I had a good discussion today with a friend about young people, about the world that they've grown up in and just how different that world is than the one in which we grew up. Their worlds have been completely different from day one than the worlds that we knew when we were younger. We talked about how many people criticize the youth of today for many different things, and how unfair that seems given the things that these young people have gone through. Many of the problems that they face are a direct result of the actions of their predecessors (us), and I think it would be a good idea to stop criticizing them so much and instead think of ways to help them to cope with the world that we've made.
It really isn't an easy world to live in. And while I don't want to sound like I'm pointing fingers and blaming my generation for everything, I think that it's important that we take responsibility for making their worlds a bit more difficult to grow up in, in many ways.
How? you may ask. Well, I'll tell you. First of all, we've created a very expensive world to live in, without creating jobs that pay well enough for people to get by comfortably. We used to assume that if we worked hard, we would be able to make ends meet rather easily--in fact, we used to be able to get by with just one adult in a household working, with the other staying home to take care of the household. Now, though, couples are struggling even with two adults working. Housing is absurdly expensive and wages are absurdly low. Pay raises have not kept up with inflation, making everything from groceries to cars to books more expensive for our young people than they ever were for us. They're struggling greatly in the world we've made, and we're not doing much to help them, in general.
Our younger generations are the first to have been exposed to advertising as consistently and as aggressively as they have. Ads invade their private lives now, and they're customized for individuals on computers and phones. When we keep in mind that the major purpose of advertising is to make its targets feel a sense of dissatisfaction so that they'll buy something in particular in search of satisfaction, we realize that these young people have been told over and over and over again that their lives are not complete, that they need more to be happy, that they won't be all that they can be until they own certain things. And the ads aren't just on devices--they're also more dominant on clothing, products, vehicles, sides of buildings--you name it. How can we expect them to feel good about themselves when they're constantly bombarded with messages that tell them they shouldn't?
We've lowered the funding of our schools so much that the level of education that our children receive is, in general, pathetically low. That's not their fault--we're so against paying taxes in general that we refuse to pay taxes to cover education, and it's our children who are suffering the consequences. We're willing to pay over $100 for dinner and a movie, over $200 for a day at an amusement park, over $500 for a concert or a football game, yet we refuse to pay $150 a year in taxes to benefit our children by providing them with a high-quality education. Is that fair to them?
American used to be a country of hope, and most of us grew up with a great deal of hope. Nowadays, many still see hope, but many more just see despair. Hope is essential to having a great life--hope of change, hope of progress, hope of better things in the future. Our young people, though, don't have nearly as much to be hopeful for. Our economy has become skewed to favor the very wealthy, and because most of our money is going to a very few very wealthy people and corporations, it's not being spread out among the people. So what do they have to spend on necessities and recreation? Not much, indeed. What do they have to look forward to in the future if things continue as they're going now? Not much, indeed.
"Addiction" used to be a negative word in our society. We recognized that addictions were something that could ruin our lives--there was no way that being addicted to something could help one to lead a positive, fulfilling life. Now, though, the word is thrown about almost like a joke because so many people see addictions to things like cell phones and video games as something almost even positive. The truth is, though, that addictions still make us take time away from things that are important to us, things like family and work and relationships. The four hours that man just spent on the video game could have been four hours developing his relationship with his daughter. That time you just spent scrolling through social media sites could have been spent learning more about your job or talking to a good friend. When we teach young people that addictions aren't just okay, but sometimes even good, we're doing them a great disservice.
There's more--much more. There's climate change, pollution, plastic everywhere, scarce water, chemical-infused foods, extinct species of animals. I can write about environmental issues later, but that's it for now. I don't want to go on with the negative on a blog that's supposed to be about the positive. So what can we do about this situation that our young people are facing? How can we help them to lead happy and fulfilling lives (while keeping in mind that happiness and fulfillment come from inside, and that we can't change their lives or perspectives for them)?
First of all, and most importantly, we need to stop criticizing them and their generations for what we perceive as their faults. They're living in a world that we developed, and they didn't have any choices about the lives that we've offered them as a society. We need to encourage them to find ways to seek out fulfillment, and we need to educate them about some of the negative aspects of this world that we created. We need to let them know that not everything about this world that we've developed is good (plastic oceans, anyone?), and that they will need to find solutions to problems that we've created.
We need to support them in their search for solutions. The things that they do will have to be different from the things that we did if there's to be any improvement, and we need to accept the fact that they won't be doing things like we did them, and support them in their efforts to make changes.
In short, we need to love them. They're deserving of our love. Our love won't solve their problems and it will appear to be an empty gesture to many, but it's one of the few things that we can give unconditionally, and if we offer our love, they can face the changes that they're being forced to make with stronger hearts and a greater feeling of community.
They face a terribly difficult series of tasks ahead of them. After all, due to climate change our planet may be uninhabitable in just a few decades. Are we going to fix that? Absolutely not, because most of us will be dead and gone before things get as drastic as they're going to get. We'll be like a man who sets fire to a building and then runs away, leaving others to put out the fire and clean up the mess that he caused.
Look around at the young people in your life--family, friends, acquaintances, strangers--and ask yourself how you can contribute to their lives. How can you help to strengthen them to meet the challenges that we've caused and that they will face? How will you help them to face those challenges? The world is going to be theirs very, very soon, and it's up to us to help to make sure that it's a world that they can live in, happily and joyfully and lovingly.
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