Thesis Statement
Globalization and the commercialization of the youth culture space pose both a positive and a negative precedence towards the future. Globalization has opened up nations’ boundaries allowing faster flow of information across nations. Fast and reliable flow of information promotes common sharing of cultural and social values among youths across the world. However, there is a worrying trend towards discarding the traditional values e.g. family life that has held society together for a long time.
Introduction
The physical and cultural environment occupied by the youths has over time been curved out as an identity for the youths. The identity describes the ideologies held by the youth; youths exist within a defined time framework, space and place.
Within this framework, there are forces that influence the social and cultural aspects of the youth’s life. These forces have been reshaping the youth culture from the early days up to the contemporary youth that we have today. This paper looks at the contest and commercialization of the youth culture and manifestation of youth culture in the current global world.
The paper also focuses on the possible derailments of the youth culture and the dangers associated with the derailments. Youth culture is looked at as a scheme of social relations that involves creating linkages and responding to the influences derived from power, habits and fashions (Steinberg & Parmar 2). The focus is also on the relations that exist between the youth and the society, as well as the factors that shape youths identity in terms of culture.
The youths engage one another within a space, places and in turn influence their culture. Adults have some powers that influence or control the way the youths in particular environments develop socially and culturally. Often the influence that the adults impose to the youth inhibits the growth and development of the youth.
Globalization denotes the trends that have rapidly made activities in the political, economic and social sphere have a worldwide presence (Osgerby 148). The twentieth century saw a break up of the previously firm boundaries dividing nations, leading to a worldwide sharing of economic and cultural values among the communities of the world.
Studies have pointed out the youth period as a life course at which individuals are more at a risk of getting alienated (Epstein 4). Being a period that lies in between childhood and adulthood, individuals within this age bracket fight two confusing life issues. There is a fight between the freedom of being a child in the custody of the parents and the fight to deal with the adults’ responsibility.
How youth culture operates in the contemporary global world
Globalization has significantly succeeded in bringing the previously long distance relations close. Current communication platforms such as telephone, internet has made it possible to have long distance relationships and make it feel as a close relationship. The internet is a host of several social networking platforms such as face book, MySpace, meebo, Hi5 and many others. Social networking platforms facilitate the sharing of information in almost an instant manner.
These platforms also allow uploading of photos which further brings the relationships more close. The possibilities that the internet has brought about have lifted the social relations and cultural values from the local perspective to an international level (Osgerby 149). Most governments moved towards market deregulations to create free markets, this concept promoted the growth of global enterprises. Global entrepreneurs have been scouting for global business opportunities with the main focus now shifting the youth culture.
Research points out the rise in international communication, marketing and the media as the platform on which the recent aspects of youth culture stem on. The three aspects have created a platform on which groups of youths around the world can share common interests and sensibilities (Epstein 13). Academics is another means through which the youth culture has been able to spread out across the world, breaking the international boundaries.
Most universities and learning institutions have opened their doors to international students, admitting students from different parts of the world. These learning institutions have become fertile grounds for the development and spread of youth culture. Transnational brands and media provide a universal set of choices from which the youths pick social and cultural values.
Growth of the global capital market has also been identified as a force working towards globalizing the modern youth culture. It has enabled a cultural exchange across the world in terms of ideas, styles and the commercial products that the youths use.
Many youths across the world are experiencing the impact of youth culture; the level of impact however differs based on factors such as gender, race, ethnicity and the social class. These issues have worked to ensure the youths remain starkly divided in terms of culture and other social values.
The level of reach to information regarding youth culture is not uniform across the geographical divides. The wealth level among countries is quiet different as is the institution of the various technological platforms which facilitate the sharing of information. The internet spread and use for example is low in underdeveloped countries and highly spread in developed countries. There is also a felt difference to the reach of information between the youths in towns and those in the rural set-ups.
The youth culture has for time been viewed as a deviation from the normal life course especially by the adults. As discussed earlier, every adult and parent feels he or she has the power to control the child’s social behavior.
To this course, adults want their young ones to grow up and follow the footsteps that they went through as young people. The contemporary youths have a lot of experience exposed to them through the highly globalised space they live in. a lot of the social and cultural issues that the contemporary youth manifest is extracted from the various global media channels.
Some of the most prominent youth groups that have existed in the world over include; the working class, the riot girls and the separatism. Hall and Jefferson (236) point out that the youths belong to a special group that equally requires special attention. There is a generation gap that has developed between youth culture and the class concept. Class in societies is created based in wealth, race, ethnicity and castes for countries where the caste system type of life exists.
Youths are increasingly playing a felt role in the rapidly growing economies in the world. The youth culture has become a point of focus as a market; this is quickly being adopted as a culture in most countries. For countries where the economy is more of agrarian and industrial, the youths are depended upon as a source of labour.
They labour to produce goods and products for sale within the global market. The operation of the youth culture is restrained by economic forces, it flourishes when the economy is performing well. How youth culture responds to the opportunities to manifest the youth culture depends on the youth empowerment which varies from one geographic place to another (Steinberg & Parmar 24).
The negative aspects of youth culture
Youth culture has been associated with a series of negative effects which the adults have expressed their discomfort with. The sharing of global cultural and cultural issues has widely been criticized by the previously conservative nations. There is hardly a nation where the youths are clearly holding pure culture, not a mix up of values from various places.
Some of the cultural values that the youths have adopted have been criticized from the moral point of view. The hip hop culture for example expressed in the hip hop music is looked at as being demonic by the Christians, yet this culture has spread out so fast embracing many youths across the world.
Symbols of youth culture such as pop music and the related fashion have become common among the youths which many express fears of it aiming at corrupting the innocent (Hall & Jefferson 237). It is clear in this context that the youths are not innocent as they are already embedded into the system. But they have blindly chosen to be exploited by youth cultural aspects such as pop culture.
The media as a platform on which cultural sharing takes places has been criticized for not censoring the information made accessible to the youths. Some of the information rated inappropriate to the youths is made accessible to the youths who pick up the information and make it part of them. Shows with scenes of violence, pornography, drug use, robbery are so common in cinemas and other movie shows where the youths are common visitors.
They leave the cinema and movie halls with a mentality as those of the characters of the movies. This influences the youths with criminal minds, prostitution and drug use. Most parents argue that a lot of efforts need to be instituted in the process of molding the youths by directing them to acquire the right culture. This is in light of the dynamics of the globalization and the challenges that are presented to the current youth generation.
Many youths today circulate around proms for fashion and tuxedos, whose financial implications are so high. The emphasis on the physical outlook in proms is not just about the clothes, the concept also touches on both the physical outlook in terms of weight and height of the individual (Lerner & Lerner 542) point out that most youths resort to dieting and purging to loose some weight before the prom time, this behavior changes are often accompanied by complicated outcomes to those involved.
Other than the fashion aspect that is embedded in prom, sexuality is also an issue. Sexual intercourse among the youths poses life threatening effects such as teenage pregnancy and transmission of viral diseases. Alcohol consumption and drug use is another worrying part of prom celebration. This can be pose dangers to the youths especially are they have to drive under intoxication from the prom (Lerner & Lerner 543).
Prostitution is a growing menace world over; in fact, this has become a profitable industry. The industry attracts young girls who are exploited for the sake of material gain in exchange for sex. Most modern family structures are not anchored on strict values; some parents are abusive to their children as a result of drug abuse.
Some children from such families escape the harassment and end up on the streets as prostitutes. Others run away from school after failing to cope with school life and standards and end up in prostitution as away of life. These are the negative effects that the global world brings to the contemporary youth.
Unauthorized copying of sound and music is growing at an alarming rate especially among the youths. The behavior is motivated by the availability of digitized audio content, technology that supports sharing of audio files hard economic times and lack morals and ethics. The broadband technology has widely been used as a means of sharing music files; copyrighted audio content is also copied using writable CDs, DVDs, flash discs and other compressed information storage devices.
Youths are widely involved in cross-border copying of audio content via internet by downloading. Youths access adult content and share the same world over with other youths. There has been an alarming cry over the type of content that the youths share over the internet, pornographic content is widely downloaded even by youths under the recommending age for the content.
The future of youth culture and globalization
Youths in the developing nations are at risk of loosing their original identity and adapting a completely new form of life. These are youths who feel what they have inherited from their parents in terms of culture is inferior; they therefore hope out to check for the world class culture. They imitate what they view in the media and take it up against their parents wish.
Youths from Africa and Asia are especially keen to copying the culture of the American youths whom they feel have a better way of life than theirs (Nayak 76). This can be observed in the dress code, the type of music they listen to, leisure activities, dating styles and the games they prefer to engage in. (Epstein 14) points out that most rural home are left without youths as they stream to cities in search of employment opportunities. This habit has led to highly populated cities filled mainly by the youths.
There is also a clear shift in the gender roles especially in the African and Muslim communities. Duties previously preserved for men only are today filled by ladies as well. Most Muslims and Indians for example, preserved domestic duties for women; men were to be single bread winner.
These attitudes are being eroded among the contemporary youths especially as the world economy becomes tougher. The economic situation calls for men and women to complement each others’ effort. As a result, young ladies are now striving for competitive positions; there are calls for affirmative action in many nations that have not yet created a conducive environment for women to compete favorably with men.
Women are struggling for representation in political positions, in order to be able to articulate their issues appropriately. Many countries especially in Africa and the Arab countries had little or sometimes no women representation in parliaments (Scrase & Holdden 43). Today with the widespread crusade on gender issues and the need to have women representatives in various offices, changes are being instituted to allow women hold office positions.
Many have pointed out the many positive effects associated with globalization especially in promoting economic growth among nations. It is also clear that globalization has contributed to the erosion of religious identities, traditional values and social identity among communities in the world. The opening up of the nation’s boundaries has indicated security threats especially in the wake of terrorism and piracy along some coastal lines.
The September 11 incidence is still clear in the minds of the people. The increased global economic integration is being enhanced day after day. There is a global need to unite and fight terrorism which has become a global problem now. The unity forged among nations to fight terrorism is an avenue for further global engagement among nations. The youths have become targets of the terrorism groups; they are often recruited as members of the groups and involve themselves in execution of terrorism activities (Nayak 28).
Conclusion
Globalization has been viewed by many as a blessing in disguise. This is because both the positive and negative benefits associated with it. Many studies of the globalizations phenomenon have focused more on the economic and social aspects globalization and dissociated it from the cultural impact. Youth culture especially comes at the centre of globalization effects on culture.
As pointed out, globalization did open up boundaries of nations allowing sharing of information on various issues. This has impacted much on the way of life of the youths across the world. Most of the media and information platforms for sharing information across the world favor the youths. The internet for example as a tool of communication is big fascination to the youths. Social networking platforms such as face book are fashionable communication channels for the contemporary youths.
As a result of the fast and reliable communication channels acts as a fan to the spread of youth culture. Parents are at pains seeing the type of culture their young ones are growing up with. The adults have little control over their youths considering the free flow of information that the youths are exposed to in the media.
They tend to copy most of their ways of life from the media and spread out to other youths. The trend has been set; the momentum towards a highly integrated world is receiving support from all over. The future of the youth culture is set to be more common across the world as they continue to share common information and copy one another in terms of culture.
Effort is needed to mitigate the negative aspects of globalization on the youth culture such as violence, crime and drug abuse (Scrase & Holdden 17). Further research is recommended in the area of the effect of globalization on the youth culture so as to come up with proper mitigation mechanisms of the negative effects as well as how to promote the positive aspects of globalization on youth culture.
Works Cited
Steinberg, Shirley, & Parmar, Priya. Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia, Volume 2. New York: Greenwood press, 2006.
Osgerby, Bill. Youth Media. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Epstein, Jonathon. Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 1998.
Hall, Stuart, & Jefferson Tony. Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Lerner, Jacqueline, & Lerner Richard. Adolescence in America: A-M. California: ABC-CLIO Inc., 2006.
Nayak, Anoop. Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in A Changing World. New York: Berg, 2003.
Scrase, Timothy, & Holdden Miles. Globalization, Culture and Inequality in Asia. Hawaii: Trans Pacific, 2003