Kids these days
KIDS THESE DAYS
Predicting the future has always been a significant part of the human evolution, and one of the ways of predicting how our habitat will look like in the near future is by generating opinions about the ones who are actually going to live the future,- the younger generation. This has always happened and shall happen, so as to maintain the ecological balance of karma. But that's not the actual problem, the thing that bothers me the most is that people hate the present generation of kids.
Once, an old lady on a regional news debate was asked about her opinion on the present generation of kids. The old one, boosting all the energy she had, started shouting at the top of her voice. I may not quote the same words, but her tone sounded like this, "Remembaar! the childrans of todey are the citizaans of tumaarow","These kids naa, nevar they will lern to respact elders", "Intarnat should be banned first","We wer naat like this pa, haw mach this kids troubal the parents" "These kids na...." and even started accusing their parents of spoiling their kids.
Now I was completely okay with one person having such thoughts, but eventually, I found that everyone had a similar opinion. After analyzing deeply, I can say that what they say, in other words, is correct. As a kid born in the earliest 21st century, I can clearly state a few things the kids are missing out on. There are various factors causing this. But here a few major and significant factors:
1. Television
This is an interesting topic to discuss. Television tingles our senses of vision and hearing, enough to control our neural network for some time. In a way, can be a good thing, or, a very bad thing.
As a kid, I watched fun things on the television. If anyone would ask me, "Hey what do you watch on TV?", I'd probably say - SpongeBob SquarePants, The Simpsons, Naruto, ShinChan, American Ninja Warrior, Doordarshan TV, Malcolm In The Middle, F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Shark tank, etc.
But the kids these days want to watch only one thing on TV, CHHOTA BHEEM. Even parents encourage their kids to watch it because it is an Indian thing. I have even seen kids sing the chhota bheem theme song much more eloquently than they sing their morning prayers. This has turned out to be such a trend, kids even fight among themselves, "I am chhota bheem, not you, hei!!(fight)". I still don't understand how that kid- chhota bheem can defy all laws of Physics. He even gets to meet the king on a daily basis and make friends with his daughter. He even does this amazing thing, remove laddus from the only thing he wears (yuck right) and still manage to not get screwed for being unhygienic. What are kids learning from this?
Like, even if the actual Bheem from the Mahabharata were to watch "Chhota bheem", he would ask his Pandava brothers and friends not to call him Bheem anymore, as he wouldn't want to stand any more embarrassment.
Recently I came across these parents who make their kids watch man vs wild, why? just to make sure their kids survive if they accidentally abandon them in the jungle. By the way, man vs wild is disgusting af.
2. Of the question - "What will people think?"
Now, this is probably the worst issue I will have to address - Social Bullying. Parents, Teachers, and even friends frequently remind kids on how to not be a point of embarrassment in the society. This has happened to almost every generation in India. I honestly feel that kids should not be taught about how to maintain a high dignity in the society right from the time they are born.
Just let them be like how they are, if someone has a problem with the way your kid behaves, it is their problem. No kid should ever be prevented from doing something which makes them comfortable just because a few people will be bothered for breaking the non-existent, generation-followed norms. Some kids are even told by their parents that they will have to maintain high family respect in the rarely-turns-up-for-help society, why? just because that's what they told us to do, we cant think on our own right. You will not find one family who makes life decisions without consulting or thinking about what people will say.
So, conclusion: Unless your kids are safe and are well beyond limits, let them do what they like to do without the pressure of the society. But please don't let them watch Chhota bheem. Please.
3. Ambitions
I remember this, in my 10th grade, before our valedictory ceremony,(the time when a school kindly kicks their students away), we had to write down our ambitions, which would be displayed on the large screen below our photograph. Everyone had given all sorts of sophisticated ambition names varying from Entrepreneur to the Last Jedi. I too had given - "Software developer", but this one friend of mine had written his ambition as an auto-driver, maybe because he hadn't still selected a life goal as such, which is completely okay. When I was a kid, I decided, along with my cousin sister, to become a Scientist. Why? Just because we felt being a scientist was cool. Every kid makes his or her ambitions according to the small fancy view of the world. Now, we as adults should respect this until they reach a stage of mental maturity. Now that I see primary-school kids head to their coaching classes with their large bags, I wonder whether they wanted this for themselves or they are being made a part of the flock just for the sake of what the society will judge them like if they do not match up to the mediocre limit.
4. Originality
Let me tell you a story, a short one. Once upon a time, a monkey lived in the jungle. The monkey wanted to become a part of the Lions. He started wearing a Lion costume and also began to act like an actual Lion. The monkey was excited to see everyone getting fooled by his tricks and he even became a part of the Lions. A few days passed on, the Lion's costume stuck to the monkey's body making him feel very uncomfortable. His tricks stopped working and the Lions started doubting whether the Lion was actually a Lion. The monkey later ran away and now, even the monkeys he had made friends with previously started running away at the sight of a tiger abnormally jumping around, climbing trees. This monkey was stuck. You wouldn't want to be that monkey.
Similarly, we should tell kids behave the way they want to, express their emotions completely, make mistakes, fall and also rise with pride, and also - never pretend to be like someone else, which may be cool for a while, but will make you feel like the same monkey with no place in this world.
Conclusion: we need to accept out younger generations the way they are- dumb, smart, unique.
-Sai Govardhan
