Adolescents &
media challenges in 21 st century
1. ADOLESCENTS
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human
development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to legal
adulthood. The individuals undergoing this particular stage are called
adolescents.
2. ADOLESCENTS THEN
AND NOW Adolescents of 21st century are very much advanced when compared to
the adolescents in the previous decade. It is all because of the advancement
of technology and a radical change in the media sector
3. BENEFITS OF
ADOLESCENTS USING SOCIAL MEDIA Socialization and Communication Enhancement
of individual and collective creativity Opportunities for community
development through raising money for charity, volunteering for local events
etc. Expansion of one’s online connections through shared interests
Benefits that extend into the view of self , community and the world
4. Enhanced Learning
Opportunities Social media programs allow students to gather outside the
class to collaborate and exchange ideas about assignments Some schools
successfully use blogs as teaching tool which has the benefit of reinforcing
skills in English , written expression, and creativity
5. Accessing health
information Adolescents with chronic illness can access websites through
which they can develop supportive networks of people with similar conditions
Mobile technologies that teens use have already produced multiple improvements
to their health care such as increased medications adherence , better disease
understanding and fewer missed appointments etc.
6. RISKS OF YOUTHS
USING SOCIAL MEDIA Cyber bullying and online harassment Cyber bullying is
deliberately using digital media to communicate false , embarrassing or hostile
information tragically , suicide about another person. It can occur to any
person online and cause profound psychological outcomes including depression ,
anxiety , severely isolation and tragically suicide.
7. Sexting Sexting
is defined as – “sending , receiving or forwarding sexually explicit messages ,
photographs or images via cell phone , computer or both ” This needs to be
seriously counseled by the elders
8. Facebook
depression Reseaches have proposed a new phenomenon called “FACEBOOK
DEPRESSION” that develops when preteens and teens spend a great time on social
media sites The intensity of the online world is thought to be a factor that
may trigger depression in some adolescents
9. PRIVACY CONCERNS
AND THE DIGITAL FOOTPRINT The main risks to adolescents today are risks of
improper use of technology, lack of privacy, pasting false information about
themselves or others etc. One of the biggest threats to young people on
social media sites is to their digital footprint and future reputations because
“WHAT GOES ONLINE STAYS ONLINE”
10. TELEVISION AND
AGGRESSION Adolescents can revel in violence by the way of television, movies
etc. Obviously we cannot assume that individuals who watch killing on he
screen would be killers but we can say that they are the passive participants
in some way appealed to the impulses that are latent within them
11. INFLUENCE OF
ADVERTISEMENTS ON BUYING Banner advertisements Demographic-based
advertisements Behavioral advertisements
12. MEETING THE
CHALLENGES OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE WORLD OF CREATIVE WRITING Media should not
be seen as an opposing force to traditional goal of classroom
education..instead they should complement the learning happening in the
classroom. These new literacies allow the students to learn through a
different lens and encourage them in creative writing which in turn result in
the creation of their on blogs , WebPages etc.
What is wrong with young people
today? This question has captured the concerns of the older generation about
the habits and attitudes of the adolescents in their midst. The assumption is
that there is indeed something wrong with young people. Even Plato must have
rolled his eyes, as he relates his diatribe about the adolescents of Greece. Is
the current generation of adolescents less motivated or less focused than their
parents? How will they respond to the challenges facing them as they progress
to adulthood? When, in fact, do they become adults? Although every generation
draws upon their own unique and varied experiences, the speed of our current
societal changes has created a very different adolescent passage for
contemporary youth than ever before. The world as we know it has changed
significantly and because of it, much of today's youth is decidedly different
from their parents. Adolescence itself has shifted dramatically. Young children
are displaying adolescent behaviors well before they are ready to act on or
understand their meaning, and older adolescents are staying perpetual children.
As one writer put it, "the conveyer belt that transported adolescents into
adulthood has broken down". This book provides an interdisciplinary
collection of research on the constants and challenges faced by young people
today. Failure to launch? Social media? Economic stagnation? For the generation
that is coming of age in a post-terrorist world and in the midst of economic
upheaval, the challenges might seem insurmountable. However, in this book,
scholars from across the academy, from sociology, psychology, education,
philosophy, science, and business, explain how the young people today are
responding to the constants of growth and change in adolescence and the unique
challenges of life in the 21st century.
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Adolescence: is a transitional stage of physical and
psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty
to legal adulthood (age of majority)
Adolescence is usually associated
with the teenage years. but its
physical, psychological or cultural expressions may begin earlier and end
later. For example, puberty now typically begins during preadolescence,
particularly in females. Physical growth (particularly in males), and cognitive
development can extend into the early twenties. Thus age provides only a rough
marker of adolescence, and scholars have found it difficult to agree upon a
precise definition of adolescence.
A thorough understanding of
adolescence in society depends on information from various perspectives,
including psychology, biology, history, sociology, education, and anthropology.
Within all of these perspectives, adolescence is viewed as a transitional
period between childhood and adulthood, whose cultural purpose is the
preparation of children for adult roles. It is a period of multiple transitions
involving education, training, employment and unemployment, as well as
transitions from one living circumstance to another.
The end of adolescence and the
beginning of adulthood varies by country. Furthermore, even within a single
nation state or culture there can be different ages at which an individual is
considered mature enough for society to entrust them with certain privileges
and responsibilities. Such privileges and responsibilities include driving a
vehicle, having legal sexual relations, serving in the armed forces or on a
jury, purchasing and drinking alcohol, voting, entering into contracts,
finishing certain levels of education, marriage, and accountability for
upholding the law. Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased
independence allowed by the parents or legal guardians, including less
supervision as compared to preadolescence.
In studying adolescent
development, adolescence can be defined
biologically, as the physical transition marked by the onset of puberty and the
termination of physical growth; cognitively, as changes in the ability to think
abstractly and multi-dimensionally; or socially, as a period of preparation for
adult roles. Major pubertal and biological changes include changes to the sex
organs, height, weight, and muscle mass, as well as major changes in brain
structure and organization. Cognitive advances encompass both increment in
knowledge and in the ability to think abstractly and to reason more
effectively. The study of adolescent development often involves
interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, researchers in neuroscience or
bio-behavioral health might focus on pubertal changes in brain structure and its
effects on cognition or social relations. Sociologists interested in
adolescence might focus on the acquisition of social roles (e.g., worker or
romantic partner) and how this varies across cultures or social conditions.
Developmental psychologists might focus on changes in relations with parents
and peers as a function of school structure and pubertal status. Some
scientists have questioned the universality of adolescence as a developmental
phase, arguing that traits often considered typical of adolescents are not in
fact inherent to the teenage years.
Biological development:
Puberty in general: Puberty is
a period of several years in which rapid physical growth and psychological
changes occur, culminating in sexual maturity. The average age of onset of
puberty is at 11 for girls and 12 for boys.
Every person's individual timetable
for puberty is influenced primarily by heredity, although environmental
factors, such as diet and exercise.
Some of the most significant parts
of pubertal development involve distinctive physiological changes in
individuals' height, weight, body composition, and circulatory and respiratory
systems. These changes are largely influenced by hormonal activity.Hormones
play an organizational role, priming the body to behave in a certain way once
puberty begins, and an active role, referring to changes in hormones during
adolescence that trigger behavioral and physical changes.
Growth spurt: The adolescent growth spurt is a rapid increase in
the individual's height and weight during puberty resulting from the
simultaneous release of growth hormones.Males experience their growth spurt
about two years later, on average, than females.
In addition to changes in height,
adolescents also experience a significant increase in weight. Another set of
significant physical changes during puberty happen in bodily distribution of
fat and muscle. This process is different for females and males. Before puberty,
there are nearly no sex differences in fat and muscle distribution; during
puberty, boys grow muscle much faster than girls, although both sexes
experience rapid muscle development.
Reproduction-related changes: Primary sex characteristics are
those directly related to the sex organs. In males, the first stages of puberty
involve growth of the testes and scrotum, followed by growth of the penis.In
females, changes in the primary sex characteristics involve growth of the
uterus, vagina, and other aspects of the reproductive system.
Changes in secondary sex
characteristics include every change that is not directly related to sexual
reproduction. In males, these changes involve appearance of pubic, facial, and
body hair, deepening of the voice, roughening of the skin around the upper arms
and thighs, and increased development of the sweat glands. In females,
secondary sex changes involve elevation of the breasts, widening of the hips,
development of pubic and underarm hair, widening of the areolae, and elevation
of the nipples.
Changes in the brain: The human brain is not fully developed by the time a
person reaches puberty. Between the ages of 10 and 25, the brain undergoes
changes that have important implications for behavior
The brain reaches 90% of its adult
size by the time a person is six years of age. hus, the brain does not grow in
size much during adolescence. However, the creases in the brain continue to
become more complex until the late teens. The biggest changes in the folds of
the brain during this time occur in the parts of the cortex that process
cognitive and emotional information.
Cognitive development: Adolescence is also a time for
rapid cognitive development. Piaget describes adolescence as the stage of life
in which the individual's thoughts start taking more of an abstract form and
the egocentric thoughts decrease. This allows the individual to think and
reason in a wider perspective.
Biological changes in brain
structure and connectivity within the brain interact with increased experience,
knowledge, and changing social demands to produce rapid cognitive growth
Theoretical perspectives: here are at least two major
approaches to understanding cognitive change during adolescence.
a. constructivist view of cognitive development: Based on
the work of Piaget, it takes a quantitative, state-theory approach,
hypothesizing that adolescents' cognitive improvement is relatively sudden and
drastic.
b. information-processing
perspective: which derives from the study of artificial intelligence and
attempts to explain cognitive development in terms of the growth of specific
components of the thinking process.
Improvements in cognitive ability: By the time individuals have
reached age 15 or so, their basic thinking abilities are comparable to those of
adults. These improvements occur in five areas during adolescence:
1. Attention: Improvements are seen in selective attention,
the process by which one focuses on one stimulus while tuning out another. Divided
attention, the ability to pay attention to two or more stimuli at the same
time, also improves.
2. Memory: Improvements are seen in both working memory
and long-term memory.
3. Processing speed: Adolescents think more quickly than children.
Processing speed improves sharply between age five and middle adolescence; it
then begins to level off at age 15 and does not appear to change between late
adolescence and adulthood.
4. Organization: Adolescents are more aware of their thought processes
and can use mnemonic devices and other strategies to think more efficiently.
Hypothetical and abstract thinking: Adolescents' thinking is
less bound to concrete events than that of children: they can contemplate
possibilities outside the realm of what currently exists. One manifestation of
the adolescent's increased facility with thinking about possibilities is the
improvement of skill in deductive reasoning, which leads to the development of
hypothetical thinking. This provides the ability to plan ahead, see the future
consequences of an action and to provide alternative explanations of events.
Metacognition: A third gain in cognitive ability involves thinking
about thinking itself, a process referred to as metacognition. It often
involves monitoring one's own cognitive activity during the thinking process.
Adolescents' improvements in knowledge of their own thinking patterns lead to
better self-control and more effective studying.
Relativistic thinking: Compared to children, adolescents
are more likely to question others' assertions, and less likely to accept facts
as absolute truths. Through experience outside the family circle, they learn
that rules they were taught as absolute are in fact relativistic. They begin to
differentiate between rules instituted out of common sense—not touching a hot
stove—and those that are based on culturally-relative standards (codes of
etiquette, not dating until a certain age), a delineation that younger children
do not make. This can lead to a period of questioning authority in all domains
Wisdom: Wisdom, or the capacity for insight and judgment that is
developed through experience,increases between the ages of fourteen and
twenty-five, then levels off. Thus, it is during the adolescence-adulthood
transition that individuals acquire the type of wisdom that is associated with
age.
Risk-taking: Because most injuries sustained by adolescents are
related to risky behavior (car crashes, alcohol, unprotected sex), a great deal
of research has been done on the cognitive and emotional processes underlying
adolescent risk-taking.For example, without a willingness to take risks,
teenagers would not have the motivation or confidence necessary to leave their
family of origin. In addition, from a population perspective, there is an
advantage to having a group of individuals willing to take more risks and try
new methods, counterbalancing the more conservative elements more typical of
the received knowledge held by older adults. Risktaking may also have
reproductive advantages: adolescents have a newfound priority in sexual
attraction and dating, and risk-taking is required to impress potential mates.
Inhibition: Related to their increased tendency for risk-taking,
adolescents show impaired behavioral inhibition, including deficits in
extinction learning.[85] This has important implications for engaging in risky
behavior such as unsafe sex or illicit drug use, as adolescents are less likely
to inhibit actions that may have negative outcomes in the future.
*Psychological development:
adolescence primarily as a time of internal turmoil and upheava.
adolescence was a representation of our human ancestors' phylogenetic shift
from being primitive to being civilized. adolescence was inherently a time of
disturbance and psychological confusion. The less turbulent aspects of
adolescence, such as peer relations and cultural influence.
*Social development:
Identity development: Identity development is a stage in the adolescent
life cycle.For most, the search for identity begins in the adolescent years.
During these years, adolescents are more open to 'trying on' different
behaviours and appearances to discover who they are.
In an attempt to find their
identity and discover who they are, adolescents are likely to cycle through a
number of identities to find one that suits them best. Developing and
maintaining identity (in adolescent years) is a difficult task due to multiple
factors such as family life, environment, and social status
Self-concept: The idea of self-concept is known as the ability of a
person to have opinions and beliefs that are defined confidently, consistent
and stable. Early in adolescence, cognitive developments result in greater
self-awareness, greater awareness of others and their thoughts and judgments,
the ability to think about abstract, future possibilities, and the ability to
consider multiple possibilities at once. As a result, adolescents experience a
significant shift from the simple, concrete, and global self-descriptions
typical of young children; as children, they defined themselves by physical
traits whereas as adolescents, they define themselves based on their values,
thoughts, and opinions.
Sense of identity: Egocentrism in adolescents forms a self-conscious
desire to feel important in their peer groups and enjoy social acceptance.
Unlike the conflicting aspects of self-concept, identity represents a coherent
sense of self stable across circumstances and including past experiences and
future goals. Everyone has a self-concept. the identity crisis in which
adolescents must explore different possibilities and integrate different parts
of themselves before committing to their beliefs. He described the resolution
of this process as a stage of "identity achievement" but also
stressed that the identity challenge "is never fully resolved once and for
all at one point in time"
Environment and identity: An adolescent's environment plays
a huge role in their identity development. While most adolescent studies are
conducted on white, middle class children, studies show that the more
privileged upbringing people have, the more successfully they develop their
identity.[98] The forming of an adolescent's identity is a crucial time in
their life.
Sexual orientation and identity: Sexual orientation has been
defined as "an erotic inclination toward people of one or more genders,
most often described as sexual or erotic attractions. In recent years,
psychologists have sought to understand how sexual orientation develops during
adolescence. Some theorists believe that there are many different possible
developmental paths one could take, and that the specific path an individual
follows may be determined by their sex, orientation, and when they reached the
onset of puberty.
Self-esteem: The final major aspect of identity formation is
self-esteem. Self-esteem is defined as one's thoughts and feelings about one's
self-concept and identity. there is a grand desire, across all genders and
ages, to maintain, protect and enhance their self-esteem. Girls are most likely
to enjoy high self-esteem when engaged in supportive relationships with
friends, the most important function of friendship to them is having someone
who can provide social and moral support. When they fail to win friends' approval
or couldn't find someone with whom to share common activities and common
interests, in these cases, girls suffer from low self-esteem. In contrast, boys
are more concerned with establishing and asserting their independence and
defining their relation to authority.
*Relationships:
In general: The relationships adolescents have with their peers,
family, and members of their social sphere play a vital role in the social
development of an adolescent. As an adolescent's social sphere develops rapidly
as they distinguish the differences between friends and acquaintances, they
often become heavily emotionally invested in friends.
This is not harmful; however, if
these friends expose an individual to potentially harmful situations, this is
an aspect of peer pressure. Adolescence is a critical period in social
development because adolescents can be easily influenced by the people they
develop close relationships with. This is the first time individuals can truly
make their own decisions, which also makes this a sensitive period.
Relationships are vital in the social development of an adolescent due to the
extreme influence peers can have over an individual. These relationships become
significant because they begin to help the adolescent understand the concept of
personalities, how they form and why a person has that specific type of
personality.
Family: Adolescence marks a rapid change in one's role within a
family. Young children tend to assert themselves forcefully, but are unable to
demonstrate much influence over family decisions until early adolescence, when
they are increasingly viewed by parents as equals. The adolescent faces the
task of increasing independence while preserving a caring relationship with his
or her parents.When children go through puberty, there is often a significant
increase in parent–child conflict and a less cohesive familial bond.
Peers: Peer groups are essential to social and general development.
Communication with peers increases significantly during adolescence and peer
relationships become more intense than in other stages and more influential to
the teen, affecting both the decisions and choices being made. High quality
friendships may enhance children's development regardless of the
characteristics of those friends. As children begin to bond with various people
and create friendships, it later helps them when they are adolescent and sets
up the framework for adolescence and peer groups. Peer groups are especially important during
adolescence, a period of development characterized by a dramatic increase in
time spent with peers and a decrease in adult supervision. Adolescents also
associate with friends of the opposite sex much more than in childhood and tend to identify with larger groups of
peers based on shared characteristics.
Romance and sexual activity: Romantic relationships tend to
increase in prevalence throughout adolescence. By age 15, 53% of adolescents
have had a romantic relationship that lasted at least one month over the course
of the previous 18 months. an adolescent with positive self-confidence is
likely to consider themselves a more successful partner, whereas negative
experiences may lead to low confidence as a romantic partner. Adolescents often
date within their demographic in regards to race, ethnicity, popularity, and
physical attractiveness. However, there are traits in which certain
individuals, particularly adolescent girls, seek diversity. While most
adolescents date people approximately their own age, boys typically date
partners the same age or younger; girls typically date partners the same age or
older.
* Culture:
Summary: There are certain characteristics of adolescent
development that are more rooted in culture than in human biology or cognitive
structures. Culture has been defined as the "symbolic and behavioral
inheritance received from the past that provides a community framework for what
is valued".
Culture is learned and socially
shared, and it affects all aspects of an individual's life. Social
responsibilities, sexual expression, and belief system development, for
instance, are all things that are likely to vary by culture. Furthermore,
distinguishing characteristics of youth, including dress, music and other uses
of media, employment, art, food and beverage choices, recreation, and language,
all constitute a youth culture.[195] For these reasons, culture is a prevalent
and powerful presence in the lives of adolescents, and therefore we cannot
fully understand today's adolescents without studying and understanding their
culture
Autonomy: The degree to which adolescents are perceived as
autonomous beings varies widely by culture, as do the behaviors that represent
this emerging autonomy. Psychologists have identified three main types of
autonomy: emotional independence, behavioral autonomy, and cognitive autonomy.
Emotional autonomy is defined in terms of an adolescent's relationships
with others, and often includes the development of more mature emotional
connections with adults and peers.
Behavioral autonomy encompasses an adolescent's developing ability to
regulate his or her own behavior, to act on personal decisions, and to
self-govern. Cultural differences are especially visible in this category
because it concerns issues of dating, social time with peers, and
time-management decisions.
Cognitive autonomy describes the capacity for an adolescent to partake
in processes of independent reasoning and decision-making without excessive
reliance on social validation.
Social roles and responsibilities
The lifestyle of an adolescent in a
given culture is profoundly shaped by the roles and responsibilities he or she
is expected to assume. The extent to which an adolescent is expected to share
family responsibilities is one large determining factor in normative adolescent
behavior. For instance, adolescents in certain cultures are expected to
contribute significantly to household chores and responsibilities. Household
chores are frequently divided into self-care tasks and family-care tasks.
However, specific household responsibilities for adolescents may vary by
culture, family type, and adolescent age.
Belief system development: Adolescence is frequently
characterized by a transformation of an adolescent's understanding of the
world, the rational direction towards a life course, and the active seeking of new
ideas rather than the unquestioning acceptance of adult authority. An
adolescent begins to develop a unique belief system through his or her
interaction with social, familial, and cultural environments.
Sexuality: Many cultures define the transition into adultlike
sexuality by specific biological or social milestones in an adolescent's life.
For example, menarche (the first menstrual period of a female), or semenarche
(the first ejaculation of a male) are frequent sexual defining points for many
cultures. In addition to biological factors, an adolescent's sexual
socialization is highly dependent upon whether their culture takes a
restrictive or permissive attitude toward teen or premarital sexual activity.
These sexual desires are then dramatized regarding teen sex and seen as "a
site of danger and risk; that such danger and risk is a source of profound
worry among adults"
*Legal issues, rights and privileges:
Adolescence is a period frequently
marked by increased rights and privileges for individuals. While cultural
variation exists for legal rights and their corresponding ages, considerable
consistency is found across cultures. Furthermore, since the advent of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 (children here defined as under
18), almost every country in the world (except the U.S. and South Sudan) has
legally committed to advancing an anti-discriminatory stance towards young
people of all ages. This includes protecting children against unchecked child
labor, enrollment in the military, prostitution, and pornography.
Alcohol and illicit drug use:
Prevalence: One significant contribution to the increase in
teenage substance abuse is an increase in the availability of prescription
medication. With an increase in the diagnosis of behavioral and attentional
disorders for students, taking pharmaceutical drugs such as Vicodin and
Adderall for pleasure has become a prevalent activity among adolescents: 15.2%
of high school seniors report having abused prescription drugs within the past
year.Different drug habits often relate to one another in a highly significant
manner. It has been demonstrated that adolescents who drink at least to some
degree may be as much as sixteen times more likely than non-drinkers to
experiment with illicit drugs
Social influence: Peer acceptance and social norms gain a significantly
greater hand in directing behavior at the onset of adolescence; as such, the
alcohol and illegal drug habits of teens tend to be shaped largely by the
substance use of friends and other classmates. In fact, studies suggest that
more significantly than actual drug norms, an individual's perception of the
illicit drug use by friends and peers is highly associated with his or her own
habits in substance use during both middle and high school, a relationship that
increases in strength over time.
Demographic factors: Until mid-to-late adolescence, boys and girls show
relatively little difference in drinking motives. Distinctions between the
reasons for alcohol consumption of males and females begin to emerge around
ages 14–15; overall, boys tend to view drinking in a more social light than
girls, who report on average a more frequent use of alcohol as a coping
mechanism.
*Media:
Body image:
Much research has been conducted on
the psychological ramifications of body image on adolescents. Modern day
teenagers are exposed to more media on a daily basis than any generation before
them. Recent studies have indicated that the average teenager watches roughly
1500 hours of television per year.
As such, modern day adolescents are
exposed to many representations of ideal, societal beauty. The concept of a
person being unhappy with their own image or appearance has been defined as
"body dissatisfaction". In teenagers, body dissatisfaction is often
associated with body mass, low self-esteem, and atypical eating patterns.
Media profusion: Because exposure to media has increased over the past
decade, adolescents' utilization of computers, cell phones, stereos and
televisions to gain access to various mediums of popular culture has also
increased. Almost all American households have at least one television, more
than three-quarters of all adolescents' homes have access to the Internet, and
more than 90% of American adolescents use the Internet at least occasionally.As
a result of the amount of time adolescents spend using these devices, their
total media exposure is high. In the last decade, the amount of time that
adolescents spend on the computer has greatly increased.
Social networking: In the 2000s, social networking sites proliferated
and a high proportion of adolescents used them: as of 2012 73% of 12–17 year
olds reported having at least one social networking profile;electronic
communication negatively affects adolescents' social development, replaces
face-to-face communication, impairs their social skills, and can sometimes lead
to unsafe interaction with strangers.
Transitions into adulthood:
A broad way of defining adolescence
is the transition from child-to-adulthood.this transition can include markers
such as leaving school, starting a full-time job, leaving the home of origin,
getting married, and becoming a parent for the first time.
Promoting positive changes in adolescents:
At the decision-making point of
their lives, youth is susceptible to drug addiction, sexual abuse, peer
pressure, violent crimes and other illegal activities. Developmental
Intervention Science (DIS) is a fusion of the literature of both developmental
and intervention sciences. This association conducts youth interventions that
mutually assist both the needs of the community as well as psychologically
stranded youth by focusing on risky and inappropriate behaviors while promoting
positive self-development along with self-esteem among adolescents.
Criticism: The concept of adolescence has been criticized by
experts, such as Robert Epstein, who state that an undeveloped brain is not the
main cause of teenagers' turmoils.
adolescence do point at individual
differences in brain growth rate, citing that some (though not all) early teens
still have infantile undeveloped corpus callosums, concluding that "the
adult in *every* adolescent" is too generalizing. These people tend to
support the notion that a more interconnected brain makes more precise
distinctions
