A restless generation…

I have been asking myself this question often of late. “What is the world coming to?” As I flip through the news each day, I get fed (in regular dosages) with news of crimes from all over the world and what’s becoming an alarming trend is the wrong doers are getting younger and younger.

This is definitely apparent in all the recent (and alarmingly frequent) random and mindless school shootings, kidnapping, robbery and even murder cases around the globe.

It is often said that the younger generation is the hope and future of our nations, and I shudder to think what kind of future we would have in this world if these are the type of behavior the generations are going to exhibit.

Which makes me wonder, just what on earth were these people thinking really? What exactly is being taught in school these days? What kind of values is being inculcated to the generations?

I recently had a conversation with a young girl, fresh out of college and just starting out her new job. She shared with me some of her experiences during college days, her life abroad and some of the stuff she did then, and I must say, her views (some of which), on some issues disturbs me.

Some of the things she and her friends did include trying to experiment killing the janitor’s dog, strangling one another (I don’t know why, probably to see how far one could go before dying of asphyxia?), getting drunk (which by the way is getting common with adults as well) and err.. “dunking” their friends into dustbins.

She stated as a matter of fact that it happened because they had a lot of time on their hands and were too free. And she isn’t alone. There are many other youngsters like her out there who have done similar and perhaps even more atrocious stuff. Let’s not go there.

Which led me to this conclusion: many of the youngsters out there are restless. They have so much energy, resources and time on their hands that they don’t know what to do with it.

There isn’t a goal or objective of some sort to guide them and allow them to “channel” all that energy and talent into something that connects with them and makes them feel meaningful to be a part of.

In essence, I feel they lack direction and meaning in life.

Maybe, that’s why they are directing their attention and energy on experimenting with “unconventional” erm.. activities, they are, afterall, young and fearless.

I have often wondered what would happen if more youngsters were engaged in projects, clubs, societies, charity work and the likes. Would there be a lesser “showcase” of problematic behaviour in our society today?

I mean, their zeal, energy and maybe even time is something that could serve them well if they know how to use it properly and it’s also something we could tap on, no?

I honestly feel that our society these days are not including the youths into our activities enough or perhaps, we are just too busy with “more important things to worry about”.

Oh well, that’s just my random opinion.