Youth and Society

Natasha Reyes

[reyesnat-blog]

A young man celebrating his upcoming wedding day with a stripper...

[reyesnat-blog]

A fire in a local neighborhood was portrayed as youth vandalism

[reyesnat-blog]

In these pictures, different groups of young people are out celebrating at a bar. In the second, a bachelorette party is celebrating by drinking, meeting new people and scoping out the men in the bar.

[reyesnat-blog]

In this picture, new members of a fraternity are put on display for the overall population to see. Although this is something very important to this youth culture, it is often viewed in a negative light by the outside population

[reyesnat-blog]

This is a video of a campaign called "Loose Change to Loosen Chains". In collaboration with the International Justice Mission this is a campaign led by elementary to college aged students in an effort to combat modern day slavery. This campaign was launched by a young man named Zach Hunter when he was in the seventh grade. I had a pleasure of meeting Zach right around this time. Now at 21, he continues his efforts in leading a new generation of activists and has come a long way! Such an admirable guy!! This campaign takes place in schools nationwide. It is completely put together by the students and during a period of time they collect as much loose change as possible and then all funds go towards rescuing victims of slavery and other forms of oppression. 

http://www.ijm.org/node/144

[reyesnat-blog]

Interview

For my interview, I had the topic of family and friends. It was actually really interesting and probably didn't go exactly how I thought it would. I chose someone that had a similar background to me. It was a young girl who was a first generation immigrant from the Dominican Republic so listening to her views on her relationships with family and friends was extremely interesting. She was the only one in her family born in the United States and I noticed that that was something that really seemed to play a role in how she interacted with those in her household versus other kids her age. That was probably one of the biggest things I learned about the way that youth interact with family and friends; cultural views play huge roles in those relationships. 

[reyesnat-blog]

This is a video of a thirteen year old boy being arrested. He and his friends were trespassing and skateboarding. The young boy was put in handcuffs after the police officer got upset for him smiling. I chose this video because I think its very symbolic of youth's relationship with society as Giroux views it. In his article he referenced a  lot the relationship between the criminal justice system and todays youth. There is a very evident misuse of power when dealing with young people today. It shows the "zero tolerance" and "disregard for young people". 

[reyesnat-blog]

http://kutnews.org/post/did-austin-isd-arrest-and-ticket-too-many-students

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/09/texas-police-schools

This was an arrest that caused a lot of controversy in 2012. It was a Texas arrest of a 12 year old girl who was "disturbing her class". This very much relates to a lot of Giroux's claims but I wan't to relate it to Gilliam and Bales ideas about framing. When this story was reported by police officials they talked about how the young girl was being disruptive in her classroom and therefore justified the arrest. This information was very episodic because it gave no thematic context. It wasn't until a report from The Guardian that we found out that the young girl was being teased by classmates telling her she smells. Aside from the fact that this was a matter that could have been resolved with no police attention, the framing was everything. This girl was portrayed as a disruptive student when in fact, she was a victim of bullying. 

[reyesnat-blog]

This summer, I have been spending a lot of time in Florida visiting some of my family. My first thought was, "what a better place to observe todays youth than on South Beach?!" NONE! So that's what I did. These are two young sisters ages 21 and 22 who were having some casual drinks at a restaurant in front of the beach. One is a current college student and the other one a recent college grad. As we've seen through a lot of our recent readings and lessons is that todays youth is a lot about living 'young, wild and free'. These two awesome girls are true demonstrations of that. They both enjoy being single and are simply trying to live life to their fullest! Thanks girls! <3

[reyesnat-blog]

“Are casual sexual experiences becoming normalized?” is the question I chose to focus on and I would say most definitely yes! In the Generation Me article: Prude meets Crude, this is completely visible. I was shocked to see how young most kids are in this generation when they first have sex. Some are as young as 12 and 14 but its even more shocking that a lot of them are losing their virginities to people they don’t even consider their boyfriend or girlfriend and unfortunately, this is becoming a new norm. The article states: “The trend toward hooking up seems more entrenched and suggests that more and more young people will disassociate sex from romance.” One young man talked about losing his virginity at 17 to a girl he had known for less than a week. A statistic stated in the article said that “84% of women with a college education agreed that it common these days for people my age to have sex just for fun and not expect any commitment beyond the encounter itself.”

There are also numerous technologies that are geared towards this “hook up culture” that is making casual sexual experiences more normalized. We see in the “sext me later” video that there are even many apps that have been created to find other people to “hook up” with, like Bang with Friends, Tinder and Grindr  The statistics shared this video say that most college students are in fact not “hooking up” and only about 15% of college students are actually having casual sexual encounters. However whether a large number are doing it or not, having all of these outlets and social media encouraging these actions is making it more acceptable and in turn making it ‘normalized’.

[kileyedwards6-blog]

Graduates in the Job Market

http://www.inspiringinterns.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Graduates-in-the-job-market-infographic1.jpg

This info graphic went more in depth to explain different aspects of the current generation and graduating from college while furthering your decision about a career. I chose this info graphic because it, in a sense, went again what Stein said about our current generation and youth in society. It did not focus a whole lot on the amount of people who use computers and social media to get by in life. This more so focused on how many graduates are unemployed after they graduate college, and that they do not focus on the money as much, they are more so focusing on how to prioritize, only 24% - Salary. Also, while looking for jobs, it is said that most were using Recruitment Agencies vs. the internet to find a job. Last part I was shocked to find, was that 54% of people were using Twitter to find out about job availabilities, and 46% using linked in. 

[reyesnat-blog]

This is a really interesting post! I found it really interesting that when they were asked about advice to give to graduating students, only 13% said that they would put it off to go traveling and 67% advised to start applying to graduate jobs and internships

[reyesnat-blog]

For my subculture group I decided to pick a Sorority. The one on top is actually a sorority I am a part of on Michigan's States Campus. Being a college student Sororities and Fraternities, in my opinion, tend to be one of the biggest youth subgroups you see. College is one of the prime times in your life where you are trying to "form your identity". Joining a group such as the one above you are able to be a part of community that is similar to your own, holds similar interests and beliefs and ends up forming a part of your college identity. Groups like this tend to be very popular and a very dominant part of mainstream culture, even being portrayed by mainstream media. This subculture is geographically located on any major college/ university campus. 

[reyesnat-blog]

About Me

My name is Natasha Reyes. I am a senior at Michigan State University and will be graduating December of 2013. My major is Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Science- Community Governance and Advocacy. I look forward to getting to know everyone in this class.