Your Turn: what do YOU think about youth?
April 22nd, 2008 by hayesy
What does it mean for you to be young in Australia today? What are the desires, motivations, fears, and interests of our teenagers and twenty-somethings?
I have some ideas of my own, but I really want to know what it means to you. If you are young, what does it mean for you, and what do you think it means for those around you? If you aren’t so young, what do you think it means based on what you’ve seen?
I’m specifically interested in those on the Central Coast, or nearby, but anyone is welcome to comment.
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Comments
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
active lifestyle where jobs come 2nd and friends and family come first.wooo.
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Thats… you, or your peers?
Interesting. I’m keen to get behind the surface desires as well. For example, I can tell that enjoying parties is important to my friends. But why? What is the underlying desire there? Escape? Fun? Boredom? Wanting to fit in?
What are the deeper motivations?
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
um i think generally. people will dump work for any party or get together generally i see, where as the older generation seem to stick to the work, my dad is constantly at me to do every shift i get and not turn them down.
why do people want to goto parties so bad?
i can think of the following things:
1. girls/boys
2. meeting new people
3. alcohol. just the thought of getting “smashed” and wasting the nite away. They are looking to “hook up” with randoms.
4. Something to do rather than sitting at home.
5. Exciting stuff happens, you dont wanna miss out on all the latest gosip
6. Catching up with old mates you havent seen for a while.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Yeah, good thoughts.
It raises more questions though.
What is it about girls/boys that makes parties attractive? Why do people like getting smashed? What is the attraction of random hook-ups?
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:31 pm
As an lower middle aged person i belive generally that the youth of today put far to much emphasis on “Having a good time” and are losing important “family and social values”.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Well the girls/boys things just leads onto the random hookups..
Why do people like getting smashed? seems to me that they see it as a easy way to hook up and blame alcohol. eg. 5 year later on after hook up a friend says, “haha you hooked up with that girl”??!!, “yea but i was drunk at the time and don’t remember it.” Also i’ve heard from friends as you get smashed they look more attractive
Why random hook-ups? Well at their age they don’t like heading into long relationships and aren’t looking for any kinda of marriage. Everyone seems to want to live there life longer and get out in the world and explore before getting marriage, so these random hookups are a “cheap smaller part of sex” (if i can say that), without actually losing their virginity.
man my language writing sucks. oh well. i hope that all make sense?
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Thanks for both your comments!
Mick, good to hear from you. You’ve identified one of my own ideas: young people are very hedonistic, one of their biggest motivation is pleasure. Would you agree with me that they (we) also value immediate pleasure more highly than delayed pleasure? (Not that this is particular to youth, though perhaps more so than in other groups).
VK, it makes sense to me
I wonder… why do people want to do something that they will need an excuse for later? I’ve noticed your observations too: my mates getting drunk so they can do stuff they wouldn’t otherwise do.
I don’t get it. If I wouldn’t otherwise do it, then there is probably a reason why I don’t want to… so why would I want to do it? (If that makes sense…)
Is it the result of an interaction of 2 desires, to have fun (as Mick identified) and to be accepted? ie they want to have fun, but some things would normally attract criticism - so they look for an excuse.
Man, no-one cares about their vaginity anymore outside GPCC and CCEC.
Why don’t people want long term relationships? (Mick had the right idea on this one, in my opinion.)
A few months ago I asked one of my friends what he wanted out of life. He said he wanted to ‘make the most of every moment’. When I asked what he meant by this, he said something like ‘take every opportunity, experience everything, have a good time.’
I’d suggest that many, but not all, see this as their main goal in life. Does anyone achieve it? Does any experience satisfy the desire for pleasure, or only make you more want more… become hungrier?
Problem: if youth are just on about having fun, why #5 and #6 of your post above?
And what are the fears of young people?
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
well #5 relates to having fun, catching up on the latest gossip and stuff that happens at parties is “fun”.
#6 well catching up ith old mates is fun
Fears:
#not being accepted
#getting hit by a car while drunk
um i dunno, i cant think of many. I guess some would be dying young as well.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
i rekon alot of what people do is to fit in and feel accepted, and have a ‘good time’. unfortunately what everyone says is that to have a ‘good time’ you have to get drunk and mess around.
its also about living for the moment in our culture. we are very selfish as a whole, too.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Very true, Rach. Are we more selfish than other generations? Why /not?
I just realised… no-one has raised the concept of ’stuff’ yet. Materialism, affluenza ect…
April 24th, 2008 at 8:58 am
well i think are generation is more selfish because of all this stuff, are nation is richer than ever and many children these days can buy what they want when they want which is proberly a leading factor to selfishness. Back in the day families struggled to get food on the table.