Belonging is a necessary process for youth during the period of meaning and making because it helps them to craft their own identity carefully. A person’s economic and socio-cultural resources help him to create new cultural possibilities (Butcher and Thomas, 2006). For example, Australian migrants prefer to create their own culture combining their parental heritage and the host country’s cultural aspects. They can not avoid belonging because they are scared of alienation and exclusion. Young people usually adopt subcultural features because it helps them to reflect on the conscious construction of identity. Popular cultures consist of subcultures with distinct styles, interests, shared rituals, and meanings (Matthews, 2015). When a young person belongs to a subculture, he resists mainstream society by style and behavior. Punks who converted objects into group adornment opposed the commercialization of their culture using the “do it yourself” slogan. Such opposition facilitates the personal identification of the youth.
Hybrid identities result from the fusion of identities in a globalized world with many ideas and beliefs. My identity follows the same pattern because every young person is exposed to inconsistencies and contradictions in ideology. The theory that cultures are “heterogeneous, open and evolving systems” is reliable as it allows people to choose groups and identities according to their tastes (Matthews, 2015, p. 83). Therefore, youth like me can demonstrate an interest in various topics regardless of their life experience or inherited social status. For example, I prefer sharing, adapting, and fusing spaces and lifestyles but not sticking to one cultural expression or social belonging. Thus, the theory that individualism affects hybridized identity is valid.
Reference List
Butcher, M. & Thomas, M. (2006) âIngenious: Emerging Hybrid Youth Cultures in WesternSydneyâ in Nilan, P. & Feixa, C. (eds). Global Youth?: Hybrid Identities, Plural Worlds. Routledge: New York (Chapter 3), pp. 53-71.
Matthews, A. (2016) ‘Youth’ in Huppatz, K., Hawkins, M. and Matthews, A. (eds.) Identity and Belonging. London: Palgrave (Chapter 6), pp. 71-85.