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Theproblems of young people today
Problems affecting young generation cover a wide range of
activities from education, health
and housing to employment, criminal justice and participation in
public life. These problems of
young reflect the problems of society as a whole entity, because
our tomorrow day in greatly
part depends on how our young generation will be and how it will
be able to face
with difficulties of life. That is way there is a strong need to
consider them with more attention
and focus, this means an increasingly important role for youth
policy within main stream
politics which requires a more integrated approach to the needs
of young people, intensified
contact with youth organizations and further involvement in
practical activities such as
youth work, non-formal approaches to education, volunteering and
development.
Young people have to be considered as a resource for society.
But first of all, they have to
deal with the problems, they need to be recognized and studied
in a fundamental approach, to
indentify main cause and extract it in very beginning. In world
today, millions of young people
suffer from a range of problems which are increasingly related
to economy , social politics and
culture, rather than political issues. Sadly, young people (and
children) are more likely to be
affected by poverty and other results of the high unemployment
levels and social difficulties,
than adults. And these are more affecting them, as young people
are more vulnerable, because
they are more dependent on adults and on acquired skills. That
is way it is more likely for a
young person then for an adult to get in vicious circle of
poverty and need. Another problem is
education access. Education is considered by many people as the
only way to provide the
integration of young people into social life and to lead them
out of poverty. Indeed, with
the constantly growing technical progress, more and more of
uneducated people are left
abandoned from modern economy and behind of poverty line. Due to
the efforts
of governments lots of progress has been made in this field. In
fact it is safe to say that toays
young people are better educated than the ones of any of the
previous generations.
Involvement into higher education has increased in most
countries; the increase was measured
in some industrialized countries in the last twenty years.
However, there is still so much work to
do, as recent experience showed to ensure the only access to
education system is not enough,
it also needs to be harmonized more with the job offers. In one
of the surveys one young
woman stated: Before you can even look for a job ... you've got
to know which areas you can
get to easily so that you can be reliable. Before you get a
house, you've got to get a job. So
you've got to have money before you start, to get a car, to get
a job, or whatever. It is a fact
that some job offers are conditional on candidates having a car
to get them to work. Many
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young people have to make a choice between owning a car and
living independently: many saw
living in the parental home as the only financially viable
housing option (the common
phenomenon of kippers). The majority of young people feel the
limited availability of affordable
housing to buy or rent. For the kippers, continuing to live in
the parental home is a short-term
solution, but it can t be always be relied on in the longer
term. Reliance on the parental homealso becomes unpractical when
young people want to form couples and start a family. Even
with doubled earnings, young people still find it hard to afford
a place of their own. The
constant growth of modern technology includes growing complicacy
of life, which in its turn
changes the age of an entry into adolescence. Indeed, in order
to became an independent
grown up person and integrate successfully in adult society and
start, you have to match certain
criteria, like have an education, housing and have a solid life
experience. With our today s
diversity of life mentioned criteria is getting more and more
complicated. Considering the fact
that not everybody has an equal opportunity of access to means
and knowledge, matching
these criteria is getting more and more highly difficult task.
With so difficult diversity of modern
life to make a right choice and stay focused on your way to
success, it is difficult even for an
experienced adult. So what can we say about a young person who
barely grew up to start an
adult life, and roughness of life push everyone in the struggle
for life. And the media instead of
helping out with guiding of making right choice and popularizing
strong family relation,
friendship and truth love for closest one, portrays more and
more black side of life, it
shows rich and self-satisfied celebrities with perfect bodies,
whose success seemed to be due
more to lucky strike or to their beautiful appearance, than to
the intelligence and self-sacrifice.
Mas-media magnates think more about filling their pockets with
money from commercials,
then about young generation. Therefore, things that are
problematic in society and those that
are traditionally holding us together and giving us strength to
overcome difficulties are not
actual enough. They deceive themselves and they are deceiving
peoples, thinking that making a
reality shows and huge TV programs like part of the massive
entertainment industry fun is more
actual and interesting than making a emission about boys and
girls who experienced difficulties
on their way of studying, life, and on their way to success.
They should provide space for new
ideas and people who can and want to change the world. Taking
into consideration how much
time today s kids spend watching TV, it s not unusual that with
such an approach media
provoke wrong and rootless formation of vain values of young
generation and more and more
of stressfulness. Family, most of the time, is the children's
biggest social influence and source.
What young people say and do usually results from the things
that they learn at home. Kids
with violent fathers, loud mothers, intimidating brothers, and
annoying sisters would rather be
on the street and are more likely to use drugs. A lot of kids
who suffer from illegal substance
abuse started the habit just to "escape" the problems at home.
Kids, especially those from
broken families, usually turn to look for some comfort since
they don't have the love and
support from their parents. Almost every child struggles with
"fitting in" into their respective
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circles. Having a group of friends is one of the most important
necessities in a kid's life. Nobody
wants to be a loner, we could say. During their early years, a
lot of kids will find themselves in a
stage where they would do anything just to fit in and be cool.
Most substance abuse cases
result from peer pressure. Some kids consider substance abuse as
a means of bonding or a way
of showing their coolness in front of the others. Drugs are one
of the most serious problemsfacing today's young generation. It is
also a complex problem because there is no one factor
leading to drug abuse. Considering the facts about drugs, we
need to ask ourselves: "Why do
some teenagers use drugs?" Some might find their present life
boring. Others may have too
many problems. Or maybe, some teenagers use drugs to gain
respect in their crew. In some of
the cases, it's just curiosity. But now it is clear it is very
hard to protect young people from
trying drugs, because curiosity is one of the hardest
temptations to resist. Therefore, the main
problem is no thet first try, main problem is turn of first try
into abuse, and finding the way to
draw off the tendency to drugs to some other thing, for example
to love for somebody or
something beloved. In that way, young people would feel that
they are needed by society that
somebody is caring for them, or that it is possible to have
pleasure not only from drugs but
from doing favorite sport or hobby. With the help of others, he
or she will find more strength to
overcome desire to return to drug use.
To pay all the necessary attention to all existing problems and
social participation, not only of
the government social services, is the major way for the
solution of existing problems. In
ancient Greek society, participation was considered to be an aim
of education. They realized
it already in those times that participation could only be
taught by letting, encouraging and
supporting young people to try to assume responsibility and to
really participate in the
development of society. Decision makers have to pay special
attention to participation, as
today's young people are often forced into the role of
spectators of society, or into the role of
consumers rather than that of participants. All of us are aware
that participation is a opposite
reaction against the concentration of power in a state of
prosperity. This is the most important
way to strengthen the reducing civil sector of society.
Therefore real participation is very
challenging for people with power, especially for decision
makers. Participation provides
training in democracy and a possibility for young people to
strengthen their self reliance and
solidarity. Young people have the right to be included, to be
allowed and encouraged to assume
duties and responsibilities and to make one's own decisions.
Aleksanar Jovanovid, 685/12
Filozofski fakultet u Nikidu
Odsjek za filozofiju
