Yo guys!
O Levels are starting soon so this will really be the last post you see until the end of O levels.
This has to be one of the hottest topics reacently, so here's my take on this. This really is another essay I wrote a while back though. Hope you like it!
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Adolescents today have a reputation of being more fragile, less resilient and more overwhelmed than their parents when growing up. Statistics have shown that anxiety and depression in high school kids have been on the rise since 2012, and that is not a good sign. It does seem that teens nowadays are less able to handle stress compared to their parents.
One reason that I feel that could lead to this is that teens these days are indeed facing a lot more stress compared to their parents, at least in academic terms. Back in my parents’ days, they actually had free time to do non-school related things once school ended. My mother shared that back in her time as a secondary school student, she went home after school, and had time to work part time in order to help support her family, whilst my dad, as one of the youngest in the family, had the luxury of going out to catch spiders or play football after school. These days, we are not only swamped with homework, but also co-curricular activities (which could take up 2 or 3 days per week, 3 hours each time), tuition classes as well as certain enrichment classes like learning to play the piano or guitar. Not only that, we are also expected to excel in all these areas, show exemplary conduct at all times, hand in all homework on time, and show outstanding leadership skills when participating in co-curricular activities. These expectations and commitments will definitely take a toll on a 15-year-old, and from first-hand experience, it is not an easy task juggling school and family, especially when a leadership role comes into play. Hence, the statistics I have mentioned earlier may not necessarily show that teens are less able to handle stress, but that they are indeed facing more stress than their parents.
Another major reason could be that in the world we live in now, technology is everywhere. Literally everywhere. With this comes a cauldron of stimulus that we cannot get away from. As Jane Whitlock, director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery said, “If you wanted to create an environment to churn out really angsty people, we’ve done it,”. Being a teenager today is a draining full-time job that includes doing schoolwork, managing a social-media identity, and fretting about career, climate change, sexism, racism-you name it. Every fight or slight is documented online for hours or days after the incident. In fact, as a girl by the name of Faith-Ann Bishop mentioned, “We’re the first generation that cannot escape our problems at all,” says Faith-Ann. “We’re all like little volcanoes. We’re getting this constant pressure, from our phones, from our relationships, from the way things are today.” It’s exhausting for us. Growing up, we saw an era of economic and national insecurity. We have never known a time when terrorism and school shooting weren’t the norm. we grew up watching our parents weather a severe recession and perhaps most importantly, we hit puberty at a time when technology and social media took over and transformed society. Unlike our parents who could escape from problems in school when they were at home or vice versa, we cannot. We are constantly connected to everyone, no matter where we are, thanks (or no thanks) to technology. Thus, just maybe, it is not exactly fair to label teens as being less able to handle stress compared to their parents, we do face a lot more, at a higher intensity.
On the other hand, teens these days are a lot more fortunate than their parents. We grew up without the terror, hardships, and trauma of war, we grew up in a time when we did not have to worry about where our next meal would come from. In comparison, what we go through pales in comparison to our parents. Having gone through a period of poverty and hardship, they know what it is like to have to constantly worry about monetary issues, or rather the lack of it, and the safety of their friends and family. In times of war, every goodbye could be your last. Could you imagine bidding farewell to your family every morning, and your friends every evening, not knowing if it would be your last? I cannot. Though teens these days face plenty of stress from their studies, our parents faced stress coming from life itself, and our stress pales in comparison.
As mentioned above, I do not agree that teens these days are less able to handle stress compared to their parents, we just face a lot more stress from our studies and from our constant connection to the rest of the world, though I do agree that our parents’ generation faced plenty of stress to. It’s just that these two generations of people face different sets of stress, and it is not fair to either party to compare them this way.
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So that's it.
All the best for all your examinations and I'll see yall after Os!!
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!
~jessykeejiayi><