comparison of teen life in 1960’s with one of today..

Comparison of the teen life in 1960’s with one of todays


 With the advancement of technology today’s human Being has become more materialistic than ever. He generally thinks about himself, such kind of thinking is result of exhaustive capitalization of world. People are getting crazier for money and success in all endeavors of life. They are having very less time for relations, adults are busy in searching new horizons of career, elderly people are worried of doing more and more in the rest of life left with them. In same way youngsters are busy enjoying the independence being provided. In brief, everyone is busy in looking for their own benefits.

The life of a teenager today is more complicated than the life that a teenager had in 1960’s or 70’s. Today’s teenagers are exposed to many more stresses than their counterparts were a generation or two back. There are many reason s for this stress. The level of competition these days, not only in studies but also in other endeavors in life has made the life of a teenager really hard than it was before. Kids are under too much pressure nowadays to perform and produce top notch grades. The Expectations from them are higher, while their support systems are weaker. Most of the times this pressure plays the most important role in restricting the child from giving  his best and as a result he shows a marked fall in academic performance and sometimes it contributes to an adolescent’s consideration of suicide.

The young teenager from the 1960s used to spend some time of the day in physical exercise (as it used to be mandatory). He was physically active and had higher self-esteem and experience less anxiety and depression than inactive youth of today. But these days nearly half of teen’s ages 12-21 years are not vigorously active on a regular basis. Even during physical education classes, students often spend more time standing around than exercising. As a result these adolescents encounter problems like being overweight, stressed and tired.

 In 1960s the role models or the mentors of the teenagers used to be great philosophers, scientists and thinkers. But the youngsters today are being influenced by overrated movie star, singers and socialites way too much. The rowdy and unacceptable behavior of celebs, adored by thousands of young fans are not a good example for young teens, as they are constantly put in the spotlight or even praised for their drug and alcohol abuse, constant partying and unethical behavior.

 In addition, 1960’s parents, too, were spending more time with them and life was generally simpler. But these days people especially working parents have busy schedules. Relations are now a secondary thing for them, parents are not having time for their kids, and husband is busy in earning money for better life of his wife and kids, resulting less time for family. As a result teenagers spend least time of their adolescent years with their parents which are very important for adolescent’s psychological and social adjustment.

A poor law-and-order situation and the helplessness and a sense of hopelessness prompted by injustices and ‘might is right which is unluckily very common in our country contributes a lot making the life of an adolescent way difficult and complicated than his elders had as the  peace and security situations at that time were much better than today.

In general a teen of today wants to excel in studying at a school which the parents expect from him, should also look cool and be popular with all the kids at school, should have more friends on Facebook than the rest, have a glamorous life-style, similar to the one he or she sees on the TV and which includes marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol.

To make the teen life simpler and easier many steps can be taken by the adolescent himself and the media too. Parents can also help in making his life less complicated. An adolescent can help himself by letting his parents know that he is feeling depressed and should spend quality time with them. The media can help by promoting individuals who have contributed in literature and other significant fields. Making healthy lifestyle choices can do wonders for his mood. Things like diet and exercise have been shown to help depression. Hence teens of today can be motivated in many ways to take the advantage of thier life the best they can.



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