Who are you, to tell me, who I am?
False stereotypes society portrays teenagers as
January 12, 2015
Society takes one look at me, and I automatically get labeled as your stereotypical teenager, a whore, obnoxious, a ‘druggie’, reckless, irresponsible, lazy, and selfish. Just a few words kids recently stated in a survey taken, they have been called or society has portrayed them as.
Over the years we as a society have painted a picture that, that’s exactly how every teenager in the world seems to be. We don’t care about our future and where we are going, we don’t know what responsibility is, or how to act, we just do whatever we please, when and where ever. We’ve been told things have been handed to us, we got it easy, and we don’t have to work as hard or as much as our parents or grandparents, were told were ungrateful and spoiled brats.
75% of the student taken the survey marked that they think society gives teenagers a bad reputation, and 50 % say that they felt once in their life time they have actually ever ‘lived up’ to one of the stereotypes.
All these labels and they wonder why we get mad, frustrated and give up. Yes, there are teenagers in this world who are like that, who feel entitled, who live up to the ‘stereotypical teenager,’ but not all of us are like that. Not all of us don’t care, not all of us go out and party it up, hook-up at parties, or are selfish, and don’t know how to take on a little bit of responsibility.
It gets frustrating when I’m told my generation is just lazy or ignorant and selfish. I look at myself, my friends, student body, and society has no idea what some of us go through, and have to deal with. There are kids who have one parent, or no parent at all and live with distant family members. There are kids who need to work to help play bills, or need to take care of siblings because mom and dad have to work. There are kids who don’t want to go home, because there’s nothing there for them. There are kids who stay after school for an extra 2+ hours, because what’s easy to some kids it 10x harder for them.
Yes, there are kids who are lazy, entitled and ignorant; but because of a few, now all of us teenagers are like that? Or because one kid decides to do nothing with their life, and be a couch potato, all hope is lost for the rest of us? Because a few girls dress less than the average, all of us are whores and have no self-respect? Because of a few hundred kids, out of the millions out there, you all think less of us, and who we really are?
The thing is, I think society forgets that, once upon a time in a land far, far away you were us. You were a teenager going through the exact same things, the problems we face, the struggles we go through. So now that its 20 years later, and you have kids of your own, your better than us? When who we are, is just a reflection of you were.
We never look at the good teenagers do, we always have to pinpoint the bad that only a few do, and label the rest of the teenagers in the world like that. But even then we don’t take time to know and try to understand the hardships some kids go through, we just automatically assume they’re trouble, or don’t care. It’s been proven that false stereotypes about teenagers, only hurts them, and their possible future. To read more on the effects of society’s criticism click the link below:
