A Detailed Analysis of the Challenges for Young People Growing Up

This essay delves into the multifaceted challenges confronting young people in the 21st century, examining the influence of upbringing, a rapidly changing world, and various socio-economic factors. It highlights the impact of parental involvement, technological advancements, globalization, and economic shifts on youth development. The essay explores how the lack of parental guidance, coupled with exposure to technology and social media, contributes to behavioral issues and strained family relationships. Furthermore, it addresses the challenges posed by demographic changes, economic hardships, and the ever-evolving job market, where automation and mechanization are displacing traditional employment opportunities. The essay concludes by urging young people to embrace available opportunities, overcome family struggles, and pursue success through hard work, extracurricular activities, and mentorship from experienced individuals, while also recognizing the importance of family support in navigating these complex challenges.

Topic
What are the challenges for young people growing up these days?

Introduction
Today we shall be looking into the challenges that do face youths as they are growing up in the
21st century. We shall be able to carry out in three main themes which are
1. Youths and the way they are brought up.
2. Growing up in a challenging world
3. The ever-changing world
We shall be able to see how these three factors have influenced the growth of the youth and how
they influence the lives of the youths.
1. Youths and the way they are brought up.
Growing up in the modern world has proved to be challenging to most of the youths. This is due
to lack of parental presence in the family who would always offer the required guidance. Parents
forms the basis of knowledge to the kids since they are the very only figure who have been by
their side as they have been growing up, as such they develop a special bond towards them and
are ready to listen to their instructions. According to Bailey (2011) parents on the other side have
to sacrifice a lot for these kids right away from birth until they are adults let’s say the age of 21
where they can be completely independent and able to provide for themselves. Since the kids
requires a lot of attention and care, which cannot be provided by just staying in the house,
parents are always on lookout for jobs of which some of these jobs demands a lot of time which
makes parents to loss grips with their kids and are in darkness of what is going on in their life
whenever they are out of their sight. At school, some kids are faced with challenges in making
decisions by their own after they realize of the difference in the background and social class as
compared to their peers.
Some of the kids are handled with much care and offered better living conditions as they are
provided with everything luxurious life that they need which at times tends to be too hot to be
able to hold. This may turn out messy to the kids who would end up spoiling themselves with
bad company and drug addicts (Pearce 2005). The other class is the class poor background kids.
They are motivated by a phrase of a better future but lives in anguish poverty and at times they
go hungry and have to be contented with tattered clothes which psychologically torments them

(Field 2010). Finally, we have the middle-class families who doesn’t lack neither do they have a
lot in store. They just live the moment but with hope that tomorrow will be better that today.
2. Growing up in a challenging world
The 21st youth generation faces lots of challenges as compared to the previous generations. They
are faced with lots of dilemma and difficult situation in their day to day activities. Some of these
challenges include;
Technological changes: Technology have brought with it good things as well as bad vices.
Introduction of robots and mechanization of industries have eaten up lots of job slots that could
have been otherwise been for the unskilled youth. on the blighter side, it has also opened up
other job opportunities but only for those who are educated, as such, quench for education has
increased for a person to place him/herself among the top cream who fill those minimum white
color job slots. On the other side, according to Frost (2006) availability of internet and
smartphones has created lots of introvert’s youths. They find gadgets easy to interact with
creating themselves a world of their own where they feel comfortable without being disturbed
which they refer to it as “nagging”. This has widened the gap between the parent and the child
souring the family relationship. You can imagine a situation whereby a parent comes home from
work in the evening after being out the whole day only to come and find his/her kid on a smart
phone, upon arrival, the kid goes and locks him/herself in the room. In that case, there will be no
communication between the parents and the kids.
Demographic change: Brought about by disintegration of tradition culture in which kids
belonged to the society. When a kid was found on wrong, anybody older was right to punish the
kid. In today set-up, there are rights that protects children from being “caned” and only need to
be “talked” to. It is understandable that the right helps in minimizing cases pertaining corporal
punishment but at the same time kids need to be disciplined at some instance. This has brought
about the feeling of “I don’t care” among youths and only heeds to the advices from their peers,

as a result they there is moral disintegration which at many times leads to antisocial behaviors.
Most youth have migrated up countries away from their parents and are unable to hold well onto
the freedom that they have at tertiary institutions and also at high schools. They misuse that
freedom and engage into mischievous behaviors that are out of order.
Globalization: It has brought the whole world into our hands and now one can be able to know
what is happening globally in a very short period of time Giddens (2002). Availability of
network has made that possible since anything can be browsed on a one sitting in a cyber café.
Youths can be able to access various news from politics, entertainment, sports and economy.
They have a wide variety of thing to view but at the same time they can easily turn that cyber
into a den of vices. They have no one to take them through what is good and by that they may
end up choosing the wrong thing.
Economical changes brought about by inflation of the global market has greatly affected family
way of life. Financial hardships may lead to harsh economic burden which makes it impossible
for parents to sustain their kids as they are supposed to. Some of the kids have been provided
with more than enough which poses a challenge on the way they utilize the excess money they
have gained from their parents. If they are not wise enough they may end up using them in drug
addiction. There is a lot of unemployment and the number is increasing day by day globally. This
hardship frustrates young generation who at timed may view working hard in school as a waste
of time as they would end up unemployment which makes them to give up on life easily and at
an early age.
3. The ever-changing world of work
As mentioned earlier, manual work in the industries is being replace by automation of services
and use of machines which work with more precision and for a long time without getting tired.
Companies prefers mechanization since it increases level of production while minimizing cost of
production, thus little job slots that remain in the industries are to be occupied by the ever-
increasing group of learned fellows fresh from tertiary institutions. Only the best of the best will
qualify for the job available for grab. This poses a lot of danger to those with low level of

education (Prout 2005). Even if many companies comes into existence, with mechanization
being possible the number of those to be employed will always be very low as compared to fresh
graduates coming flocking in the employment industry right away from the tertiary institutions.
21st century is an era whereby there is an outcry of gender equality, youth empowerment and a
total inclusivity in any kind of job within the government or private sectors. Youths are being
called upon to wake up and fight for political positions which was not the case before. They are
given funds and it is upon them to showcase what they can offer to the world. This is a better
platform for them to prove their wits in political arena, management, and in business industries.
They should learn from their predecessors and ask for guidance from the elderly prowess in their
field so as to gain much required wisdom instead of wasting the wealth they have with
entertainment and fashions. They are also encouraged to take up any opportunity that manifests
itself and walk should high in quench for the much-needed success.
Conclusion
In conclusion, despite that the 21st century is a much challenging battle field for the youths, they
should learn to embrace the opportunities that have been brought before them. Even though they
never had the very best during their time of growth, they should always remember that family is
the backbone of every straight forward individual. They should overcome the hoodoo of the
family struggle and work hard with lot of zeal and passion for success since nothing good comes
with a silver platter. Engaging into other extracurricular activities will help them overcome the
urge of indulging into criminal activities and they may as well use their skill as a source of
livelihood instead of depending upon employment. Sports field have proved to be earning a lot
and only youths with that capability and energy to engage in field activities such as football,
athletics, tennis among others.

References
Bailey, R., (2011). Letting children be children: Report of an independent review of the
commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood (Vol. 8078). The Stationery Office.
Pearce, S., 2005. You wouldn't understand: White teachers in multiethnic classrooms. Trentham
Books.
Field, F. (2010) The Foundation Years: Preventing Poor Children Becoming Poor Adults, The
report of the Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances. London: Cabinet Office.
Frost, J.L., (2006), May. The dissolution of children’s outdoor play: Causes and consequences.
In Common Good Conference (Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 1-26).
Giddens, A. (2002) Runaway World: how globalisation is re-shaping our lives. London: Profile
Books. Chapter 1 Globalisation (digitised on WOLF)
Prout (2005) Chapter 1: Changing childhood in a globalizing world