Anthem for a "dont give a damn youth"

A few days ago I raised a point about the dearth of teen rebels, ardent, angry activists challenging convention and the status quo. It concerns me because I believe that teen rebellion, both in terms of personal emotional development and for its cultural and political impact, is a critical part of a healthy evolving society.

It’s a fine balance to strike but surely without rebellion, in all its forms, society would stagnate. Imagine a society of teenage acceptance, indifference and apathy.

But I am worried that is happening. Besides the teenage ranks of radical Islam, where are today’s other adolescent apostates, radicals and rebels? Ok, in fashion, music and art, enfant terribles still emerge, but what of politics?

Is western society breeding a generation of politically indifferent clones? I sense we are and I’ve been wondering what’s causing this “don’t give a damn youth”?

Well here’s my simple personal view.

Reason One: Dearth of discipline

I think it fair to say that most teenagers resent discipline and resist it. Today I think we are witnessing a dearth of discipline and without it we are loosing its critical multilayered social-psychological effect on teenagers.

Without wanting to sound Python-esque – when I was lad, my teachers instilled fear, loathing and respect in equal measures, Classroom caricatures them all, these draconian, thumping, humourless guardians of social values, my teachers were the voice, face and iron fist of convention. Their rigid discipline, uncompromising and sometimes brutal, ensured that no one dare reason, question or debate their way, wisdom or words.
Through discipline, teachers instilled emotions of healthy festering, grudging embryonic anger that, for me, matured into my very personal teen rebellion.  However, along the way I still learned important values; respect, courtesy and consideration, that in turn counter-balanced my rebellion.

I look around today and can’t see this discipline and without this discipline what is there to resent and rebel against. Little. I fear our educational system is institutionalising indifference.  Flexible, listening and debating toothless teachers may be teaching but unable to instil discipline. Without this our apprentice rebels have no institutional totem to rebel against.

Reason Two.  Too impoverished.
Today’s impoverished youth lack neither food nor comfort. Far from it, the problem is the opposite. They have too much.
What they lack is time. Well to be more precise, time being bored, the sense of being ignored, forgotten, un-catered for, lacking attention by a world belonging to a generation who don’t “get it” has all but evaporated.
Like no other generation today’s teens have the perfect tools to rebel. With the information and communication power of computers and mobiles in their hands its ironic that they don’t. But its no surprise, for these networked teens have too many forms of entertainment to divert them. Our teens are connected, entertained and empowered. What is there to rebel against? Society suits them and this leads to the third reason.

The third reason; Brands.

Teens are the Holy Grail and they know it, they, the youth market. Brands pursue them with relentless conviction and invest billions to woo them.
Youth marketing lavishes youth with attention. Through advertising, products, events, promotions and incentives, they have become the centre of their own world, worshipped and wooed by brands. Again, what is there to rebel against? If anything brands design next seasons line of rebellion and they buy it.

So back to my point of about the mobile cell phone network. One of my old creative directors wrote a neat line that expressed mobility and used it in a pitch for Vodafone (we lost it).  “The further technology takes us, the closer the technology keeps us”… he was taking about our personal world, business, friends and family etc. I thing he was wrong, technology’s real benefit is not about maintaining virtual proximity and presence, it’s about personalisation. 

In the UK, 02, the cell network, get this. They have been running a campaign called “ Let your world revolve around you” It’s personalisation personified and this rather innocuous, but beautifully filmed campaign, captures the essence of our generation of lost rebels. They are too caught up in their own world to spot an injustice (other than their own).  They have a cause; it’s their lives.  And this campaign is the anthem for our dont give a damn youth

Maybe we need to rebel against this insidious trend?

Comments

[Catherine]

Provocative thinking indeed. I want to disagree, to stand up and insist that today's youth are as fired up and rebellious as ever, but in looking at the evidence, well, wearing jeans that show off one's arse and undies isn't enough to convince me...