Youth Culture In The 1920's

The 1920’s flourished with new ways of living. The revolution of the automobile aided the rise and the creation of the American youth. Before the 1920’s there was no such thing as a ‘teenager’, and the typical young adult went to school for a short period of time and then began working to support the family. The 1920’s held a massive boom which created a surplus of everything. Surplus of food, jobs, and money created an age where leisure time was abundant, furthermore this leisure time allowed adolescents to get a better education, whether it be graduating middle school, high school, or even university. The enhanced schooling also allowed the adolescent to socialize with more students the same age, which created the massive fads of dancing, …show more content…
As the automobile was stimulating growth economically and in the family, it also aided and inspired the rise of the American teenager.
During the 1920’s the teenager was invented by the increase of socialization and thus created the inevitable rise of youth culture. Before the 1920’s there was no such thing as the ‘teenager’. The term teenager was created to describe the generation gap. “Teens were beginning to form their own distinct culture, separate and apart from both childhood and adulthood.” Youth culture greatly changed by reason of the influence of school, peers, and music. School created an environment to meet new people, the peers from high school influenced fads like music and …show more content…
The typical fads came from what friends have heard about and have done, and this influenced the masses in cycles. Peer groups were created throughout all high schools, these groups are now more commonly known as cliques. These peer groups and cliques were the groups of friends that would mainly hang out and party together on the weekends. Before the majority of youths went to high school, people would be judged and classified by the family’s social class, with schooling the judgements were based off of the different emerging cliques. These cliques have become the main tell of what class a teen was. These cliques have also taken over the social aspect of the teenager’s life. The adolescent formally would be noticed at social gatherings because of their parents, now the teenager will appear at events as a result of friends. Many youths met at after school activities and clubs. After school there were many different activities set up by the school, and then there were also somewhat underground parties hosted with alcohol, music, and closeness. Teens went out with one another without chaperons, and...experimented with sex at lovers ' lanes(...and petting parties..." The parties that were held were typically petting