Being a teenager in today's modern society.

Today in the modern society, there are a lot of problems, especially problems related with teenagers. For example, some teenagers feel lack of love from their parents in our society, the teens also have to deal with positive and negative influence from their peers. Some of the other common problems are taking drugs, addiction to games and eating disorders. In today's society, teenagers are more involved in dangerous activities because of the rising rate of low self-esteem and wanting to ‘declare their independence’. Now more than ever teenagers seem to be growing up way too fast and knowing so much at a young age because of the internet. You can get any information on the internet some of it not good.

In the past, teenagers were seen as mature young adults who were well able to deal with grown-up situations. Teens played very important roles in their society; they were able to work and help their families survive by working at young ages to provide a stable income. Teenagers also got married early in some cultures and had many responsibilities. Over the past few decades, teenagers are now more free to do as they please, but they face a lot of peer pressure at an earlier age to do what's popular if not ‘then you aren't cool’. There are many other pressures.

Let's start by talking about being a teenage boy n today's world. Some of you may be wondering why I didn't start with girls, well the answer is that no one talks about the problems boys face anymore. Boys face body shaming issues as well , they have to live up to the fact that they cannot be emotional and always have to be strong in every situation and be the bigger person. They have to go through toxic masculinity with their friends and family. It has come to the point where they can not talk about their feelings because they are scared of being made fun of. A man's mental health is not prioritized , he's always told to toughen up and ignore it. Men are always seen as emotionally unavailable and anyone who is emotionally available is seen as weak and soft. We need to normalize this mentality that guys can be emotionally available and interactive.

Emotions are a human quality, you cannot say men and women are equal and then ignore a man's emotion. Talking about their feelings and crying should be normalized regardless of the person’s sex, it does not make you any less of a man to talk about what's hurting you. Another thing that guys struggle with is the whole standard set by ladies of masculinity. Like he's a man if he does this, he's a man if he does that and he's less of a man if he does this. Another thing is a guys voice apparently determines how masculine you are. A guy cannot control how his voice sounds and if his voice is high doesn't mean he is gay or anything for that matter and I for one am guilty of once believing this.

Being a girl in today's modern society isn't any easier than being a boy. There are days when you feel so emotional because of something small that triggers all your thoughts at once and something like having an argument with a parent calling you moody for no reason doesn't help at all. Worse than feeling all intense feelings at the same time is being labelled 'dramatic' because of them. This is why we end up not telling many people especially adults about our problems because they hardly take us seriously and just dismiss us quickly. This goes for guys as well.

Always having to be told to change what you are wearing because a visitor is coming or your brother is home is just so upsetting. Why do I have to change out of what makes me feel comfortable for the comfort of someone else? Adults shouldn't have to look at minors in the first place to get aroused by what they are wearing. Our clothes do not equal consent. We wear what we wear we want to wear to feel confident in our own skin and by telling us to change you make our self confidence lower and we start becoming insecure.

Some adults nowadays still think like they would back in the day. I remember having a conversation with my friend at her house and her grandma came into her room and told her that if she doesn't clean her room no guy is going to want to marry her. What does cleaning a room have to do with someone's feelings towards you? I personally think if someone only likes me because I can cook and clean I am not going to be with that person. My purpose on this earth is not to learn to cook and clean so I can please someone. Cooking and cleaning is a life skill that everyone needs to learn how to do, not only for women.

Teenagers nowadays have more knowledge than most adults I know, we may not be school smart but we are smart in life. School is not really a the most important or enjoyable thing in life for most teenagers but we have to act like it is for the joy of our parents. Like I addressed in my last post the world has evolved in so many ways but the school system is still the same and not teaching us many valuable life lessons and skills we need in the future. There are so many jobs that are still being invented that we don't know about and we need to prepare ourselves as much as we can but we cannot do that if we are not allowed to be open minded.

So what am I saying? I am saying that being a teenager these days is not easy there are many pressures at school at home some from TV , the internet etc.. everyone telling us what to do or not to do how to be or not to be , so parents need to show more compassion and love. Teens should be kind to each other. Maybe we should all just try hard to be more understanding.