‘Life is better for teenagers now than it has ever been before.’ Do you agree?
Introduction:
How many times have you heard the terms ‘worst generation’, ‘kids these days’ or ‘back in my day’ used by the older groups? These are some derogatory terms used by older generations to describe the youths and younger generations of our world today. Many members of the older generation believe that teenagers today are juveniles and delinquents compared to teenagers in the past. Despite all this many youths believe that a teenager’s life now is better than it has ever been in the past. A few reasons below prove the case that life as a teenager now is better than ever.
Body Paragraph 1: ->education
If you were to ask a teenager today why they believed lives of teenager now are better than back then most would think of one answer. Chances are, they would say that the education available to teenagers now is better than it was back in the late twentieth century. Many aspects of life have changed since the twentieth century, changing for the better. One of these aspects is in the form of the education offered. Schooling in the 1900s was very different to now, with corporal punishment being allowed in the 1900s. Corporal punishment was a form of punishment where deliberate pain or discomfort was caused to students usually by striking the students’ buttocks or hands with an implement that may have included a cane, paddle and yardstick as well as other weapons. From the start of the
The media has taken the stereotype of youths, the way the public view youths and the way in which youths view themselves, and exploited the idea, turning it into nothing, but a delusional monster. The youths of society are tomorrow’s future leaders, inventors and scientists, eager to learn and offering new perspectives. The media however, has hijacked the appearance of teenagers, constructing a distorted idea, and warping
When you thing of the teenagers for this generation; what come to your mind, there lazy, there never going to get a job and just live at their parents’ house for the rest for their life. When people compare the teens and young adults from around my age and a little bit older and then compare them to the past generations. You will find a lot as change from the baby boomers to my generation Y lifestyle. Rosie Evans wrote an article “Boomerang kids; What Are The Causes of Generation Y’s Growing Pain;” In the article she goes over why there is a change in the lifestyles of the youth. Which come to my main idea, why is there a big shift in how the youth grows from young adults to just adults.
My mother would often say of my brother and I have it easier than when she was younger. She says that this generation is a lot lazier and more entitled than hers was. With the newest and latest devices and gadgets coming out every year, she says that the youth feels entitled to have them, but don’t want to do the work to get them. Both of my mom and dad had jobs when they were younger as well as most of their friends, making it her generation's American identity. She explained that there was not as many working laws for teenagers back then for after school jobs. With this came more responsibility, she also said that there was a lot more respect for adults as well as others in general. Things like Facebook allow youth to make rude comments on other’s posts without much thought of what they’re actually
In most environments it is customary for the older generation to aspire to transmit values and accepted norms to the next generation. Adults take pride in the responsibility they feel to educate young people. This effort facilitates maturity and helps develop youth into successful members of the already established society. As young people mature, they become more independent thinkers and begin to evaluate the society in which they inhabit. This inspection can produce some angst in young people and concern from adults. It is in these formative moments and years that young people search for truth - not one that they inherit, but rather one they can call their own. As a consequence of this purposeful, natural, and necessary reflection, individuals
During the 1900’s, corporal punishment was well known and often used to punish and teach children effectively. Philosophers like John Locke express insightful views about forcing a child to learn, rather than allowing the child to freely do so at his or her own pace. Imagine two children learning the same topic of mathematics. One child is introduced to mathematics through counting apples and pears and is allowed to eat the fruits afterwards, whereas the other child is forced to learn mathematics through textbooks with minimum visualization and finds no fun in doing so. The child who is counting through fruits is getting positive feedback because of his ability to quickly catch on and the child who is learning through a textbook is gaining negative feedback because of the complicated material that does not allow for him to grasp the concept or freely make mistakes. Forcing children to learn what they need to in order to keep up a standard level of education for each age group (like the textbook example) can negatively affect the child, their wellbeing, and their self-esteem. When a child is forced to learn unwillingly, he may grow resentful towards members of authority and fear failure, hindering his social skills. A balance between leading the child through encouragement towards the right direction and allowing him to explore his options will help the child to grow up happy and to create a positive impact on the current society.
Irresponsible, reckless and dangerous are only some of the general traits used to describe teenagers. The negative connotation given to an entire group of individuals is appalling and has caused them to suffer many unfortunate consequences. The stereotypes used to categorize adolescents of today are lead by the portrayal of youth in the media and misrepresentation in our legal system. My essay will prove that the stereotypes reinforced by these sources are untrue and in fact, negatively impact teens as they struggle to defeat these social generalizations. Teenage years are said to be the most important and defining years of your life.
Movies make teenage years appear to be glorious. You go to high school, you get on varsity, you get the girl of your dreams, and a car to match. However, that is a pronounced lie. Unlike TV, teenage years are full of self-discovery, heartache, stress, and plenty of mistakes. No teen, despite generation, has had a completely smooth transition from adolescence to adulthood. Teenagers stumble, lose their way, and fall down endlessly. The United States has seen a multitude of generations in its time. As a country, it has been through traumatic events such as the Civil War, the Great Depression, and 911. Such events only amplify the typical battles that teenagers face. Though the US is not currently in the middle of a crisis, it has produced a generation of Millennials with the infamous title of being the world’s laziest generation. So do modern teenagers have it too easy? Though some may argue Millennials are a corrupt and lazy generation, it is an unfair assessment since present-day teenagers face different battles than previous generations.
We need to emphasize the fact that they are the true source to our future. When the water dries up in the land, and the moon will eventually stop so are the stars, and the world might become dark, they could become the light that fills up the empty spots “We need to recognize that young people are the most precious and fragile resources of our society.”(p.88) They are the future of our next generations that could change the world; if we do not recognize them it would become a beach without a shore. As an adult, we tend to forget that we were also adolescents, maybe parents are trying to achieve through their children, what they wanted to do when they were adolescents but they failed to do so because of their parents. Competitions that adults have created have given pressure to Today’s adolescents. Order to unlock their potential find who they are, they need a room to fit in. “pressuring their children, emphasizing external measures of success, being overly critical,
Subconsciously most adults tend to believe that the easiest way to deal with a disobedient child or person is to physically harm. This answer of violence more times than not stems from the anger a student caused in doing wrong. Justification for corporal punishment originates from the past and is often the defense of pro-corporal punishment advocates. Physical punishment can be traced back to ancient times exemplified in Egypt, concerning the slaves that built the pyramids, these deep roots of physical punishment are often referred to as a form of proof that it works. To use Egyptian violence as an example is pushing the envelope of what corporal punishment is today, however the reaction to that punishment is similar because human nature is present in both time periods. Punishment in and of itself is not inheritably detrimental to a person’s development, however in the case of school corporal punishment the extra violent input into a child can produce unintended violence later in life.
Modern society has made a point to shelter youths to the point in which the “new generation” has become accustomed to an over-romanticized and overtly-sentimental culture, a detrimental state of
In the article, “Cool at 13, Adrift at 23”, Jan Hoffman discusses about how the “popular” kids who were 13 did not turn out well later in life in their 20’s. First, Hoffman states “ ‘ The fast-track kids didn’t turn out okay’, said Joseph P. Allen”, this explains that the kids who were acting older for their age did not do well later in life around their 20’s. The writer points out that even if 13 year olds were cool in Junior High, during high school their social status plummets and they began struggling; some also got involved in crimes, alcohol, and marijuana. In addition, she points out because they were fast moving middle schoolers, they wanted to impress their friends and these same people had problems with alcohol and drugs. Moreover,
Teenagers are more than capable of achieving great tasks in the future as well as causing great destruction with every skill stapled in their mind as they grow. Good and evil will determine the effects of which path a young mind its taught so that’s why parents must educated well with good intensions for a better future. The age of a teenager shows history how it transformed the world including the United States by family values, the high school, and dangerous adolescences etc. What teenagers did was start a fashion changing the world and its rules, becoming rebellious toward their parents values for
Second, the society no longer provides young generation with the moral backbone and the financial wherewithal; therefore, it blocked twixsters to grow up (Grossman 1). Parent used to spoil their kids instead of using the corporal punishment nowadays. In the past, parent will hit their children in order to teach their children to obey their rules. However, in the modern society, the social norm is that parent cannot hit their children, it will make things worse. Therefore, parent will give anything whatever the children asked. When the children grown up, they have already taken it for granted and never want to grow up mentally. In the end, they refused to step into the adult world.
The authors extend the comparisons using descriptions and adjectives. The past generation of youths was made up of go-getters eager to “hit the road and find freedom”; they were even the inspiration for Bruce Springsteen’s vivacious album, “Born to Run.” The authors claim that today’s youths are far from that, holding nothing back as they describe the young people of this generation. “Risk-averse and sedentary,” they don’t bother to get their driver’s licenses, are satisfied to be at home browsing Facebook, and put too much faith in luck than effort. In other words, “Generation Y has become Generation Why Bother.” The authors appeal to the audience’s sense of patriotism, stating that American is “a nation of movers and shakers” and enumerating the accounts of bravery shown by the youths of previous generations, images that are admittedly different from the image they have crafted of the modern young person. The praises and favorable descriptions that the authors lavish upon previous generations of youths contrast sharply with the lackluster and borderline-insulting descriptions of today’s young adults. The juxtapositions accentuate how far Generation Y has fallen from its predecessors and prove, once again, that its constituents are leading stagnant lives.
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.