youth stereotype

From an adults point of view here are some of the things they think we do for.

1. The Annoyance

 ‘Why do young people gravitate towards such ‘annoying’ activities? They are always loud – like skateboarding – or public – like hanging around outside. If only they would sit indoors and be quiet.’

2. The binge drinker or drug addict

‘Young people drinking moderately or being vaguely sensible about their life choices? Pah! As if. All of them drink way too much, have no boundaries, and want to flitter all of their parent’s hard-earned wages away on class A drugs.’

3. The drain on society

 ‘The reason behind the huge youth unemployment figures is simple: young people can’t be bothered. They are lazy and aren’t applying for the millions of jobs out there. If they would just try as hard as everyone else, there wouldn’t be a problem!’

4. The entrepreneurial go-getter

 ‘Young people being proactive and making their own opportunities? We are suspicious. Stick them on the Junior Apprentice and make them seem as silly and as arrogant as possible. That will prevent any young people out there getting any delusions of grandeur.

5. The exceptional super-achiever

‘Finally! A young person doing something truly exceptional. Let’s put them on a pedestal and raise them so high above the rest of their peers that their greatness will be completely unattainable to the average teen. That way everybody else will feel distinctly average and unexceptional.’

Copy and pasted: from source by Stanley Hall

Stanley Hall (1904):

 “ Adolescence is inherently a time of storm & stress when all young people go through some degree of emotional and behavioural upheaval, before establishing a more stable equilibrium at adulthood." Hall also argued that:
1. The common mood of teenagers is a state of depression.
2. Criminal activity increases between the ages of 12 & 24.
3. Young people are extreme and need excitement; “Youth must have excitement and if this is not at handin the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in; sex, drink or drugs.”

 Dick Hebdige (1988) argued youths are stereotyped as mixed metaphors of; “Youth as fun,” and “Youth as trouble maker.”