5 minute read
Understanding Today's Youth
What’s With the Youth of Today?
by Dr Ani Wierenga
So what’s up with young people? To even begin to understand the answers to this question, it is important to consider how the world is changing, the forces of uncertainty and how we do community.
The 21st century can be a tough time to grow up. Many of our leaders and popular media tend to have extremely simplistic responses to the challenges that face our young people: judging, blaming, and dividing.
In this article, sociologist and youth researcher Dr Ani Wierenga calls out to Supernal’s readers to take a different position. Could we instead observe the changes around young people, to move beyond knee-jerk reactions and controversy and ‘watch with our third eye and listen with our inner ear’. She invites readers to stand in solidarity with young people, and to work with them, as communities, towards more generous public commentaries, and more creative solutions.
Uncertainty
Today’s young people are growing up facing huge uncertainties - personally, locally and globally. The 21st century can be recognised as a time of growing uncertainty. The uncertainty is personal - ‘What is my future?’- it is communal - ‘Who are my people?’ and it is global - ‘What are the futures for our planet?’ The certainties that belonged to earlier generations are disappearing fast, with research showing this correlating to high levels of stress and anxiety.
The effects of uncertainty on the youth of today
In Australia, as in many Western countries, statistics show young people’s mental health problems are on the rise and suicide is one of our biggest killers. We are seeing indicators of stress in our education systems, with over quarter of high-school aged young people not attending school, and another quarter saying they do not belong there. Polls show record levels of young people reporting loss of hope about the future. It is small wonder when we hear statistics such as The Foundation For Young
Australians’ research identifying that most of the jobs they are training for will soon be gone. Other research signals that animal species are disappearing rapidly and global warming is happening at an alarmingly quick pace.
It is harder for young people who face their challenges alone, unsupported by family and friends, or supported by family and friends who are themselves feeling over-stretched. As the institutions on which our parents and their parents depended, like stable workplaces, clubs, extended kin, fade from their earlier place in society, the generations are becoming more isolated from each other and, for many, support networks become increasingly scarce.
Facing uncertainties is something people can tackle, together. To do this means we have to be intentional about finding better ways of collaborating across generations. Seeking new ways to connect, particularly across difference - class, gender, race, ethnic groups, religion, and ability - is going to take a lot of will, patience and creative effort.
Yet we know that many Supernal readers will already be involved in this kind of transformational work. The wake-up calls are getting louder
Part of what is happening on many fronts, as I write, is that more people are waking up to the reality that we are all deeply interconnected. That is, globally we are connected economically, socially, spiritually and ecologically. Every headline now seems to reinforce this message; when we create poverty, we will have to fortress against crime; where we create war, people are displaced and they will be at our door. Where we destroy life and abuse water, our very own food supplies will disappear. As the old adage says, what happens for one of us will affect us all. In the West, for a long time we have been able to deny this, but the time is approaching when we will have to reckon with the realities. And the realities are facing our young first, as they face their uncertain futures. Towards more creative solutions.
Research with young people provides multiple ideas about better ways for working together. One way of thinking about solutions is repeated across a series of studies from the Youth Research Centre at the University of Melbourne about young people’s wellbeing, learning and social participation. The three areas for attention are these:
1. Find the stories of meaning and purpose. As wise philosophers like Victor Frankl have taught us, when people have hope and purpose they can put up with tough times and incredible hardship. But it takes people to listen, for young people to learn to tell a story. A story about who I am, what I do and what matters to me, can be unlocked when a young person finds they are good at something – anything – and able to achieve a goal. For adults and by-standers the direction is clear: find an interest, a hobby, a skill or a passion, find an ember and make it a flame. Find a flame and make it a fire. To care about something, to be about something in the world provides energy for living and for hope.
2. Building a sense of control and capability. In the West, for the young, we have tended to think about this task very simply as being about workskills and economic stability but that is only part of the picture. In conditions of globalisation and automation, where work is so changeable, this can only be recognised as part of the answer, and people will need more to keep them going through the tough times. We need to reprioritise learning for life. Especially now, educational research points to the growing importance of so-called ‘soft skills’; the human skills that are transferrable, like creativity, lateral thinking and negotiation. This is important. Decision making is itself an important skill. Education – learning – needs to involve both input and active reflection.
Meanwhile research into young people’s spirituality shows that both ritual and traditions can be helpful for finding a sense of moral compass, capability, control and order in one’s life, offering both simple actions and pause to reflect, to take stock of where one is. It is worth thinking about the traditions that might involve them and support them, as well as making space for their own spiritual expression.
