Jan. 2011 RISING VOICES: POINT/COUNTERPOINT: Have technology, media changed youth for the better?

By AUTUMN SANDLIN

Our generation is getting older, and so are the things we grew up with as children.

Between the 1990s and the millennium it seems like every aspect of our culture did a massive 360 for the better.

Of course, the youth of each decade has its defining attributes. Take fashion, for instance.

You have the hippies of the 1960s and '70s, the hairspray lovers of the '80s, and then big explosion of everything known as the '90s. So many trends have come and gone over the past, but many of those seem to be appearing in the fashion of today.

Today's youth have the past trends at our fingertips and have used them to create our own style, a more diverse way of dressing.

A huge factor that makes this generation of youth culture better than the past is the rapidly changing and improving technology. We literally have the entire world at our fingertips now. While this can produce laziness in some, it’s also a huge advantage to us. We can instantly connect to information from a computer or phone, and in turn we’ve become much more plugged in to what’s happening at every second in our world.

Social networking sites have become a large staple in the lives of teenagers today, as well. They’ve helped launch music careers and friendships. They’ve opened the communication outlet even wider. Everything is geared toward the present, and that makes things much more relatable.

With technology come unique dangers, but it also has created ways to protect us while we enjoy chatting up our friends online. 

Television shows that are made for teens and pre-teens all include things that are relevant to today, such as technology and pop culture references, making shows that much more enjoyable.

Be it fashion, technology, television, what have you. Today’s youth culture is better than those of the past.

Autumn Sandlin is a junior at Elizabethtown High School.