A recent review of the five consequent generations and their stereotypical labels shows interesting results. In the media, Generation Y, aka Generation Me, (born 1975-1995) is known as “a group of spoiled brats” (Kitt 2013, p. 73). Arguably, technology helped shape these people into a society of connection, impatient and ambitious. However, this generation is also highly educated and ethnically diverse, which is a good thing. In contrast, the Greatest Generation, aka G.I. Generation (1901-1925) is now canonized as the generation of willpower. However, in the 1930s, they were regarded as automobile-racing people with low morals, drinking, smoking and going to cabarets, or, “Generation of lazy youths roaming nation” (Kitt 2013, p. 74). The Silent
…show more content…
What is scientifically proved to be getting worse is ephebiphobia, can be explained that the fear of youth. Byron (2009) calls this phenomenon “ephebiphobic culture” and says that it originates from bias and fear of the parents that their children will become troublemakers in the assumedly dangerous social environment of the modern times. The author argues that parents often fail to see the potential of their children, as well as of the new, contemporary world with all its opportunities. Consequently, parents become overprotective and restraining, which only harms young people since they see such protection acts as acts of hostility and misunderstanding. The trend expands from parents to all adults who play the roles of peers for children and young people, including teachers and even employers. As a result, the whole ‘adult’ part of society adopts these harmful beliefs and falls victim to the fear of youth. According to Byron (2009), youth is “blocked by a society that discriminates against youth and so reduces the participation of upcoming generations in the development of the social and cultural landscape”. Evidently, ephebiphobia is not a myth but a contemporary fact that is even more harmful than the assumption that modern generation is more reckless than the old one. When condemnation turns into fear, the idea of youth’s misbehavior turns into an obsessive adult bias regarding
What is scientifically proved to be getting worse is ephebiphobia, can be explained that the fear of youth. Byron (2009) calls this phenomenon “ephebiphobic culture” and says that it originates from bias and fear of the parents that their children will become troublemakers in the assumedly dangerous social environment of the modern times. The author argues that parents often fail to see the potential of their children, as well as of the new, contemporary world with all its opportunities. Consequently, parents become overprotective and restraining, which only harms young people since they see such protection acts as acts of hostility and misunderstanding. The trend expands from parents to all adults who play the roles of peers for children and young people, including teachers and even employers. As a result, the whole ‘adult’ part of society adopts these harmful beliefs and falls victim to the fear of youth. According to Byron (2009), youth is “blocked by a society that discriminates against youth and so reduces the participation of upcoming generations in the development of the social and cultural landscape”. Evidently, ephebiphobia is not a myth but a contemporary fact that is even more harmful than the assumption that modern generation is more reckless than the old one. When condemnation turns into fear, the idea of youth’s misbehavior turns into an obsessive adult bias regarding