INTO THE LIFE OF A 21ST CENTURY TEENAGER
How often do you reminisce about those halcyon teenage days of yours? How often do you wish you could live that oh so good time when life was a little less complicated? How often do you wish that time lasted longer?
If your answer is PRETTY OFTEN, chances are you are a 20th century teenager who likes 90's music and if your answer is NEVER, you're a 21st century teenager who was more privileged than a 20th century teenager but consistently complained about having a much harder adolescence. Ironical? yes. We love irony.
Being a 21st century teenager myself, I know exactly what notions people have about us. We've constantly been told how tranquil time has been for us, how spoiled we are, how all we do is dress up and party, how we''ll never understand how much our parents had to struggle because they were not as privileged as us etc.
Now I do not personally condemn these notions that 20th century people have of us because it's natural. It's what we call generation gap and it's almost inevitable.
But today I'd try to give an honest and unbiased description of what it's like to be a teenager in the 21st century because I feel we are more often misunderstood.
Let's imagine that a 20th century teenager traveled through time and ended up in 2020.What do you think our 20th century friend would find?
YES it is no more cool to be an engineer and doctor in the 21st century. Sure these are still the safest career options, but we 21st century teenagers are ready to take the risks. Gone are the times when kids wanted to be either engineers or doctors or teachers. We don't want to take the tried and tested way. Most of us have clear goals and a set plan of how to achieve those goals. Career for us is not just about earning money but about doing what we're passionate about because we believe in a you-only-live-once ideology. We believe in living our life on our own rules.
Our 20th century friend was amazed by how amenable our relationship has become with not just our parents but with the society as a whole. Putting forward our opinion is no longer considered inexpedient or redundant. There is a general consensus that it should be left to the individual to decide the kind of world he would want to live in. We 21st century teenagers aspire to live in a world which is more liberal, diverse, sustainable and less judgemental. To a 21st century teenager, ajay, abdul, adam, amanpreet are just fellow humans and not people from a different religious background. To teenagers religion no longer divides people or evokes a feeling of being superior than the other. We aspire for a world where it simply doesn't matter what religion you follow, what caste you belong to, what your skin color is, what your political affiliation is and also what your sexual orientation is. A 21st century should not be reluctant to raise their voice against any discrimination based on any of those issues.
The most commonly used taunt for 21st century teenagers is "You cannot live without your phone" YES that is true. 100%true. Our lives are contigent on these gadgets, the internet and the social media. All these things have made us more acquainted with and connected to the rest of our world. I feel a major difference between the two categories of teenagers is that if a 20th century teenager would have read a news article, he would have believed it with blind faith and would not question it further whereas a 21st century teenager would double check it from a credible source and not blindly believe everything he reads. This because he realizes that with growing politicization, even the media has lost the credibility it once had. With the power of social media, we can find like minded people, form a community and put forward our opinions. Teenagers today have become more vocal and expressive and pragmatic than their parents.
In order to be able to be independent enough to take decisions for yourself, you should be responsible enough to face the consequences of your decisions. With a wave of self sustenance in teenagers, they have to face immense competition from fellow teenagers. We live in a world where everyone wants to be a topper. Anyone below 95% is deemed ineligible by the society. The ultimate goal of a 20th century teenager is to work hard enough to get into a good educational institution because that determines if your dreams will come true or not. Sounds pretentious right? But this is the reality of today. The stakes had never been this high for 20th century teenagers. Teenagers today go through immense pressure and stress. Some of them even go into depression if they're unable to get desirable results. Some of them start feeling incompetent and pessimistic. This leads to feelings of disorientation, failure, and loss of self esteem. The competition today is cut throat quite literally. There has been an increase in teenage suicide attempts. Instances of stress, anxiety and depression caused by peer pressure was much less in the 20th century teenagers.
It is a matter of fact that a 21st century teenager is more active on social media than in real life. As I write this blog in my college canteen, I contemplate as to why people are glued to their phones (me included) even after being in the company of others. I think this partially because a 21st century teenager is very selective and finicky about the kind of people he wants to socialize with. He'd rather interact with like minded people on social media than spend time with people he doesn't tune with. Social media has made us more reserved and unadaptable in that sense. Due to the negligent use of social media, teenagers fall victims of various cyber crimes. According to a recent survey four in ten teenagers have fallen victim to cyber criminals as they carelessly reveal personal details on social media.Social media offers a very tempting perception of people's life and teenagers are fascinated by it. But the truth is that teenagers are not just as happy as they seem on social media. This double life ends up depriving them of mental peace and rationality. In order to fit into this supposedly extravagant culture, teenagers try to be something they're not. Some deal with identity crisis, some with self esteem and body problems and some even get into drugs and substance abuse. They often start disorienting from their real self. We 21st century teenagers are weirdly obsessed with joking about killing ourselves. Our answer to every stress we face is to joke about killing ourselves and that just says how gloom-ridden our generation is.
If your answer is PRETTY OFTEN, chances are you are a 20th century teenager who likes 90's music and if your answer is NEVER, you're a 21st century teenager who was more privileged than a 20th century teenager but consistently complained about having a much harder adolescence. Ironical? yes. We love irony.
Being a 21st century teenager myself, I know exactly what notions people have about us. We've constantly been told how tranquil time has been for us, how spoiled we are, how all we do is dress up and party, how we''ll never understand how much our parents had to struggle because they were not as privileged as us etc.
Now I do not personally condemn these notions that 20th century people have of us because it's natural. It's what we call generation gap and it's almost inevitable.
But today I'd try to give an honest and unbiased description of what it's like to be a teenager in the 21st century because I feel we are more often misunderstood.
Let's imagine that a 20th century teenager traveled through time and ended up in 2020.What do you think our 20th century friend would find?
- Less Engineers and Doctors
YES it is no more cool to be an engineer and doctor in the 21st century. Sure these are still the safest career options, but we 21st century teenagers are ready to take the risks. Gone are the times when kids wanted to be either engineers or doctors or teachers. We don't want to take the tried and tested way. Most of us have clear goals and a set plan of how to achieve those goals. Career for us is not just about earning money but about doing what we're passionate about because we believe in a you-only-live-once ideology. We believe in living our life on our own rules.
- More liberals
Our 20th century friend was amazed by how amenable our relationship has become with not just our parents but with the society as a whole. Putting forward our opinion is no longer considered inexpedient or redundant. There is a general consensus that it should be left to the individual to decide the kind of world he would want to live in. We 21st century teenagers aspire to live in a world which is more liberal, diverse, sustainable and less judgemental. To a 21st century teenager, ajay, abdul, adam, amanpreet are just fellow humans and not people from a different religious background. To teenagers religion no longer divides people or evokes a feeling of being superior than the other. We aspire for a world where it simply doesn't matter what religion you follow, what caste you belong to, what your skin color is, what your political affiliation is and also what your sexual orientation is. A 21st century should not be reluctant to raise their voice against any discrimination based on any of those issues.
- More informed
The most commonly used taunt for 21st century teenagers is "You cannot live without your phone" YES that is true. 100%true. Our lives are contigent on these gadgets, the internet and the social media. All these things have made us more acquainted with and connected to the rest of our world. I feel a major difference between the two categories of teenagers is that if a 20th century teenager would have read a news article, he would have believed it with blind faith and would not question it further whereas a 21st century teenager would double check it from a credible source and not blindly believe everything he reads. This because he realizes that with growing politicization, even the media has lost the credibility it once had. With the power of social media, we can find like minded people, form a community and put forward our opinions. Teenagers today have become more vocal and expressive and pragmatic than their parents.
- More competition
In order to be able to be independent enough to take decisions for yourself, you should be responsible enough to face the consequences of your decisions. With a wave of self sustenance in teenagers, they have to face immense competition from fellow teenagers. We live in a world where everyone wants to be a topper. Anyone below 95% is deemed ineligible by the society. The ultimate goal of a 20th century teenager is to work hard enough to get into a good educational institution because that determines if your dreams will come true or not. Sounds pretentious right? But this is the reality of today. The stakes had never been this high for 20th century teenagers. Teenagers today go through immense pressure and stress. Some of them even go into depression if they're unable to get desirable results. Some of them start feeling incompetent and pessimistic. This leads to feelings of disorientation, failure, and loss of self esteem. The competition today is cut throat quite literally. There has been an increase in teenage suicide attempts. Instances of stress, anxiety and depression caused by peer pressure was much less in the 20th century teenagers.
- Less mental peace:
It is a matter of fact that a 21st century teenager is more active on social media than in real life. As I write this blog in my college canteen, I contemplate as to why people are glued to their phones (me included) even after being in the company of others. I think this partially because a 21st century teenager is very selective and finicky about the kind of people he wants to socialize with. He'd rather interact with like minded people on social media than spend time with people he doesn't tune with. Social media has made us more reserved and unadaptable in that sense. Due to the negligent use of social media, teenagers fall victims of various cyber crimes. According to a recent survey four in ten teenagers have fallen victim to cyber criminals as they carelessly reveal personal details on social media.Social media offers a very tempting perception of people's life and teenagers are fascinated by it. But the truth is that teenagers are not just as happy as they seem on social media. This double life ends up depriving them of mental peace and rationality. In order to fit into this supposedly extravagant culture, teenagers try to be something they're not. Some deal with identity crisis, some with self esteem and body problems and some even get into drugs and substance abuse. They often start disorienting from their real self. We 21st century teenagers are weirdly obsessed with joking about killing ourselves. Our answer to every stress we face is to joke about killing ourselves and that just says how gloom-ridden our generation is.
A 21st century teenager in my understanding is the perfect amalgamation of what your parents were and what your children will me.
In the end I'd just like to say that it doesn't what century you belong to, all teenagers have their own struggles and comparing the intensity of these struggles is futile. It's about enjoying this perplexing yet beautiful time and making memories to cherish.
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