Disturbing Trends

Editorial:-

Teenage, for all the joie-de-vivre we associate with this phase of growing up, is also among the most complex years. Even as hormones play havoc during these years, peer pressure accentuates the rebellious streak that is only natural given the growing awareness of youth. This is the age when they start noticing things, understanding implications and learning the ropes of life. Although parental pressure to keep them on the right track is ill-advised [remember the rebellious streak], it is equally disastrous for parents to distance themselves too far from the children. A delicate balance has to be struck and no matter how complicated this might sound, parents have been striking the right balance for centuries now. The current generation in that phase, however, with the breaking down of the joint-family system and the increasing incidence of working parents, the two generations are finding lesser and lesser time for each other. The generation gap is about communication and although we live in the information age, communication between generations has become even more sparse. Its fallouts are obvious. With no answers forthcoming from the elders for the millions of questions that crowd their minds, the youth settle for their own explanations, work out their own reactions to situations and chart their own course. Although no one denies them the intelligence to do so, the shortage of understanding adults who can advise them better, often leads them ‘astray’. Rather disturbing trends have already begun manifesting. The more notorious criminals in Sikkim in recent years – ‘Spiderman’ and the duo behind the Gangtok double-murder of a few years ago took to crime while still in their teens. And it is not crime that is harming them, too many young are also ending their own lives, the most recent case being a 19 year old who hanged himself on the eve of school reopening earlier this week in remote South Sikkim. Addiction remains a worry and the induction age into drugs grows ever younger. Empathy is not being allowed to grow and a society is at risk of having superficiality celebrated. These are not normal youthful behavior; these are not youthful pranks… these are disturbing trends. It is all too easy to blame this trend on television and the internet, or on drugs or ‘company’, but that is neither correct not a solution. We have to own up our responsibility towards the younger generation and although each has a right to decide his/ her own destiny, we can at least help them understand the ramifications of their actions and decisions.