Issues Faced by Young People Today Compared to Older Generations

This article discusses the issues faced by young people today compared to older generations. It covers topics such as communication gap, obesity, recession, and behavioral issues. The article also highlights the major differences between the two generations and the factors contributing to the differences.

Running head: ENGLISH
English
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction:
Teens of every generation are shaped by the political, social and economic events of that
specific era. Teenagers of this era are no different. However, due to rapid changes in the
technology and emergence of the internet, the generation gap between the older and the younger
people has got hugely amplified. It should be kept in mind that the young people living in the 21st
century can be considered as the first generation whose lives are saturated by mobile technology
as well as social media. While this factor as made this generation highly advanced in technology,
excessive inclination towards virtual world has adversely affected teenagers of this generation.
Background information:
A rapidly changing generation has also brought about huge changes in all aspects of life
including regular diet and professional life. Thus a huge difference can be evidenced if the
lifestyle of teenagers of this generation and that of the previous generation is compared. The
purpose of the project is to find out the issues faced by young people compared to that of the
older generation. The research question of the project is "What problems do young people today
face compared to older generations?”
Source work:
1. Carroll, Jennie, et al. Problems faced by the youth today. The youth of today has been
widely outclassed. February09, 2008; Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii
International Conference on. IEEE, 2018. www.dawn.com/news/965881
The above-mentioned article was published in the year 2008 and is written by Jennie Carrol
along with other authors. In this article, the author has depicted a range of issues that are faced

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by the students who reside in the modern world. According to the authors, teenager’s residing in
this generation faces more issues while dealing with their daily activities compared to the
teenagers of the older generation. The huge generation gap along with the rapidly changing
society is to be blamed for (Carroll). The communication gap between the young and the older
generation and lack of friendly and understanding attitude of the parents are major issues that are
making the new generation incapable of sharing their own thoughts and hence is encouraging
rudeness and disobedience. When it comes to teenagers who are poverty-stricken, illiteracy and
lack of appropriate jobs can be considered as two of the major issues. Another issue stated by the
author includes "Less attachment with politics is making the youth of this generation vulnerable
to be used in anti-social activities with false charms that lure them into active participation.” Last
but not the least, getting into an immature relationship and eventually getting affected by it
adversely is another major issue faced by youths of this generation. Considering the fact that my
concern is to find out the problems faced by the teenagers of this generation compared to the
older generation, this article has the potential to provide me with the necessary information
required for this project.
2. Sharlene Gale S. and Graeme Codington, Facing the Youth in the 21st Century. May
1999.pp.1- 133. www.researchgate.net/publication/301647194
The above-mentioned article was written I the year 1999 by Sharlene Gale and Graeme
Codington. The two authors wrote the book in regard to the challenges faced by the children in
the modern world just as compared to the older generation. According to the author, a major
issue which is faced by youths of this generation compared to the older generation is high

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obesity. Considering the fact that obesity is a major crisis in this era, the article will provide me
with the opportunity to focus on this specific issue in the literature review section of my project.
In this article, the author has stated that unlike the youths of this generation, order generation
during their youth had easy access to natural food products which in turn, ensure good health. In
contrary, youths of this generation have greater access to junk foods which leads them to obesity
(Sharlene, Gale and Graeme). It can be understood that this article is supporting the issues
related to obesity has been stated in the previous article. However, this article has also pointed
out the issues that have not been discussed in the previous article. For instance, the article stated
that according to a good number of elder individual, " young people are functionally bible
literate. They don't memorize scripture like we did in the older days." This statement was not
agreed upon by the researcher and he argued that "why should one spend time in memorizing
when hand-held computers contain easy reference word search bible concordance in a multiple
of versions".
3. Madhukar published in Test big site in the year December
2013.https://www.testbig.com/ielts-essays/some-people-feel-young-people-face-more-
pressure-today-equivalent-age-groups-did>. [Accessed on 20th June 2018]. 2018
The abovementioned article was published in the year 2013. In the chief argument of this
article is that unemployment, change in the social trends and emergence of new diseases are
main problems of the present generation. According to the author, the life of teenagers of this
generation is much more hectic compared to the older generation. Thus this article has guided me
to identify the several factors that enhance or pressurize the teenagers. I also realized that in
order to make the life of young people easier, these issues need to be eradicated. The rate of
unemployment is higher in this era compared to that of the previous generation. The author , in

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this article, has pointed out the fact that the due to enhancement in the total population, young
people of this generation faces more much more competitive compared to the competition faced
by the older generation when they were young. High competition rate along with social as well
as financial pressure makes the teenagers feel more pressurized and this, in turn, give birth to
several health issues and excessive inclination of the teenagers towards the virtual world.
Considering the fact that this specific issue has not been discussed in other articles, I will be able
to include information gathered from this article in my literature review section.
4. Thompson, D. “Are Today's Youth Really a Lost Generation?” Business. (22 Sep. 2011):
n.pag. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/are-todays-youth-really-a-
lost-generation/245524/ .16 June 2018.
The above-mentioned article was published in the year 2011 and was written by Derek
Thompson. The chief concern of the article is that more economic and social stress among young
generation ruins their moral values. Not only has that excessive stress in the teenage often made
it difficult for the teenagers to stay with their parents. The author, in his article, has argued that
teenagers of this era belong to the lost generation (Thompson). Several reasons have been
provided in this article in order to support the argument of the author. For instance, the author
has pointed out that while the recession is a temporary wealth crisis for an older individual,
“generation Y” is more concerned about their financial stability in the future that may be affected
by the recession. The author stated that, unlike the previous generation, the graduates belong to
an unlucky generation, here they are earning 10 percent less than what was earned by an
individual of the previous generation who has left school. The author also pointed out that "youth

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of this generation is stuck in the race between education and the twin forces of technology and
globalization.” He stated that even if the recession ends, Youths who lack educational attainment
and technological skills will not be able to earn their livelihood due to globalization resulting in
high competition. Considering the fact that all these issues were not faced by the older
generation, I will be able to support my position in the project with the help of this article.
5. Richard, Fry. Ruth, Igielnik and Eileen, Patten. “How Millennials today compare with
their grandparents 50 years ago.” Factank. (2009):
n.pag. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/16/how-millennials-compare-with-
their-grandparents/ . 16 June 2018
The aim of the article is to compare the millennial to the silent generation youth. The aim of
the author is to establish the fact that there prevails a huge amount of differences between the
young generation of today and that of the yesterday. In order to prove his argument, the author
has stated several factors like how the millions are more detached from the institution of region,
politics, marriages and military compared to the previous generation (Richard, Ruth and Eileen).
The author s in this article has pointed out the fact that unlike the previous generation, youths
who belong to this generation are more educated. Especially when it comes to the position of
women in the society, women of this era are much more educated and independent compared to
that of the previous era. Moreover, unlike the previous generation, youths of this generation
prefer late marriage since they want to implement their time and effort in order to gain a stable
lifestyle. Lastly, due to technological advantages, majority youths of these generations live in
metropolitan areas.

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Unlike the other articles, this article has not concentrated its information about the issues
faced by the teenagers of this generation. Instead of that, this article has pointed out the
differences between the two generations which will help me to provide a more rigid structure for
my project.
6. Greatergood.berkeley.edu. "How Teens Today Are Different From Past Generations."
Greater Good. N.p., 2018.
Web.19June2018.https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_teens_today_are_dif
ferent_from_past_generations
The above-mentioned article was published in the year 2018. The article has been written by
Diana Divecha and the authenticity of the article can be attributed on account of the fact that she
is a Ph. D scholar as well as a research affiliate at Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. In this
article, the author has presented the self-centeredness of the youths of this generation which
make it highly difficult for them to assimilate in the society. Unlike the previous generation,
teenagers of this era are highly confident about themselves and lack the competence of listening
to the opinions of other individuals (Greatergood.berkeley.edu). The author pointed out the
financial crisis to be the major reason behind the demoralization of today's youth. In his article,
the author stated that unlike the older generation, this generation is suffering from major
financial crisis due to the recession. This factor has demoralized them and as a result of this
teenager of this era not aware of any kind of moral reasoning outside themselves. Unlike the
other5 articles, this article has taken a different approach and have concentrated on the
behavioral issues of the youths and the reasons behind these issues instead of focusing on the
problems suffered by them in general.

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that youths living in this era undergo
several issues that were not faced by the previous generation. All the 6 article agrees with the
fact that life of youths in this era of completion, globalization, technological advancement and
recession is much tougher compared to the youth of the previous generation. Light has been shed
on the issues faced by teenagers due to a huge communication gap between them and the older
individual. Along with that, the issue of obesity faced by the younger generation has also been
depicted. Moreover, recession and its effects on the younger generation and how high social and
economic stress has enhanced the stress level of the younger generation as a result of which the
moral values of the teenagers have deteriorated have been discussed. The major differences
between the two generations and the factors contributing to the differences have been discussed.
It has been found that younger generation is much more educated and less likely to get married
early in contrast to the previous generation. The fact that the young generation has developed
several negative values which are making them socially incompatible is another crucial
information that has been found through the discussion. Finally, it can be said that in order to
reduce the generation gap between the two generations and to eradicate the issue, the
government, older as well as an elder generation should work together.

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Reference List
Carroll, J., et al. Problems faced by the youth today. “The youth of today has been widely
outclassed” Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on IEEE (2008)
Sharlene, Gale S. and Graeme C., Facing the Youth in the 21st Century (1999): 1- 133.
"IELTS Essays" Testbig.com, (2018)
Greatergood.berkeley.edu. "How Teens Today Are Different From Past Generations." Greater
Good (2018)
Thompson, D. “Are Today's Youth Really a Lost Generation?” Business (2011)
Richard, F, Ruth, I. and Eileen, P. “How Millennials today compare with their grandparents 50
years ago.” Frac tank (2009