In today’s society, young people care more about external appearance than inner character.
A year 12 class I’m covering have been set this as a discursive essay tit
le. It’s not bad as titles go – plenty of material to work on. But if I’m honest, the whole experience has scarred me a little.
The discussion we had about the issue was extraordinarily enlightening, slightly depressing, and intensely terrifying. Kids today – these ones at least – are completely obsessed with image, to the extent that they don’t see the need, nor want of looking any deeper. Everything you need to know about someone can be gleaned without delving any further than dermatologically deep.
I explained to them that their attitude worried me – that, if personality and character didn’t count in the world, I was screwed. It got a laugh, but I was only half joking.
In a class of eighteen girls and two boys the criteria for dating was ‘hotness’ (fair enough), for friendship was 'attractiveness' (hmmm), for career success was 'presentation' (could be argued I suppose), for success in life – 'appearance' (oh dear.)
I found it sad that the popular set were putting their successes down to their looks; and sadder that the rest put their status down to lack of looks. Maybe that’s the crux of it all. Maybe it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Conceivably a perception of attractiveness could lead to greater confidence, in turn helping to achieve success. And on the other side of the coin, a lack of confidence resulting from a perceived lack of attractiveness could be a stumbling block on the road to achieving potential.
As the discussion progressed that was the conclusion the group seemed to reach anyway. They went on to explain that it’s not about what you’ve got, it’s about what you do with it – a statement vague enough to worry me for a moment. I chose to take a positive message from it.
So maybe I shouldn’t despair of modern youth culture just yet. Maybe there is hope for them yet. Maybe there are hidden depths that will work their way to the top with time and maturity. Maybe these teenagers will come to rate the true character traits and values as much as the packaging in which they come.
The conversation was certainly becoming much more reassuring – right up to the point where one of the girls looked at a builder who was erecting a security fence outside the window, and exclaimed loudly,
“Oh! He’s hot!”
le. It’s not bad as titles go – plenty of material to work on. But if I’m honest, the whole experience has scarred me a little.The discussion we had about the issue was extraordinarily enlightening, slightly depressing, and intensely terrifying. Kids today – these ones at least – are completely obsessed with image, to the extent that they don’t see the need, nor want of looking any deeper. Everything you need to know about someone can be gleaned without delving any further than dermatologically deep.
I explained to them that their attitude worried me – that, if personality and character didn’t count in the world, I was screwed. It got a laugh, but I was only half joking.
In a class of eighteen girls and two boys the criteria for dating was ‘hotness’ (fair enough), for friendship was 'attractiveness' (hmmm), for career success was 'presentation' (could be argued I suppose), for success in life – 'appearance' (oh dear.)
I found it sad that the popular set were putting their successes down to their looks; and sadder that the rest put their status down to lack of looks. Maybe that’s the crux of it all. Maybe it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Conceivably a perception of attractiveness could lead to greater confidence, in turn helping to achieve success. And on the other side of the coin, a lack of confidence resulting from a perceived lack of attractiveness could be a stumbling block on the road to achieving potential.
As the discussion progressed that was the conclusion the group seemed to reach anyway. They went on to explain that it’s not about what you’ve got, it’s about what you do with it – a statement vague enough to worry me for a moment. I chose to take a positive message from it.
So maybe I shouldn’t despair of modern youth culture just yet. Maybe there is hope for them yet. Maybe there are hidden depths that will work their way to the top with time and maturity. Maybe these teenagers will come to rate the true character traits and values as much as the packaging in which they come.
The conversation was certainly becoming much more reassuring – right up to the point where one of the girls looked at a builder who was erecting a security fence outside the window, and exclaimed loudly,
“Oh! He’s hot!”
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