An Analysis of the Effects of Culture and Adolescents

630 Words3 Pages
In past generations, most young people got their emotional and spiritual support from all of those entities that made up their community: families, neighbors and religious groups. They were born into a community, and the community gave them their identities and their beliefs. But in our culture, today's young adults have been raised in an individualistic, post-communal worldview. Unlike their elders and ancestors, today's young adults are born into a culture in which their families and communities do not exert the same level of influence over their identities. They believe they have the right to decide what they believe in, what their values are and how they are going to live their lives. Often, young adults must find or create their own communities. There are great benefits to the individualistic culture. It offers an abundance of personal freedom and equal opportunity. But there are a lot of losses that happen in this kind of culture. As free and contactable as young adults are, ironically, they are very hungry for the presence and intimacy that community can offer. In many ways, the deprivation is even greater than it was in previous generations. This loss of intimacy can even be witnessed in the way in which we communicate. Young people today are more reachable than any generation that preceded them. Cellphones allow them to be accessed almost anywhere, anytime; emails and instant messaging can grab them when they're on a computer; text messaging allows them to "get answers" nearly free of the typical demands of interpersonal discourse; Skype and Facetime virtually beam another person into a room. Even though there are many modes of communication, opportunities for true communion with other human beings seem to be eroding. Whenever I have the chance to speak to young adults, whether college students or young professionals, I always like to ask them what the

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