Everyone knows that throughout life, assumptions and stereotypes are made. Whether they concern age, gender, race, class and so on, it does not matter. Stereotypes are always made in some form or another, some can be referring to positive aspects, while others can be bad. Whether good or bad, stereotypes should not be made, if a person has not met someone, they shouldn’t presume to know them or their ‘type’. No two people are identical and so they should not be treated as though they are. Many people have similar interests and characteristics, but not identical. A common group that receives a lot of stereotyping is the youth of today.
Not everyone, but a lot of people follow the assumption that the youth of today’s society are nothing but bludgers. Youth usually have plenty of negative assumptions placed upon them such as being known as ‘Know alls’, ‘Trouble makers’, ‘Druggies’ and irresponsible. This names just a few of the negative assumptions that youth have placed upon them nearly, if not, everyday. There are also some positive assumptions made in regard to the youth of today, these are statements like they are beginning to understand the importance of education in order to have a chance at a secure future. Youth are very out going and don’t have a concern for tomorrow as they prefer to live for today. Youth have a creative imagination, not just towards art and work, but towards life in general and are willing to learn new skills in order to forward their knowledge, and are being thought of as the future generation.
I believe that all of these assumptions have an element of truth, but in the way of being
stereotypes. To certain individuals, these assumptions may be true, but not every youth is a trouble maker or a drug addict and so on. As I said before, everyone is an individual and so should be treated as one, and not just as ‘one of them’. The reason I think this is because I know that I wouldn’t like it if someone treated me the same as other people who are nothing like me. I know that I’m not a ‘Druggie’ or a ‘Know all’ and so I do not want to be treated the way people treat these sort of youths. I know that this is sounding as though I am stereotyping but I am not, I am saying that people do put these groups under headings such as ‘Druggies’ and they then treat them different. I don’t want to be treated different by someone who does not know me and who is only going on what they think of youth overall.
People who place these assumptions on the youth of today are causing problems with the way the youths think they are perceived. If the youths think that people are against them, they may no longer see the point in trying their best, as they think it is pointless, nothing is going to change the way the rest of society see them. This may then cause more of society to think about the negative assumptions about youth rather than the positive ones.
It was also thought that adults, especially parents may have expectations of their children. That parents expect their children to up hold the same morals standard and values that they do. This may not always be the way, as some parents may want more for their children, while others may not really care what is happening to their children and the direction they are heading
towards. Adult expectations can then cause conflicts within families as there may be to much pressure on children to get a good job, to get married and to be successful and the children may feel that these expectations are to high and why can’t the parents just be happy with the child’s choice of direction in life.
Overall, there are both positive and negavite assumptions to be made about everyone. It just depends on whether people are going to believe them and even join in making the assumptions. As you can see, I’ve focused on more of the negative assumptions especially when writing about the impact these can have on youth. This is because the negative points are more obvious to people and youth should be able to handle the positive assumptions every now and then. As I’ve shown, negative ones only end up causing more problems and so should be left alone. If someone is going to come up with more negative assumptions, they should be kept to themselves, most of the youth in today’s society are doing their best to succeed and they do not need people telling them that they are going nowhere. They need positive encouragement, and this can not be in negative assumptions. So remember, if you meet a youth who is trying to succeed, help to encourage them and offer welcomed guidance rather than giving them a negative response.
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