teenagers

Teenagers are a big subject of today’s media. We hear about them on the radio while we’re driving and on the TV at home. The media represents teenagers in a way that comes across as them being reckless alcoholics who are breaking the law. This is not always the case with the youth of today. There are many well-behaved teenagers out there. The following quote from Plato, I believe is false “What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them” – Plato.

As in past generations, today’s young people are often imagined as out of control deviants in need of discipline or as highly vulnerable victims susceptible to outside corrupting influences. As it turns out, today’s youth are not the first to be characterised as self centred, out of control and disrespectful. Teenagers are not the first to be viewed as society’s moral decay. Every generation says that in their day they were better behaved than the generation after them. Each of them, from hippies to gothic teenagers to punks, has or will complain, that “in my day people were more moral and young people respected their elders”

The news program “A Current Affair” covered a story about young teenage girls getting cosmetic surgery, this news report was very one sided. The program only showed us a small group of teenage girls who where not completely happy with their body and the way they look. Most teenage girls care about the way they look and want the perfect body, but they don’t just jump into getting surgery to change that. Firstly, it’s the medias representation of teenage girls in the modern world that is over exaggerated, and secondly only a small number of girls would actually go through with a really painful and money draining operation like the ones that are shown on TV programs.

Most teenagers live in families were they have to act responsibly and are taught to show respect to adults and others around them. Most teenagers do their chores and look after their younger siblings. The media play’s a big role in the representation of groups of people in society, especially teenagers. A lot of people find it intriguing when they see teenagers on the news getting up to no good. Many news reports are based on young people and how they wander the streets and cause riots. Most young people are blamed for everything negative that goes on in the community, when adults play a big role in this as well. Most teenagers are involved in the community and enjoy helping out. Not all young people are rebellious, alcoholics that don’t have a future.

Around 70% of teenagers are actively involved in community sporting and recreation groups. I believe that young people that belong to outside of school extra-curricular activities from football to dancing are more down to earth and responsible. Young people belonging to sporting clubs, not only have a responsible role at home, but also have an even more responsible role to their sporting club. Belonging to a sporting club, means you are counted on to be reliable and loyal. Each teenager in that sporting club has the role of being a leader. Another good thing about young people belonging to a sporting club, is that they are more concentrated on achieving in their sport whereas their friends go out partying every weekend. Being involved with a sporting club makes you more aware of these things and you’re not only doing what you enjoy but also getting the exercise you need to stay fit and healthy.

It seems that every generation thinks that the next is more out of control and morally corrupt than they were. This has been said throughout history going back 1000’s of years, an example of this is from the quote from Plato and this quote was from the 4th Century! All of today’s youth can’t be generalised into a one ball, sure there are some that are out of control but that has always been the case. People born in the 70’s would have been frowned upon by people born in the 30’s, this is how it is and always will be. Times change and people change and basically there is nothing we can do about this.

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they never failed to imitate them”. This is a quote from James Baldwin.