Teenager’s obsession/concern with status in society

in #life7 years ago

Every age plays a crucial role in molding a person. Whether it is the childhood that shapes the personal habits of every person based on their learning or whether it is the teenage which carves the personality in every individual based on their experiences and their ability to adapt and change. Each age has its own perks and twirls and while we may not realize it at that point in time, every experience, every encounter constructs a chapter in the story of our lives.

  • The Age of Innocence

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The most interesting yet difficult yet exuberant age is the teenage. Teenage is a whirlpool of an age, where sometimes everything makes sense but most of the time nothing does, there are times when teenagers feel full of hope yet there are moments when they are the most hopeless and depressed being to walk on earth.

  • The emotional turmoil

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Teenage is that particular age when the maximum emotional turmoil is experienced. As you get to be exposed to the real world, you experience a change in emotions like never before. There are days when family seems to be least understanding institution you can look up to therefore you treasure your friends. Then there are days when friends do not seem to be returning you the same kind of love so family feels like a temple. There is a constant emotional roller coaster ride that teenagers seem to be riding. To them, nothing seems to be working to be working their way. To the world, all their ways seem to be wrong and unacceptable.

  • The Double Six on the Dice

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Though this age might seem, and to some extent it indeed is, the most memorable and the most challenging age, it must be admitted that teenagers go through a rough time. While everybody loves a six on the dice, they also sometimes have to face and accept the double six that has the equal probability of occurrence. In order to deal with the emotional, psychological and physical changes that teenagers are going through they usually turn to the materialistic things and start getting conscious of their status.
There are three basic status divisions

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-Socioeconomic class A: the elite class, which is also the richest and comprises of capitalists mostly.

-Socioeconomic class B: the middle class, that works for the capitalists and is well educated but not filthy rich.

-Socioeconomic class C. the lower class, which comprises of least educated, least wealthy individuals who work in order to make their ends meet.

  1. There are various factors that lead on to this unnecessary concern and those factors have to be identified in order to be eliminated or corrected.
  • Peer pressure: Teenagers greatly depend on their friends and look up to them as a source of support, inspiration and affection. In order to develop a sense of belonging, teenagers often try to match each other’s status. They become immensely concerned about the lifestyle for those friends that belong to a higher class and vigorously try and fit in with them by changing their own lifestyle. This boosts their self-confidence and gives them the sense of belonging they had been hoping to achieve.

  • Brand war
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Teenagers have been the greatest victims of the brand war. They have been targeted the most often and have indirectly been constantly reminded that they need branded bags, shoes, dresses and electronics, without which they cannot consider themselves of a high status. This is the reason why most of the teenagers are always found judging and evaluating other people on the brands they use.

  • Self-Image
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    A deteriorated self-image is what is leading many teenagers to change themselves, unnecessarily. They constantly find faults in their looks and their personality because they make the mistake of comparing themselves to the celebrities and other influential people who belong to the upper class.
    What these kids do not know is that those people go through countless painful surgeries, hours of makeup, numerous people working on them and countless editing effects that make them look the way they look. They also do not realize that changing in order to resemble them won’t take them to their favorite celebrity’s status.
    It is the hard work and the drive to success they need to conduct so as to reach that status.

The issue is that teenagers think that having expensive/branded items, friends who belong to a higher status and looks that can conceal their shortcomings are what they need the most.
They need to be guided, through social media, through these influential celebrities and especially by their families, that they have potential for far more respectable goals which they can set for themselves and achieve in order to **form their individual identity

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I agree with you and think that the teenage years are ones of great change and identity formation. It would be so beneficial to see more people, companies and communities realising their influence on the youth.

I think great strides have been made to connect, empower and provide self-assurance to teenagers during recent years.

Anecdotally, It seems teens (generally, as a whole) are more open minded (as a matter of acceptance) and have become less susceptible to peer pressure because they have more outlets to discover confidence in themselves than ever before. In terms of Generation Z (United States), it's definitely interesting that studies portray them as quite conservative, yet show amazing compassion and a willingness towards entrepreneurship.

It has been said countless times, but the youth really are our future.

And the future is looking pretty bright.

Absolutely! I didn't mean for the unsuitably negative tone. Yes, in a country like the US, the youth sound to be more empowered than ever, which makes me optimistic about the future. However, in South Africa, where I live, from what I have witnessed, the majority of teenagers are still fighting the battles which are illustrated by @jasimg in this article - many are consumed by materialism and peer pressure. I have no doubt that this will improve in the future, but in many cases, it is somewhat frustrating to see these social issues being neglected. I must, however give credit to those who are working towards all that can be achieved in the years to come!

Thanks for shedding light on your situation in South Africa. I was aware of some controversies taking place there, but didn't stop and realize the effect it would have on the youth.

Lastly, I didn't think you had a negative tone at all and wasn't attempting to contradict it (or the article) at all. I was simply adding on top of the insight given in your original comment. :)

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Great post thank you for sharing wow wonderful way

I totally agree with you and i also feen my needs to be apreciated by others around me but it is not that kind of obsestion .
Nowdays , teenagers care more about how they look but who they are , they care more about what they have but they really have and so on .
We stopped thinking normal and we arent looking at real values we should have , a caracter , a teen of his word , trust wordy , openminded and wellbehaved .
We are starting to lose ourself in the crowd .
Let's start be different

I concur with you, the teenage period is a very delicate period, during this period some of them suffer from inferiority complex, peer pressure and so on.

Very good post you, i try to understand from all post form, so that i can be the best like you, i am very amazed with you ,, you are very genius in making post.saya hope someday nantik you victorious

This post has received a 5.49 % upvote, thanks to: @jasimg.

it's a very beautiful sight I love to see it

I LOVE YOURE POST

This post has received a 29.41 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @jasimg.