Textual Analysis of the Perpetual Adolescent

Adolescence is popularly known to be a very tumultuous stage in a person’s life. In the adolescent stage (also coined the identity vs. role confusion stage by theorist Erik Erikson) bodies are changing rapidly, emotions are unfamiliar and unexplainable, and refraining from succumbing to peer pressure is more challenging than ever.

Sports in the media and popular culture effect how society and young adolescents view and value male and female athletes. Many young children begin to idolize professional athletes and how much money they make rather than focusing on the people who work “normal” jobs to make our lives better and safe, “… a person who saves lives, a person who protects and servers struggling families, and a person who shapes and molds young minds make a mere fraction of what sports stars make” ( Walker 344). This pushes the media and pop culture to persuade children to believe that professional athletes should be seen as more important than people like Teachers, Police Officers and Doctors who work to help us rather than just being here for our entertainment.

In his new book Until it Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How it Harms Our Kids, author Mark Hyman shows how parents have turned youth sports into a high stakes game of poker at the expense of their children. Hyman’s explores the history of youth sports in our country and how it has evolved from a fun past time to much more intense sport with heavy participation of parents. This book not only takes a look into youth sports today it will expose a lot of the negativity surrounding it. Hyman does not just point the finger at other parents but offers his own account of

In the article “The Rising Costs of Youth Sports, in Money and Emotion,” When parents spend money on sports they do not realize that they are just paying for the sport itself, not including private lessons and uniforms (Sullivan 1). This means that parents actually end up spending much more money than they thought. According to the article, “Is the Cost of Youth Sports too High,” “The rising costs of youth sports has also raised some concerns that it’s making it harder and harder for children to get involved, even if they want to.” This shows that because families don’t have enough dough, they are spending it on other things instead. Author Paul Sullivan writes that many people say that it is a waste to spend money on sports when you can buy much better things (1). This is important to notice because why waste your money when you can use it on bills, clothes, furniture, and many more useful

Occasionally in some athletes’ lives, the parents pick the sport their child participates in. They may do this because they want to envision themselves and their child participating. Athletes’ parents push them to go to practice and games, and they end up quitting due to the parents “gap between the child’s desire to have fun and the misguided notion among some adults that their kids’ games are a miniature version of grown-up competitions, where the goal is to win (Atkinson). This problem can lead to psychological and anxiety issues in children. If a child believes they have to be the best, but they physically and emotionally can’t, it can make the relationship between the parent and child distant and not as strong. Parents hope to see their children in the professional sports; however, only “one in six thousand high school football players will make it to the NFL” (Atkinson). With these statistics, the odds are very low for athletes to make it that far, and parents pushing their children to be that .0001 chance can stress a kid out and strain their academics. In bigger schools, it is more competitive to be on a school sports team, which can cause heartbreak if an athlete does not make the team, but the parent can take it to a whole new level believing that the child did not work hard enough. This can sometimes lead to the student being punished, with

Being a professional athlete is one of the most commonly heard dreams of a young boy or girl who currently elementary school. Whether it is realistic or not, these kids will be participating in the sport that they wish to thrive in. But, time after time we hear adults complain about their child’s insane soccer schedule, or how they have to spend their whole weekend traveling for games. The parents complaints shouldn’t be the topic of discussion, in fact the only opinions that matter are the children. The question shouldn’t be asking whether or not youth sports are too intense, it should be asking if it is worth it. If a child loves what they’re doing then they have every reason to continue playing their sport, but if they are not all in, he or she has to question whether or not all the craziness is worth it.

Youth sports in general is being reshaped because of how competitive americans are becoming. Every aspect of kids’ sports has become hypercompetitive hyper organized, and all consuming. The craziness in the culture of kids sports has led to the realization the world has changed. An estimated 40 million young adults are participating in a variety of organized sports For those 40 million apart of organized sports they have to give an almost total commitment to playing and being apart of the team (Ferguson). Sports are considered to be a shared cultural experience between many children, and they can

“The Most Expensive Game In Town” by Mark Hyman is a book with a loud voice trying to reach its reader and spread its word. The book is a written opinion on youth sports and how everyone is getting pulled into “my kid deserves all this (equipment and money) and will hopefully become a pro and because I put in so many funds, he has a better shot getting a scholarship.” This is basically Hyman’s argument in a nutshell, especially in the beginning. Hyman writes to the public to show which I realized while reading, is that youth sports has a lot of negatives and is poorly ran by people, businesses, government. WIth that said, we can’t help it because without these organization or businesses whose going to help pay for all these tournaments and leagues. Hyman questioned in the early stages of the book, “for young athletes is more always better”. With businesses trying to use youth sports as marketing, sporting goods stores give parents the “more” option and the tease to spend even more money.

In today’s society, NFL players and hockey player are the inspiration in the lives of today’s youth. Little boys strive to be the best they can be in football and hockey, because their dream is to one day become a professional athlete. Young boys focus on sports like football and hockey, because they are two of the most populist sports in America. Many young children want to play professional sports for the fame. Some want to be a professional athlete because of all the money they can make each year. They also want to make money to make a better life for themselves and their families. Most children

Professional sports have evolved into one of the most influential aspects of modern culture. The unscripted nature of competition, combined with larger than life figures, like Peyton Manning and Lebron James, has inevitably resulted in people looking towards sportspeople for guidance and inspiration. However, this unintended consequence is where the controversy surrounding professional athletes arises. With such a tremendous level of influence, recent scandals have caused people to question whether the social position of athletes somehow obligates them to behave in a manner that conveys a positive message to others. In other words, spectators, such as Bethany Withers of The New York Times, argue that the influential nature of being a star athlete

Sports are an intricate part of most people's lives and popular culture today, whether it be football (soccer) in Europe, football or baseball in the United states, or rugby in Australia and New Zealand there is always a cult following of those sports in those regions. These sports develop the players into role models for the adolescent child, but with a following the ego of a player could be boosted to such a level they become jerks and try to put the “I” in “Teiam”

today is a bright new sunny day. warm and about 90 degrees out. we are focused on this crowd of 8 elder teens who have no care in the world but to party and get trashed and have sex as much as possible. looking into the street we see a family van where some of our friends are packing for a weekend get away. there is jay loading up the cooler full of beer and liquour and other party supplys yelling at everyone that the weekend is going to be a great adventure for them all .and then there is eric coming down the sidewalk with a suitcase rolling behind him while holding his guitar over his shouder and a pad of paper in the other hand. and next to him is his girlfriend gena rolling her suitcase behind her as well and all smiles because she is hoping her and eric will move there

Having gone through both elementary and middle school, we have all run into peers who spent a lot of time and energy trying to act like the most popular athlete in any given time period. Kids often try to imitate controversial athletes to bring attention to themselves. Such behavior can bring popularity to a young person. A sad outcome of violence in adult sports is that youth sports end up mirroring adult sports. Young people are encouraged to be aggressive, and often those who are the stars of the team are those who know how to "stretch the rules". Often, young people who do play by the rules are relegated to the bench. As a result, youth athletic teams, even

Organized youth sports are extremely popular among youth and their families, with approximately 45 million children and adolescent participating in the US. There are many characteristics children can develop while playing youth sports such as confidence, self-esteem, leadership, respect, independence, assertiveness, and conflict resolution. Competition can help kids learn more, improve faster and reach a higher level of excellence than they would be able to without the ongoing challenge. Competitive sports can help keep kids active and health as they grow, and other distractions increase that may lead to an unhealthy lifestyle. People argue that it can destroy self-esteem and lead to resentment. Programs and coaches overemphasizing

Translated to its literal meaning “pulling in” or “withdrawal” (Grisafe 2012), hikikomori is a Japanese phenomenon that has been a prominent social issue for years. First coming to light in1998, Japanese physiatrist, Tamaki Saito introduced the mental health issue in his book Hikikomori: An ongoing adolescence (Senju 2013). Today, the issue is increasingly worrying for not only Japan, but other international countries as young to middle aged men and women continue to drive towards the trend of complete reclusive behavior and acute social withdrawal. As of today, over one million people in Japan are hikikomori.