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Vaidah Mashangwa
TODAY’S youth seem to have grown up in a completely different era. They have grown up at a time when they refuse to worry financially; money is at hand because parents seem also to be competitive in terms of the affluence and societal recognition. The parents try by all means to maintain their status through their own children. It seems today’s generation is probably the richest ever born as parents continue to offer an ample supply of finance for any need that arises.
The youth of today wear designer clothing, expensive jewellery, cosmetics and some even drive very expensive cars to and from school right from secondary level up to tertiary level.
As a result today’s youth constitute a huge consumer market for a range of products. Business caters directly for them including all up-market flea markets and shops.
The young girls and women are not left out of the race as some prefer to go out with older men and married men so that they can have the recent hairdos, manicure and pedicure.
They would rather compromise their health, education and career growth so that they get the material things. The love for prestige and recognition is so intense that they would rather give away their virginity.
Today’s youth are so concerned about self, they have become a status-conscious and prestige- seeking group.
The younger boys and men on the other hand struggle to please younger girls and women by smoking the best cigarettes, drinking the most expensive liquor, play the best music, read the best magazines, wear the most expensive deodorant just to mention but a few.
Some young men and women join some social groupings that have false values and undesirable priorities and goals in life. In the end these youths spend most of their time drinking and getting involved in drug abuse and alcoholism. Some girls are not left behind as they are seen mingling with other male youths and older men late at night in sports bars and night clubs oblivious of the negative consequences of such actions such as teenage pregnancy and early marriages.
Thousands of young men and women wander the streets at night and become problematic to themselves and society. It seems the parents are now more liberal than ever before as they allow their children to be away from home till late or till next morning.
Mass communication has also contributed immensely to the creation of a consuming youth by messages that are placed on billboards, magazines, newspapers, television and radio urging the purchase of the newest antiperspirant, shaving cream and fast foods. In the end our youths spend thousands purchasing such goods.
As if this is not enough, today’s youths are at liberty to buy their own videos, download their own movies and pornographic material and watch these till late into the night. The parents too have no time to check on the contents of such material. The consequences of such actions are that the youths become exposed to violent and sexually explicit films.
The hours spent in front of television cuts further into the youths’ study time and affect their overall performance at school. It is unfortunate that the struggle for status and position has created marked differences among children at school and tertiary institutions.
Young women who cannot afford to have their hair done and buy make-up and other accessories feel inferior, abandoned and rejected by their parents and guardians. In the end they may be forced to indulge in pre-marital sexual activities so that they are at par with their peers in terms of appearance.
The youths who come from extremely poor families struggle for identity and are seldom elected to positions of prestige at their own levels. Some of their peers look down upon them and in the end they may try to gain popularity through unsocial means.
Therefore the class, size, race and religion of the family can have an effect on the development of personality traits and interpersonal skills that are related to success in both academic, social and occupational situations. The degree of child deprivation and neglect also influences access to opportunity structures.
Some of the male youths who are cut off from institutional channels feel that they can achieve high levels of self-esteem by engaging in violent acts. For them the commission of violent acts allows them to gain attention and rise from anonymity to notoriety more quickly.
The main reason why at times boys have more deviant behaviour than girls is that studies have revealed that in early years neglected preadolescent children were more likely to be boys than girls.
In addition, many of the families of neglected children were characterised by low socio-economic status.
While there is a lot of evidence that suggest that most parents have lost control of their children other parents too overuse their power and this too might be a factor for adolescent rebellion, irresponsibility or dependency. The role of the parents is not to use power to control children’s behaviour but to guide them in becoming self-controlling and responsible adults.
Vaidah Mashangwa is the Provincial Development Officer in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Bulawayo. She can be contacted on email; [email protected]
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