The lost generation

There is a huge generation gap between teenagers and the present day adults. The youth are seeking an identity and when adults cannot provide for this, they seek it from their peer groups.

Here, they find the security they need and a response to their personal problems. The strong feeling of solidarity among the members makes such groups very compact. The members give each other mutual support, and together they can stand up to the adult world. These are autonomous groups, for which adolescence is not just a transition period or a passing phase, but a complete world with a significance of its own.

Thus young people have set up their own society, which is outside that one of adults. This makes it difficult for them to attain a responsible level of autonomy and contributes to the proliferation of youth movements and the enormous generation gap.

Peer pressure

This situation is exacerbated by powerful influence of the press (TV and radio) and social media (Facebook, Whatsupp and Twitter), which is popular with youth. Mass media simply exploits the weaknesses of the teenage personality — the desire to escape, their vulnerability to suggestions from others, their emotional stress and the weak control they have over their imagination, their will or their immediate desires and impulses.

The excess of stimuli projected on to young imaginations gives rise to immoderate flights of fancy. Teenagers have an appetite for the unusual, the weird and even the dangerous.

Comics play a decisive role nowadays in the development of the hungry fantasy of our teenagers, encouraging them to action for its own sake and to carry out gratuitous acts.

On the other hand, our society is in continual evolution. Many of these changes are positive, but others are negative, especially in the sphere of ideas and values. Formerly, the family provided the bridge that allowed the youngster to step from childhood into adulthood with a certain sense of security.

Nowadays, in many cases, they can’t rely on this support, both because the values of the family have been lost, and there is little communication and poor relationships within the home.

The rebellious and unruly attitudes of today’s youth are due, not so much to any disagreement with adults’ ideas and values, as to the sad fact that often such values simply do not exist.

They miss those principles, guidelines and models of conduct that they could follow, values personified in the lives of role models. Consequently, the adolescent of today is in a greater conflict with society. He is in greater disagreement with the demands of authority and he wants more independence.

He distances himself from the sanctuary of the home, and moves towards the uncertain security of a group of friends.

Photo: blog.faboverfifty.com