Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
‘YOUNG people are really shallow nowadays’.
‘Oh, you people don’t even read the news’.
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about’.
That’s usually what people my age hear from parents, relatives and people over the age of 30. Aside from the fact that the above statements are broad generalisations, they highlight a serious issue with the way that ‘grown-ups’ perceive young adults.
As the resident GulfWeekly YouthTalk correspondent, I feel honour-bound to set the record straight. Or set the record considerably less wavy than it is right now.
I can see where the adults are coming from: on the surface, we really do seem vapid. We’re a selfie-obsessed, Instagramming, Tweeting, Snapchatting nightmare. We do things ‘for the Vine!’ and take multiple photos of food before even thinking of consuming it. But that’s just surface, they’re the superficial elements that are easy to mock because they’re different from how things used to be 10 years ago.
If anything, we are more aware of the world than the ‘grown-ups’ were at our age. We keep up-to-date on world news and argue passionately about current affairs … all the while being able to keep up with multiple TV shows.
We have a voice: the very fact that I have the platform to argue my case is evidence of this. Young adults are an active part of our society, now more than ever before.
