Misconceptions About Youth
Many times young people are blamed for problems that are much more ingrained in society than is thought. They are usually attributed to his immaturity and young age, to his lack of experience in life in general. Unfortunately, lots of misconceptions about youth circulate.
The great French poet Victor Hugo said that “ in the eyes of the young man the flame burns; in those of the old man the light shines ”. But, of course, there is not always light in the eyes of older people, just as the flame that ignites the energy in young people is not negative in all circumstances.
Why are there so many misconceptions about youth
Today, the attitude and behavior of young people are topics that are much discussed. The conclusions reached are usually quite negative, above all, the conception of carefree and valueless adolescents prevails. Now, we forget the influences of education and the examples of their elders.
If parents and social actors have not been sufficiently concerned with the education of young people, what can you expect? It is not a good idea for instructional and educational work to fall into the hands of the media or the Internet. However, we cannot hold parents and educators responsible for this situation either, since in all circumstances there is always a confluence of factors that intervene to obtain this result.
Cuban psychologist Manuel Calviño has a very interesting article related to this topic entitled Fallacies of youth , in his work Vale la pena. Written with psychology. Through it, it invites us to reflect on the amount of falsehoods that, purportedly or not, are spilled on our young people.
It is true that we can hold them responsible for some circumstances, but it is not possible for them to bear all the penalties for whatever happens. Therefore, it is important to know what are the most widespread misconceptions about youth. Here we explain some of them.
Not all young people are the same
This is one of the misconceptions about youth that Calviño comments on in his book. No two young people are the same, that is why they cannot all be judged equally. The fact that a boy acts without thinking and without measuring the consequences of his actions, does not imply that another, others or all act in the same way.
If we judge and then generalize those behaviors to all young people, we are making a mistake. A boy may be more impulsive and reckless due to his age, but isn’t it the same with a large number of adults and older people?
Perhaps a young person is able to risk more because he thinks he has time to fix it if it goes wrong, but not all. Although that attitude may be understandable. Now, if he is an adult, he is no longer so, because he is attributed experience, knowledge, education and the calm that age offers.
Young people are only motivated by fun
It is true that a good number of young people are highly motivated by partying, dancing or having fun. But isn’t it also true that you are at an age where you must experience the world for yourself ?
Getting together with friends and going out is normal in youth. Now, it’s not true that revelry is the only thing that motivates kids. Many of them show great inclination for art, culture, knowledge. ..
In fact, whenever a young person feels challenged, he tends to show his intelligence and efficiency. They show that they can be passionate about what really attracts them. It is not true that they only focus on the party.
Young people don’t appreciate what they have
This is another one of the misconceptions about youth. They are associated with people who are ungrateful, carefree, and who never settle. In addition, the conviction of many adults who affirm that they only want to appear is added.
However, young boys are not usually the most hypocritical in today’s societies. If they receive something that they do not like or find no use for, they say it openly. Actually, aren’t we talking about an exercise in honesty? And, furthermore, don’t we instill in them as children the importance of always telling the truth?
They are also often attacked for being nonconformists and getting into arguments. But, if from a young age we educate them to be sincere and defend their beliefs, isn’t it logical for them to answer, discuss, become passionate and define themselves? The problem is not so much the content but the way to express that content. And the latter, we cannot generalize it only with young people. It is rather a matter of very personal education.
As we can see, Manuel Calviño hits the nail on the head with many of the misconceptions about youth that, sometimes even unintentionally, many of us have internalized. This is not to say that they don’t make mistakes, of course they do, like all of us. It is age, they want to test their abilities and put them to the limit. Like it more or less, it’s your time to experiment.
