Before analysing today’s youth, one must remember the pinch of salt that there never was a golden age when everyone behaved perfectly and there was food for all and creeks ran with pepsi and it rained donuts. That time didn’t exist, believe it or not. Today’s youth are just another of an endless procession of generations, and indeed the gterm ‘generation’ is difficult to define considering the fact that humans don’t come together to mate every twenty years in a giant church hall orgy. Loosely speaking, Generation Y or the youth of today, are those who followed Generation X, but let us all take a pinch of salt and not over generalise.

To speak of any generation as being ‘lost’ implies that the sheep of yore had grazed safely and happily under a watchful shepherd’s loving eyes. This is not the case, and such romantic nostalgia only leads to an easy way out from every issue facing today’s youth. Blame today’s youth. That simply will not help anything, and merely makes a scapegoat out of an arbitrary group of people of a hugely varying nature. Let us not forget that only a small percentage of ‘today’s youth’ live in democratic and well off nations, and even in those many are disadvantaged. Thus the problems of ‘today’s youth’ are many and varied, and one can only analyse them rationally by considering the problems as being universal ones and not restricted to this century.

The first thing which comes to mind which has apparently tempted some lambs to stray into a field of bulls and mines is technology. Every analysis of the negative nature of today’s youth considers technology. But there was a time when reading books was considered weak and bad for a growing boy. Let us not be afraid of new things, unless they bear horns and a trident. ‘Technology’, as with any tools and resources, can be used and abused by anyone with access to it. However there is the argument that the isolation caused by cyberliving taking up more time than ‘real life’, leads to social and mental problems.

There is of course the moral issue, but today’s generation is hardly a newcome pioneer in that respect. However ignorance and a lack of appreciation of the worth of morals and values does exist. A laziness in regards to moral improvement is prevalent, and there is a worrying lack of enterprise in self-improvement of any kind. Beyond looking ‘hot’ and being ‘popular’, today’s youth appear to have very little interest in self-improvement. There is also a disillusionment and negativity, which is of course perfectly understandable, especially among disadvantaged youths, but also among many socially unhealthy gentlefolk.

The pace of life has increased dramatically, and the complexity this brings has also likewise risen. Life is more chaotic and unpredictable, there is more change, less belief in the future, more savage and sensual appreciation of the present, and less appreciation of the lessons of the past. There is an animal force in today’s youth, a resentment formed from disillusionment and forming into a rut of negative behaviour patterns. A wish to be free, with the new-found rational enlightenment, and a wish to be safe, from new-found threats such as terror attacks, global wars, internet hackers etc, combine in a battle in today’s youth.

A wish to do good and to live in an earnest and proper manner, a wish to live justly and honestly, is lacking. Where there does exist an interest in bettering this world, it is often in conflict with another idealist’s opinion. Much of today’s youth have little time to spend considering such problems, less so acting upon them. Yes, they need direction. But so do today’s grown ups. Sheep will need shepherds.