The youth of today has been widely outclassed; they do not consider themselves to be too young to be pampered, and they are not supposed to be old enough to take responsibility on their own shoulders. The main problem is the communication gap between them and their elders — the former believing themselves to be old enough for taking their own decisions for matters personal or social while the latter just refuse to hand over this responsibility to them.
This leads to temperaments rising high more often. The most common problem a person faces at this phase of life is peer pressure. They are pressures which either dare or threat the youth into doing what one would rather avoid. Some people are naturally competitive and they strive to act in ways that could help settle their ‘image’ either to impress or intimidate others. This can be seen in their disobedience of their elders who try to advice them through experiences which these young ones lack at the moment but fail at it dismally. Six out of every 10 such people are usually short- tempered and rude in their response. Many hesitate in taking their parents’ advice in different matters, particularly in issues which according to them are very modest and thus they land up in taking up the wrong decision. Today’s youth is more outgoing, more extravagant in their desires and less into their studies; they are stubbornly leading a luxurious lifestyle and know less of the benefits of hard work excluding fitness.
However, this article is not just about problems faced by the youth today from the elite class, the privileged. In our society, unfortunately, there are many young people who cannot even afford to go to school. They remain illiterate and are shamefully and mercilessly forced into child labour when they ought to be learning and enjoying life like the rest of their age group. A number of them face problems and some even lost their life or limb, doing jobs which are meant for older people. Sometimes, racism and/or discrimination against people of opposite gender, caste, creed or religion makes them a victim of emotional disorder. They have low self-esteem and can easily be overridden by views of other people. This is in special reference to the general concept of male domination over women who are taken for granted in respect to their specialisation at house chores. Because today’s children are less concerned with politics, they are vulnerable to be used in anti- social activities with false charms that lure them into active participation. They are kept hostages for ransom and/or turned into militants in the name of religion as displayed by the Lal Masjid incident. Last but not the least, are the so-called love issues which have dramatically been on rise since the past few years, but end mostly in the destruction of lives either by suicide of oneself/murder of the opposing one or by eternal misery which renders them mentally unfit.
The depression overpowers them and very few are able to cope up with it as another aspect of the ups and downs of life. We should remember that the more we remain down-to-earth and enjoy life as it is meant to be, the better we stay for the rest of our lives. One should always remain aware of where his actions can lead him to in future. Though it is believed that everything is predestined in our lives, we still are responsible for our deeds since God has provided us a brain to think before doing anything. It can be justly said that this age is the most difficult part of life and each and every one of us have to pass. Man is said to be learning throughout his life. It is not that one cannot recover later in life but by then it may be too late as time can prove to be the worst opponent in any fight. Therefore, we should take note of our slip-ups when there is time left and even if failure approaches us, overcome it with complete domination as John Keats once said “Don’t be discouraged by a failure.
It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, in as much as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out to some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.”
