Danielle's Sociology Blog

Michigan State University student, Vicksburg born and raised. Just a small-town girl trying to make it big in the world.

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The first image was taken recently in Nashville, TN. My friends and I decided to go be tourists for a week and made an impromptu trip down to Tennessee. Like us, today’s teens are exploring new places. These places are both domestic and foreign. Like us, there were many other youth exploring Nashville, TN. Every day and night was a new adventure for my friends and I. The second image was taken while hiking by Hanging Lake in Colorado. This is yet another example of youth’s receptiveness in exploring new places. Not only does this exhibit openness to experience, but it also captures the way youth feels about mother nature. An increasing number of youth, myself included, are becoming activists for saving the beautiful places mother nature has to offer.

The third image was taken at a recent girls night I had with some of my friends. Not all of this wine was consumed that evening! However, this does help portray the message that youth of today are more open to trying new things, such as alcohol. This, in fact, was the first night I ever tried red wine. This does not go to say that adults are not open to trying new “substances”, but more that youth are increasingly becoming open to try new things.

The fourth image is more symbolic in nature than anything else. The color difference between the squares on my family’s checkerboard help illustrate that there is a greater interaction between different groups of people. With so many concerns over today’s youth, there is solace in knowing they are more accepting of different types of socialization.

The fifth image was taken at the Taste of Kalamazoo this year. The figure shows the beer tent in the festival. Throughout my time spent there, many of-age youth sampled different flavors of beer from both Kalamazoo breweries and breweries around the world. This goes to show that youth enjoy trying new things, especially at an age where experimenting is accepted.

The sixth, and final image was captured this last year at Birthday Bash (I am on the far left!) Birthday Bash is a large country concert that takes place every year, and is a place where thousands of teens flock to listen to great country music and for those old enough, drink. Youth at this concert tend to let loose quite a bit, and it is places such as this that you can feel the tension between certain members of older generations and younger (generation clash!)

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Youth Activism In Action

The organization I am choosing to write about is called Kids Connections. The reason I chose this youth organization is because I was a volunteer in it for many years, and thus, it is very close to my heart. Kids Connections aims to provide tutoring to disadvantaged youth. Typically the children were recommended to the organization by their teachers, and sometimes by their parents. KC is located in my hometown of Vicksburg, MI, and began because there seemed to be an abundance of teens doing poorly in high school. Volunteering meant advocating for the education of each and every youth, and the youth not only learned school material but learned about life itself! We engaged in activism simply by donating our time (the volunteers), but we did run campaigns and apply for grants in order to keep our organization free for those who needed it. Upon leaving for college, the organization had 30 volunteers and about 60 youth who were attending for help. These numbers have since doubled, and now the organization is looking at running a food pantry for youth's whose families cannot afford meals. I was proud, and still am, to be a member of this organization that advocated for the education of all youth. Without this organization, I believe there would be many more youth going through Vicksburg High School that would have either flunked out or been unable to pursue higher education.

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Youth Interview Reflection

I interviewed a female, KR, about the dynamics between technology and youth. She opened up my eyes to a new perspective about technology. Before the interview occurred, I underestimated the impact technology had on today's youth. KR answered some things that I would have not expected to have been discussed. The one thing I discovered from the interview was that although technology can be regarded as a positive thing in many areas, overall technology is affecting social interactions among teens in a NEGATIVE way. I think this is important, because technology is only going to continue to influence youth more over the next few years. This may, in turn, have a profound impact on youth in the near future.

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Re-framing Youth Culture

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/08/31/us-elderly-news-idUSTRE67U43Z20100831

The above link is to an article written in 2010. The article is talking about a German study conducted in 2009 that found that older generations would rather read a negative news story about youth than a positive news story. The conductors of this study reasoned that this was most likely because reading a negative news story boosted the self-esteem of the older generations reading it. I think that this article not only captures youth's relationship with society very well, but that it also shows how older generations feel about ours! The article mentions that the study also looked at how our generation responded to stories about other members of our generation. The researchers found that we preferred to read positive stories about our generation. Overall, the news article is an episodic article, because it is only focusing on one aspect of youth, and does not delve very far in depth about it. If I could re-frame the narrative of the article in one way, I would have had the authors write more in depth about what this can tell us about our generation. I also would have had them focus on more positive aspects about our generation than what they chose to write about. I think that for the purposes of the article they tried to provide the scientific evidence behind the story, but I would have liked to have read a more thorough analysis of what the results of the study meant, and how they were applicable to the real world.

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Youth and The Criminal Justice System

http://www.reclaimingfutures.org/blog/juvenile-justice-reform-moving-beyond-scared-straight-to-what-works

 The above link is to a blog that discusses shows like A&E's Beyond Scared Straight. The author of the blog discusses how "Scared Straight" programs, while aiming to help people straighten their lives out, in turn make the youth in the program more likely to turn to a life of crime (instead of preventing it). I think this goes along very well with Giroux's idea of the youth detention centers, because shows like this show a part of youth's relationship with society. Giroux states that there is a "growing disregard for young people and a growing taste for violence that can be seen in policies sanctioning youth detention programs." I find this statement true and relevant to the above link. I think our society is too apt to try and "fix" youth by sticking them in a harsh situation and conditions, as if we are trying to find an immediate solution instead of taking the time to figure out what really works. Through sanctions, actions in detention centers for youth become normative, and the sad fact is, many youth will continue to go down a wrong path because of the actions of detention centers. While shows like Beyond Scared Straight can be interesting, they may not necessarily be the best model for youth correction. 

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Shrinking Job Prospects for Youth in Michigan

The article titled "Job Prospects shrink for Michigan teens, young adults" talks about the relationship between education and employment. The article talks about how the Michigan unemployment rate has risen over the years, especially for youth. The article also discusses how hard it is for youths without a higher education to get a job. I chose to respond to this article because I feel it pertains to me on a certain level. Although I have chosen to continue my education, the Michigan job market today is definitely a source of worry for me, because if it keeps declining it could be hard for anyone find a job in today's market. One point the source makes that I agree with is the statement "the declining employment prospects for young people harms others as well (not just youth)". I agree with this statement because today's youth are going to set the precedent for proceeding generations. If youth of today cannot find jobs, we are not only hurting the older generation, but generations that have not even come to exist yet!

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The Labor Market and Youth

http://prospect.org/article/horrible-youth-labor-market The above link is to an article entitled "The Horrible Youth Labor Market". The article talks about, and gives statistics for youth ages 18-24 and 25-34 that do not have college degrees and their success in the labor market. They mention that youths age 18-24 without a college degree have an unemployment level of about 27.4%, and those age 25-34 have an unemployment rate of 15.4%. In my opinion, the intended message of the content is to preach about the importance of a higher education. The message here is available to youth as a group, however, if you look at individual groups within the youth group as a whole, one could find a pattern for each sub-group as well that fits into the message of the article.

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This is a picture of me and a couple of friends down in Nashville, TN (being tourists!) from a couple of weeks ago. As a part of this class so far, we have learned about the individualism promoted by older generations in American society that has been instilled within the Millennial Generation. I feel like this individualism has led today's youth to tour the country more, and travel to foreign cultures. There is a greater acceptance of foreign cultures from today's youth as well. The opportunities presented to youth as far as traveling goes is incredible, and it seems like the Millennial generation is apt to use these opportunities to explore the world.

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Risky Behaviors in the Millennial Generation

"Whether you see the new sexuality as freeing or wanton, the tie to individualism is obvious: do what feels good for you, and ignore the rules of society. On the other hand, the changes in sexual behavior are so dramatic that it's not clear there are any universally agreed-upon rules about sex anymore."

- Jean M. Twenge   From the book "Generation Me"

I feel like this quote answers the question about casual sexual experiences becoming normalized for our generation. The first sentence says it all. Youth today are focused much more on self-pleasure than older generations. However, I do not know whether or not this sexual behavior is a result of the change in attitudes of our generation, or the fact our generation has the tendency to push off marriage until later in life. The push for individualism in America could be a driving factor in the sexual behaviors of those in the Millennial Generation, though. I think that instead of focusing on underage sex, we should be focusing on risky behaviors (such as sex) of today's youth when drinking, smoking, etc. 

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Title: The Change in Political Youth

Bar graph displaying the gradual increase in youth party affiliation from more an even platform in the early 90’s to a lengthy gap in 2008 favoring the Democratic side.

These numbers indicate the continued open-minded thinking of today’s youth and their ability to think for themselves opposed to being forced to believe a certain way that society has been accustomed to in previous generations. Not that Republicans aren’t open minded, but today’s liberal democrats tend to be younger and much more open to topics such as gender equality and gay marriage rights. From these and other types of statistics taken in the past few years, it appears that this trend is only going to continue and much of the thinking and political beliefs of the past will soon be just that, history. 

Source: www.democrats.org

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I find this post to be extremely interesting, because it shows how much influence youth 18 and up have in politics. I personally feel that elections are becoming more and more geared towards those 18-25 because a) these are voters who will be voting for years to come and b) because this age demographic makes up a large portion of those voting in each election. I also find the difference between democrats and republicans to be very interesting, but I agree with the author's idea that democrats are more open to new experiences and topics. This is somewhat characteristic of the younger demographic. This makes me wonder whether or not the republicans will attempt to "market" themselves to young adults in the next election in an attempt to even the playing field with youths age 18-25.

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This video was produced to promote the subculture group called pro-ana. This group interacts mainly through online blogs and forums, and is a place where those who struggle with anorexia can go to talk about the disorder. Some blogs serve as motivation to keep up extreme eating habits, and others post pictures of "thinspiration" that aim to inspire pro-ana members. One defining characteristic of the pro-ana subculture is that many members wear red bracelets as identifying markers of their membership. Since many pro-ana members keep their disorders a secret from their families, these blogs become more than a support system--to members of these blogs, other members are family. Compared to mainstream culture, this group has drastic ideals about body image. The subculture is not confined to a specific region of the world, however, since this is a subculture that operates through the use of technology, it would be safe to assume that the group is most active in industrialized nations. Another defining characteristic of the group is that it is disproportionately comprised of middle-upper class, white women, who are typically 16-24 years of age. 

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The title of this graphic was: Americans Keeping Informed About Brands Via SocNets. Although this graphic uses youth to define those age 35 and under, I think the graphic speaks for itself, and says quite a bit about differences between the Millennial generation and all other generations. The interesting part of the graphic is that Americans under 35 are significantly more likely to keep informed about brands via Social Networking. In Joel Stein's article, he makes the statement that Millennials are simply a product of their environment. I think that this is true, however, I think that the relationship between the environment and Millennials is more dynamic than anyone can imagine.  In a chicken or the egg situation, this graphic prompts the question in my mind as to whether or not companies are changing because of the Millennial generation--or if the Millennials are adapting to the surge of up-to-date technology. I would be extremely interested in seeing whether these results are applicable to cultures all around the world, or whether or not this graphic is just applicable to American youth. Regardless, I think this shows the relationship between youth and society, and proves that things as simple as marketing can be effected by each generation.

A link to the article (source): http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/direct/63-of-young-americans-stay-updated-on-brands-and-products-via-socnets-26635/

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Emerging Adulthood: The Millennial Generation

"The explorations of emerging adults and their shifting choices in love and

work make emerging adulthood an exceptionally full and intense period of

life but also an exceptionally unstable one." - Jeffrey Arnett

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Thinking About the Millennial Generation

"They are the most threatening and exciting generation since the baby boomers brought about social revolution, not because they're trying to take over the Establishment but because they're growing up without one."

-Joel Stein