Problems of the youth

Communication with persons of the same age

   The problem number one contains communication with each other. At our age it’s so important to choose a true friend who can listen to you, support in any situation, and advise something useful.

    It is impossible to have a lot of friends. A person can be on good terms with his or her classmates or university groupmates but have only one or two real friends. Real friends will never betray each other. They will always understand and help each other. It is true that tolerance is the pledge of friendship. It is wonderful if your school friend will remain your friend for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, when one enters university school friends are often replaced by the new ones.

    Communication has always been an important part of young people's lives. Today they can choose between traditional and new ways of communication. Traditionally the young meet after classes with their school friends, make parties, go to the movies or disco clubs to have fun, relax and acquire new friends. But if the young people do not like noisy clubs and other places of entertainment, they can find friends without leaving their homes - the Internet gives such an opportunity. Although this international Web Wide Web is intended for getting knowledge, only few users employ it in this way. Others use different computer programmes to chat with their friends from all over the globe. They can sit for twenty four hours staring at the monitors. Such young people do not eat, sleep, work or learn properly. Their parents think that they are doing nothing, but this is not absolutely correct. They only thing many young people are interested in is navigating through the net and checking their e-mail boxes. And it is a great problem of the present and future. In general all the problems of the youth are linked with the present rather then with the past or future.

  Those who choose another way of communication are in the state of a conflict because they can’t control their emotions. Such "hot” boys often organize groups against others & conflicts become more serious. They dictate their own rules to everybody.

Fathers and sons

  The problem number two is the problem of fathers and sons. They want their parents to listen to their opinion, not to interfere in their private life, and allow solving problems by themselves. Some parents neglect their children because they can’t find the common language with each other.

    Every generation is unique in its experience. It has its own ideals and a system of values concerning every aspect of human life. Adults always complain that the young are not what they were. These words are repeated from generation to generation. Undoubtedly it is correct. In fact today the young are better educated. They grow up more quickly. They derive joy from more freedom. At present the young do not blindly accept the ideals of their parents. For them everything that the adults bear in mind is past history. And this is inevitable, because different generations take different directions. Moreover, the young look forward and the old people look backward. The adult always teach the young how to live. They apply old standards to the new way of life. The past is hanging over them preventing them from appreciating the things around them anew. The young think that the adults have lost touch with everything that is important in life. They are right, because what is important to the adults is the past. The young know what they want. They prefer to make their own mistakes rather than to listen to the warnings of the adults. The past exists to help the young to avoid unnecessary blurs. But they do want to have them. The young want to live their own life. They want to overcome their own difficulties without turning back. Unfortunately the life of the young is frequently determined by the adults. The adults start the war but the young die in it. The young and adults have different points of view concerning everything. And it generates the conflict of the generations. In the 19th century Ivan Turgenev in his novel "Fathers and Sons" perfectly illustrated the eternal problem of fathers and children's misunderstanding. I think that parents will never understand their children.

  Every new generation is different from the one that preceded it. Today the differences are especially considerable. The adults always believe that they know best only because they have been around a bit longer. They don't want their values to be doubted. The young on the other hand are questioning the assumptions of the adults, they suspect that the world created by their predecessors was not the best one.

    It is known far and wide that the clash of tastes and values between generations occurs in the main in highly developed countries. Occasionally it was sharp, especially in the 1960s and '70s in Western Europe and the USA.

       Young people of today do not directly accept the standards of their parents who believe that they are right because they are older. The adults don't want their values to be questioned. The young on the other hand can not accept the values of their "fathers". All these differences generate a generation gap when the young and adult do not understand one another. As a rule the adults, dissatisfied with their own lives, teach the young how to live. Unfortunately, the adults apply old standards to the new way of life. They can not leave behind their "good old days". This burden is very heavy. They think that the world is going down hill. They gloomily look ahead unable to understand the optimism of their children who want to pave their own way in life. The majority of the young people do not want to live in the past. They have their own ideals. They want to make their own mistakes rather than to listen to the warnings of the adults and repeat the mistakes of the older generation. They want to overcome their own difficulties without looking back. However, the life of the young is frequently determined by the adults. I think that parents will never understand their children. And children, in their turn, shock their parents with their dress, language, behaviour. The existence of sub-culture which is specific for every generation is a form of protest of the young people against the values of the adults. Thus, informal groups such as Hippies, Rockers, Bikers, Skinheads, Punks, Goths, Acid House appeared as a kind of protest against the values and lifestyles of the older people.

     A subculture group forms when the larger culture fails to meet the needs of a particular group of people. They offer different patterns of living values and behaviour norms, but there is dependence on the larger culture for general goals and direction (unlike counter-cultures which seek to destroy or change the larger culture). Subcultures try to compensate for the failure of the larger culture to provide adequate status, acceptance and identity. In the youth subculture, youth find their age-related needs met. It is a way-station in the life of the individual - it is as if society permits the individual to 'drop out' for a period of years and is even willing to subsidize the phase. However, for some people the way-station becomes the place of permanent settlement. This is when a group moves towards becoming a counter-culture.

Industrialization and the related social-psychological factors of modern industrial societies caused the phenomenon of youth subcultures for the following reasons: (1) The deepening of the division of labour separated the family from the processes of modern production and administration. Youth is a further extension of the same process of institutional separation or differentiation. With the industrial revolution there arose an institutional structure that 'allowed room' for youth.

(2) With this division of labour there came an increasing specialization which led to a lengthening of the period of time that the individual needed to spend in the educational system. Youth were separated from the process of production by child labour laws.

(3) The rise of modern medicine and nutrition led to the sheer numbers of youth increasing.

(4) The sheer complexity of modern society has meant that different individuals lead vastly different lives. When adults disappear into a strange world, reappearing for limited contact with youth, a degree of estrangement results. This trend has caused youth to become autonomous, establishing norms and patterns of their own that are independent from the adult world.

(5) Socialization in modern societies is characterised by high degrees of discontinuity and inconsistency. This produces individuals who are not well integrated and a period of time is needed where they can complete the process of socialisation - a time to find themselves, hence adolescence.

A number of different theories have been suggested for the formation of youth subcultures:

A. A Natural Part of the Journey from Childhood to Adulthood

As discussed under the youth culture section, there is a journey from childhood to adulthood. Youth ban together for support into groups that function as half-way houses between the world of being a child and the world of being an adult. Here youth subcultures are about survival in an otherwise hostile world.

B. A Class Struggle Expressed Through The Use of Style

In the resistance through rituals understanding of culture the members are always striving against dominant classes; older generations and against those who conform. They are always trying to find ways to disrupt the ideological and generational oppression in order to crease spaces for themselves. The resistance through personal expression is often contrasted against the conformity of the ‘normals’. In many writings youth are counterposed against adults - they hate and avoid adults and oppose them because they represent authority. A dichotomy was created between, for example: Goths and Normals where Goths avoid and hate adults, oppose adults who represent authority and are deemed to resist; while Normals relate well to adults, consult adults with problems and are deemed to conform. Linda Forrester in a web article speaks of youth generated culture where visual communication is predominant and language is subservient to visual means of communications. Visual cultures include: skateboarders; graffiti artists; street dancers and street machiners which communicate through movement or gesture. These are periphery groups empowered by the space that they have created through visual representation. Their cultural production is recognised by mainstream culture and in that recognition they are given power to speak. The process empowers them and provides identity. Group control is managed through the visual display of creative talent, ie, skaters out-skate each other, graffiti artists out-image each other; street machines out-car each other; street dancers fight each other through art. In mainstream culture discourse is primarily verbal but in youth generated culture discourse is primarily visual. It is through style that criticism of performance and image occurs and it is through criticism that higher forms of visual representation occur.

C. A Rebellion Against the Dominant Culture Using Shock Tactics

Young people in creating subcultures are setting out to shock. One of the key ways in which they shock is through the clothes they wear. Oppositional subcultures (ie. Punk and Hip-hop subcultures) are movements dedicated to rebellion against the dominant culture.

D. A Construction of New Identities Based on Individualisation

The new ideas in youth culture suggest a more positive view of the role of youth in society. Youth is viewed as an active category - a sociocultural view of youth is introduced where youth are involved in the development of society through their creations. Youth must be allowed to exercise the power to bring change - they do so in their cultural expressions all the time. Youth culture is about individualism - an expanding degree of separation of individuals from their traditional ties and restrictions. As people have 'broken free' they feel a need to look for fixing points - material with which to form a new social and cultural identity. The motivation behind participating in the activities of a subculture involves coping with suffering (the sense of loss at being cut off from the past and hence one’s identity), i.e. alienation, loneliness, meaningless, etc. The motive is to be reinstated into responsive and responsible relationships. The individualisation has produced post-traditional communities - because they are focussed on the individual they are looser and more fluid than traditional communities but they are still settings in which youth find self-expression and identity. The subculture is an identity-related substitute for the lost collective world of modernism but with the disintegration of tradition, subcultures has lost their identity-creating potential. There is a now a pluralisation of needs and interests that result from the process of individualisation and culturalisation - so culture ruptures are normal. Not only do these ruptures affect all social classes, but the traditional generational gap is also blurred. Alongside individualisation there is a tendency towards self-organisation - probably the new communities will be organised around the needs of the individuals and their interests. Douglas Rushkoff, in Playing the Future, suggests that as the world has become increasingly complex the children have adapted to its demands, and they have the ability to navigate it's terrain - adults must learn from them!

A whole new approach to the field of subculture theory is emerging. It is an approach that is critical of the subculture theory approach popular since the seventies.

    Traditionally, young people were looking at their elders for guidance. Today the situation is different. Sometimes the young people share information and experience with their parents. I think that it is not bad, especially when the adults really try to understand what is going on in the lives of their children. Moreover, young people grow up so quickly that they almost do not have time to enjoy their childhood.

Getting a good education

   It is a problem to get a good education.

   It is necessary to pay for a good education. I think it is difficult to learn English, for example, without additional classes.

   I can't enter the Institute without good knowledge. To get it is necessary to pay for it and have heavy expenses.

   Many good teachers leave schools because they haven't got enough money, persons without special experience can't teach the pupils well.

   When you leave school you understand that the time of your independence life and the beginning of a far more serious examination of your abilities and character has come. You also understand that from now you’ll have to do everything yourself, and to "fight” with everybody around you for better life. The first problem that young people meet is to choose their future profession; it means that they have to choose the future of their life. It’s not an easy task to make the right choice of a job. You know children have a lot of dreams about their future: to become a superman or a policeman or a doctor … It’s very easy they think, but when they become older and see real world they understand that in all professions need to know perfectly about what you do, you must be well-educated and well-informed. That’s why I think it’s very important to have a good education at school. And if you work hard everything will be OK.

   It seems as though you can’t do enough in this day and age. There are so many jobs out there and many of them require you to have a good education. This sets you apart from everyone else going for the same job as you.

   There are many uses for a higher education. It allows you to get paid more. It allows you to move up the ladder and keeps you from doing something that you do not love. That is the good thing about this. The more you know about education, the more you will find that if you have not gone to college, then you really should go. It can do a world of good for you. If you do not do it for yourself, you set an example when you go to college. Many say this or that is keeping them from doing so, but you show those people that nothing should stop them from going.

   When you go to school, you can study the things that you wish to study to go into the field that you so choose. They challenge you, but for a good reason. This reason is to make it that you can show an employer that you took the time to learn the field. Many jobs nowadays expect you to have the college degree if not more. So, here are the things that you should know about these schools and other things with dealing with going to school. There are solutions.

Unemployment

People of almost every age are susceptible to this pernicious disease but it hits the youth the hardest. It's name is unemployment. The percent-age of unemployed youth in the total number of the jobless is high. In many developing countries the situation is more serious. Many young people commit suicide. Unless the economic situation in the world doesn’t change, youth unemployment will mount. These predictions refer to all categories of workers-with high and low skills in town and country. For all there possible distinctions, these young people over outside the production structure of society. The are deprived the possibility of creating there are "surplus" from time to time some may get a hit of luck, but the lot of the majority is to feel their unlaces to lose their ideals and become disillusioned. Unemployment greatly intensifies tendency among the youth towards drug, education, frustration and crime. This is a time bomb and is a heavy accusation of any social economic system.

Love

The problem of love is very important for young people. Today they fall in love when they reach the age of Romeo and Juliet. Romanticism and idealism very often accompany the love of the young. They can love deeply and passionately, they believe that their love will last forever. Unfortunately, often their hearts are broken. Their belief in eternal love can end dramatically. Today nobody doubts about the depth of their passion. It is regrettable, but the young are not always ready to have stable relations. It is regrettable, but young people are not always ready to have stable relations. In many cases they are too young and inexperienced to begin a family life. For a happy family life two people must understand and respect each other. It should be said that the young have other problems as well. They are concerned with education, money, employment, hobby, spending their free time, communication, and the like. And of course one of the most urgent problems is the accommodations problem. Few young people in our country have their own apartments. In the main they share the apartments with their parents even after getting married.

Free time

   We also face the problem how to spend our free time. We can do it in different ways. Some of teenagers spend their free time in different night clubs. Other young people spend their free time in the streets. As for me, I spend my free time at home or in the night clubs.

    There are many stadiums & public sports facilities in Russia. Numerous national & international matches & competitions are regularly held in Russia. They attract a large number of fans. Most of important games are televised. Thousands of fans go to the stadiums to support their favorite team & thousands more prefer to watch games on TV. But watching sports events & going in for sports are two different things.

Alcohol and drug addiction

One of the main problems of young people is drugs. This is a relatively new problem but it is becoming more and more dangerous. Million young people today are using drugs, and most of them will die. Usually they want just to try it, then again and again … and after year may be two years they will die. It is true. Because there is no medicine help you. That’s why never do it, if you do - it goes bad, very bad. I think that police must work hard to protect young people from drugs. Because drugs will kill our young generation and our future will be very bad.

   Alcohol, the most widely used and abused drug among youth, causes serious and potentially life-threatening problems for this population. Although alcohol is sometimes referred to as a "gateway drug" for youth because its use often precedes the use of other illicit substances, this terminology is counterproductive; youth drinking requires significant attention, not because of what it leads to but because of the extensive human and economic impact of alcohol use by this vulnerable population.

   For some youth, alcohol use alone is the primary problem. For others, drinking may be only one of a constellation of high-risk behaviors. For these individuals, interventions designed to modify high-risk behavior likely would be more successful in preventing alcohol problems than those designed solely to prevent the initiation of drinking. Determining which influences are involved in specific youth drinking patterns will permit the design of more potent interventions. Finally, we need to develop a better understanding of the alcohol treatment needs of youth. Future questions for scientific attention include, what types of specialized diagnostic and assessment instruments are needed for youth; whether treatment in segregated, "youth only" programs is more effective than in general population programs; and, irrespective of the setting, what types of specific modalities are needed by youth to increase the long-term effectiveness of treatment.

    Besides, a lot of teenagers think drugs and alcohol will help them to forget about different problems and to escape from reality.

    In addition to that, young people always need some money to buy them.

As a rule, young people usually steal. Then they sale stolen things and get some money. Drugs are very expensive so teenager even can be a killer to earn money.

Smoking

    At the moment smoking among adolescents is a major health problem and the whole society. According to statistics, at present in Russia, smoking among adolescents is widespread; aged 15-17 smokes every other boy and girl in every four. And smoking among girls in recent years has doubled.

    Smoking among teenagers is distributed without any hindrance from the state and society. Addiction is treated as a bad habit, which is not very dangerous. With the help of movies and advertising teens imposed a certain style of life where there is no place a healthy lifestyle. All preventive measures against the background of contemporary popular culture seem to be simply ridiculous.

   Early initiation of smoking among teenagers creates persistent nicotine dependence, from which it is difficult to remove in the future. In adolescence, there is an intensive growth of the organism, and smoking slows down the growth. Most of the functions and systems of the body and can not develop to a level which is incorporated by nature. Adolescents start smoking very early in the observed increase in small, underdeveloped chest; there is a weakening of muscle strength. Smoking among teens leads to a strong reduction in the total health of the nation.

    You can identify the main reasons for smoking among adolescents:

•         Smoking parents and friends;

•         Influence and peer pressure;

•         Imitation of adult friends and idols;

•         Stress;

•         The desire to stand out, look "cool";

•         The desire to appear independent and adults;

•         The availability of cigarettes;

•         The effect of advertising;

•         The influence of movies and films in which the main characters smoke (teens take their example).

    The hazards of smoking for teenagers

•         Due to the constant irritation of the eyes of tobacco smoke, gradually decreasing visual acuity, there may be inflammation of the optic nerve. As a result of the harmful effects of nicotine on the retina is reduced sensitivity to light, increased intraocular pressure. Glaucoma develops over time;

•         Deteriorating memory. Experimentally proven that smoking (particularly in adolescence, when the memory is still growing) significantly reduces the amount of memory and speed of learning information;

•         Slowing growth;

•         Reduced muscle strength, endurance, slows down the reaction and coordination of movement;

•         Nerve cells are depleted;

•         Disrupted the endocrine system (thyroid gland is suppressed work), so that there are different skin lesions: seborrhea, acne;

•         There is a deterioration of the heart muscle, which manifests itself in the near future in a variety of heart problems: coronary artery disease, angina, heart attack;

•         Smoking greatly reduces the efficiency in adolescents, they become lethargic and irritable.