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We’re too fond of bemoaning teenagers, claiming that they have it easy compared to the previous generation. People said the same thing to me when I was a kid. They may not have mortgage and rent problems to worry about, but they certainly have a lot to deal with.
The truth is that technology has altered and shaped society far quicker than any of us could have predicted. Where most of us grew up cosseted and protected from harmful stimuli such as drugs and pornography, our children can be exposed to these influential experiences at any age.
What hasn’t changed to help us to adjust to this barrage of sensory overload, is the delicate biology responsible for transitioning a child’s brain into an adult one. The teenage years are traumatic for most individuals, both physically and mentally in terms of raging hormones, physical maturation and a whole raft of conflicting emotions to navigate.
Yes, we all went through this and survived admirably, but we didn’t have the additional pressures of the all-pervasive nature of social media bearing down on us at the time. To add to the misery of conforming to certain physical standards and social statuses, adolescents are pushed through rote learning exercises to prepare them for the constricting social hierarchies of the average workplace.