends and movements. Youth is a transitional phase, its age bracket extending and blurring; transcending global divides and traditions. Thus, it is the social context that surrounds youth which suggests that it is not a universal stage of life. Ultimately, the idea of youth when viewed in a historical and cultural context as well as in relation to other socially influenced concepts such as adulthood, can be observed as a social construction.

The youth is being asked to give up certain family and social values that were an integral part of their identity, and adopt in its place a sense of self-alienation, and become a self-estranged imitator of everything "modern".