THE YOUTH CULTURE AND ITS REVOLUTION

Life is too short to eat and drink poorly…

What is culture?

 Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviour and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group. Culture therefore describes the many ways in which human beings express themselves for the purpose of uniting with others and forming a group. It defines the identity distinguishing itself as unique but not better than the others. Loving the way, a group does its things, language, cultures, customs uniquely distinct but within a given environment and people.

Cultural expression is highly sensual in that human beings often create activities, practices, symbols, and the like that can easily be consumed by the senses. For instance, in globalization, migration, and technological advancement, people are questioning the role of culture within the aspects of human existence. Culture has been historically used to justify, and legitimize certain behaviours, practices, and traditional ways of living. Culture too needs to be Christianised or baptised. My way of thinking changes when I meet someone else of a different culture. I don’t need to fight the person because of his difference but to appreciate the differences and celebrating it fully without feeling superior to anybody or inferior to anyone at work, college, university and family.

What is happening?

Our perception of youth is unmistakably those among us who have not lived for a very long time on this world. They experience life and relate within small groups with cultures. They do not float in some timeless and placeless space, above and beyond the influence of historical and social forces like any other human dynamics.

The youth are shaped by macro-social forces such as ideology, peer pressure and delinquency. Although individual response to such forces may be unique and self-directed, it may not be simply free to operate outside the boundaries drawn by the social influence. Today the young men/ladies are looking for a place they call a home, they need good models/mentors in their discernment process or let’s call it good decision making in their lives.

Many changes involving the youth culture are seen by many as insolent and disrespectful. But there is misunderstanding of their sense of confusion and frustration. For instance, the labour market demands that they delay their entry into the work force to a later age; also, the youth are seduced by material desires of a consumption-based view of selfhood; and they are educated by an informational environment that opens the ‘secret knowledge of adulthood’ earlier than previously considered appropriate. Thus, the youth in this new social context receive conflicting signals about their role in society, about what it means to be adolescents.

The advertisers have started to advertise all commodities without any restriction, sex is now a commodity, pornography is an enticement, to the extent that it’s too much in Europe because the youth at an early age are watching pornographic contents on their cell phones therefore the government thinking over introduction to the curriculum pornography as a subject.

The youth of the contemporary times seems to distinguish itself from adulthood on the basis of an effective oppositional stance and competitiveness. It is true that certain practices within a given youth-culture may be similar to other cultural movements (e.g. the raves of the early 90’s musical hits or even today trends are quite different that the parents take quite a long time to understand what kind of music their children are listening too, if not only bangs and metals in the background.

But it is important to understand that each of these practices is within their particular historical moments. They may be responded to it differently with their lifestyle philosophy of life that needs the parents or guardians to come on board to engage with them in their life struggles, without that the blame game will always be there between the parents and their sons and age difference will always widen.

 It’s always good for parents to know the lives of their children without controlling it like parents turning out to be policemen but to know their world view. Most parents act out of ignorance and with a tough iron fist of discipline towards their children. The children know that their parents are right but let that righteous be put to the test of dialogue. Involve your children in your decisions and inform them of what is happening. If they don’t tell you what they are doing it seems you too need to know why? Maybe you too do not communicate your whereabouts as parents to them, for you cannot ask more of that you don’t show, or you cant give what you don’t have..

Why is it happening? - Media, Fashion, Music

The media in television, newspapers, magazines, movies, etc, characterizes youth-culture and they define it. The media does not focus on anything good about the youth-culture and the public very quickly discovers that youth-culture is deviant and dangerous because the television shows communicate otherwise. Economic changes bring pervasive cultural changes according to Karl Marx and Confucius the communists. They endorse to having imprints of values that endures despite modernism. 

The fashion and media world will not care about your health and soul but about how much profit you bring in the company and industry. Women have been turned into objects to be paraded before the camera lenses to capture the nakedness of man or woman that the sacredness abstracted from the being and the being turns into an empty container of artificial beauty which is never a natural beauty.

In a short while everything seems well but the consequences paid in the after years is so bad that, the same industry that admired you, don’t want to see you anymore, why? You may discredit their company that is why they pay you a lot of money to ruin your life but they never tell you about it. The terms and conditions which are always written in very small letters and you and I have always no time to read those terms and conditions but usually very fast to sign and attach our signature, that is signing the death warrant ignorantly. The money covers your eyes not to think about the other side of the story.

Why is it happening?

Cultural values are enduring an autonomous influence on society. Economic trend is associated with shifting away from absolute norms and values to values that are increasingly rational, tolerant, trusting and participatory for the main stream churches. Protestants, Roman Catholic, Orthodox have imprints of value that endures the influencing trends of modernization.

The youth see the infighting in the families and churches. This discourages them to be associated to any culture, tribe or belief. They prefer to be free human being in a free world. Today young men are getting married and remaining in towns. Why? The baggage their parents are still carrying of ethnic hate, discrimination, racial separation and much more of ignorance and poverty of ideas.

Parents have played racial and negative ethnic cards that the young people find themselves confused of whether to live their lives or that of what their parents or simply opt out to be rebellious and forging their own way out. Tribal conflicts are negative feedback with mixed reactions. The youth are non-tribal, nameless and they know that people always will say they are cultureless etc. The youth today belong to no tribe, no religion, no church, but full of worldly spirituality of yoga, Zumba Zumba, ecology, etc which is attracting them out of the main stream churches to visual churches of technology.

Their education liberates them from corruption, nepotism and the like not until they meet politicians without good manners and vision for the people and nation at large. The western-cultural-development such as for example a world of computers, electronics, motor vehicles, mobile phones etc are the in-thing during their time.

Today to lack a smart phone is a recipe for laughter among the youths themselves. The same technology if not used well can be a weapon of human mind depreciation. The lack of recognition and respect for the youth. The lack of their place in the church pushes them further away out of church. The youth are against the multiple structures in society. There is always a way they get confused and frustrated when what they want is nor reached to them on time