Adolescence in the 2000s: What has happened in the past 20 years?
Let's face it, whether we like it or not Adolescence and the people going through it have changed dramatically throughout the past 20 to 30 years. Put simply the way in which young people aged 15 - 18 act, behave, process information has changed immensely in comparison to the days when their parent's were young, and their parent's parents. The stage in a person's life, Adolescence is one that will forever be trapped in a cycle of acne, bad hair days, becoming aware of one's body and their hormonal urges and desires as they start to develop and become more of a part in a young person's life. Some may compare these "urges" and "desires" to that of a wild animal, trapped in a cage ten times too small for it. "Adults" will often reminisce to their days of braces, love interests or lack of, good teachers, bad teachers, rebelling, running away and what have you or try desperately to forget their adolescence all together, as it may be just too embarrassing or too painful for them to even start to remember.
The youth of modern western society are offered a whole wide range of different concepts, lifestyles, career options and opportunities as opposed to 30 years ago when women were still fighting to be recognised as independent thinkers, to be taken seriously and not to be thought of as solely objects of other men's fantasies. Today in 2007 music videos depict images of half naked women getting "tapped" by dim-witted, thugs with their "bling- bling" who boast that they got their woman and that their bitch is their ho, as anyone who has listened to a explicit modern day rap song will be able to tell you. Isn't this going back in time?
Isn't this reversing all that the feminist movement have worked and are working towards? In a free country, if a woman wants to shake her ass in front of millions, with hardly a scrap of clothing on she should go ahead. If she has pride in her appearance and doesn't mind being thought of as another person's property then she should go straight ahead. Of course television viewers have remotes and can change the channel whenever they feel uncomfortable or disgusted at what they are being shown. But what about those adolescents who see these women or these men as role models, as people that they should aspire to be and idolise. If they want to be idolise someone, let them, they will make mistakes, or hopefully realise that mistakes will be made in adolescence.
