The words “thank you” and “you’re welcome” seem to have been misplaced somewhere within the past years. Every week | go to my local Starbucks to enjoy a nice tea while I work on homework and study. While doing my work I cannot help but glance at a group of teens who enter the shop. One by one each of them order a drink, and as they pick up their drink I pay close attention to see if any drink may be worth trying on my next visit. After watching them receive their drinks I am disgusted, but not by the drinks themselves.
Here is where the problem persists; when handed their drink not a single one of these teenagers gave a simple thank you. I stand by as seven teens grab their drinks and dart out as if the barista did not put time and effort into making their drink. When the group of teens leave the restaurant the door is opened for them by a middle aged man, and to my surprise no thank you was given again. Enraged by what I had just seen it drove me to question if common courtesy, and respect have skipped a generation. I can safely say that youth does not show elders the respect that was once present.
The lack of respect within teens and young adults must start from nowhere else then directly inside the home itself. If a child has lack of discipline and respect for his own household than you can expect nothing but the same when he is out and about in the real world. The parent or legal guardian is on of the biggest impact on a child’s life. It is a parent’s job to teach their child how to be show respect and be courteous towards their elders and even those who are not much wiser than him or herself. Where the home is located also plays a large part in the development of a fine young adult.
Children who are born into neighborhoods of crime and poverty may also have a harder time adapting to being respectful in an environment where kindness could be mistaken for weakness. Although parents are the biggest influence on a child’s life, they are not always to blame. I believe that knowledge in young adults is greater than before making them believe that an elder should not be shown respect if they present a higher level of knowledge. My mother tells me stories of how she knew nothing about the outside world while growing up because my grandmother kept her sheltered and fed her what she felt she needed to know.
At a young age my mother began to sneak out and party becoming pregnant with me at only sixteen never making it passed her freshman year of high school. While raising me my mother lifted these walls allowing me to have freedom to do the things she could not. With the freedom I was given and the grades I obtained I began to see myself as superior to my family. Not a single soul could tell me what to do because I believed no one presented any knowledge higher than mine making me far from the golden child. Youth have lost respect due to the media and how it perceives what it means to be cool and how to act cool.
As a teen my friends and I would bully other kids just for everyone to think we were better than everyone else. Although I was raised in a household where disrespect was not tolerate the media portrayed an image that I wanted to have which went against everything that my parents taught me about showing respect towards others. The obsession to have a chip on my shoulder when really that wasn’t the case caused me to be the person I now despise, so when I look at kids now and see a replay of my past I often feel bad for the hold the media has on them.
Media has grown over the years with advancements in technology which for me is the icing on the cake when it comes to why the children of today are so distant from any communication with their elders. I was once guilty of being the teen who would lock the door and ignore any family that came to visit, and I often look back and see how rude my actions were. With so much technology and social media distracting the population it’s hard for family to establish connections with their children. Technology often leads to rude habits that teens demonstrate when you try and speak to them while they look at their phone.
Ten years ago a cell phone was uncommon and was definitely not in the possession of any children at the time. The sad truth is that the youth is becoming increasingly disrespectful as each day passes and there is not only one person to blame. Whether one thinks parenting or any other category is what has caused this sudden change in attitude the cold truth is it is undeniably there. Times change but it doesn’t mean that our attitude has too as well. Maybe this generation I was born into might have dropped the ball on what it means to be a respectable young adult, but I hope that does not mean that all that follow are doomed as well.
