Ever Changing Times

Ever Changing Times In April of 2008 six teenage girls attacked one of their peers while a teenage boy stood on hand to tape the “event.” The word event comes to mind because these teens planned and extricated the whole “event” to put on the website, YouTube, perhaps in some hopesthat the world would see it and notice them. What kind of world has society made that today’s youth are planning things like this just to get noticed; that this is the way they perceive respect is earned, my how times have changed. In her essay, “On Self-Respect”, Joan Didion explains how people have forgotten how the measure of their worth is not merely a reflection of what other people think it is but what individuals know it is. There was a time when individuals knew that to earn respect, simply, meant to become a responsible adult; however, many of today’s young people believe they are entitled to respect simply for existing. Although most people know that respect comes at some sort of price, whether it is hard-work or some other form of hardship, they must understand that not everyone is respectful of others; consequently parents must ensure that their children are imbued with good morals and values that will allow them to have good self-esteem even if others attempt to strip them of their self-worth. In her essay, Joan Didion has some powerful quotes such as when she quotes Rhett Butler speaking to Scarlett O’ Hara from the movie, Gone With the Wind,saying, “Reputation is something people with courage can do without.” Parents must instill values like this in to their children at a very young age, if not theyare lost to the stereotypes that media forces upon today’s youth. For instance, the widely popular Disney movie High School Musical, is targeted for pre-teens and young teens, every character in this movie conforms to what the media’s image of the “cool kid”in today’s society is, the football player, the cheerleader, etc. So what about those children who aren’t football players

Cited: NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004. Didion, Joan. “On Self-Respect.” Inquiry: Questioning, Reading, and Writing. 2nd ed. Upper Wattles, Jeffrey. “The Golden Rule—One or Many, Gold or Glitter?” Inquiry: Questioning,