To Be Young

“To be young it’s attractive, explosion of hormones, sexy and healthy”. We went through a video in the class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ_0EhqIPko. It’s about teenagers and teen generations from the 60s to the time now. I found the video very inspiring so I decided to write about it and I picked some phrases that I think are interesting.

Teenagers have been classified in three different groups. First are the “Baby Boomers”, who were born in the 40s and 50s. They were the first ones when people started to see that you don’t jump straight from being a kid to an adult - that there actually is adolescence between childhood and adulthood. People started to notice that there were certain things that kind of “belonged” to teenagers, like for example rock’n’roll music. It’s been said that Baby Boomers went through a lot of different changes and they invented the famous “Youth Life Style”. That’s why they were called the “Liberated Youth”.

After Baby Boomers was “Generation X”. Born in the 60s and 70s, they enjoyed the rights of Baby Boomers. They took control of their own individualities – they were the bosses of their bedrooms. Generation X has been called also the “Competitive Youth”. In part of the video there was a guy who said: “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” I think this phrase is really good too. Sometimes you just have to stop and simply think what you are doing. Otherwise you can see yourself wishing your time away. And later, you will regret it.

Today’s teenagers are called “Millenials”. So, it basically means us. It’s been said that Millenials have taken control of the world through the internet, that’s why they are also called “Global Youth”, “Generation Y/G/WE” or “Digital Youth”. Because the internet connects people all round the world, it’s one big thing in everybody’s life. Nowadays you just can’t run away from the world. It’s just not possible. Information spreads in a few seconds from one side of the world to the other. If something happens it’s usually in the news in the same day that it came up. In the video they said that it’s typical for Millenials to use “hyperbolic languages to express themselves” and then they showed a clip of a really crazy teen in his bedroom jumping around, and I think it is a little bit exaggeration. Anyone who I know really doesn’t do that. But I don’t know maybe in America…:D Nowadays young people are much more realistic and tolerant. And it’s natural for them to start up with something and end up doing something else.

My friends and I

We had some Singaporean students visiting our school for one week. It’s great to meet other people of our age from another side of the world. And they are not so different than us. They go to school as well, do sports, have hobbies, listen to music, see friends and just do this “teenage stuff” that I guess all youth does. Well of course life on the other side of the world is different too, the climate and the culture for example. In Singapore, they aren’t allowed to have jewelry (only small earrings and a watch) or make up. Unlike in Finland, they have school uniforms, long hair has to be tied and they have to pay for school food. And it’s a little more expensive in Finland than in Singapore. Singapore is one big city itself and the population is the same as in whole Finland but it’s only the same size as Helsinki.  I think the language seems funny because the official language in Singapore is English, but some people put Chinese words in the end of the sentences like “How are you cha?” (or something like that). That is called Singlish. But everybody doesn’t talk like that. In Singapore many people are from the neighboring countries and keep up their own traditions. That’s why there are so many languages spoken in Singapore and people have roots from many other countries. The most spoken languages in Singapore are Chinese, Malay and Indian, but there are people from Europe too (Asian people call Europeans Caucasian).

Hema and I

I think it’s awesome to be a teen. You’re so free to do anything. It feels like everything is possible and the world is open to new ideas. “If you want to understand the world, you have to understand the teenagers.” Well, it’s been said that we teenagers make the world; we’re the upcoming adults who are going to decide about the future. And “Young people represent new languages and behaviors.” I think this is true too, the world is globalizing all the time.

I will finish with an apt line from the video: “If you already think that you know enough and your place in the world, well congratulations, you are officially dead.”

Anna V.