Do you remember the days when getting a bad grade would feel like the end of the world? When you would rather be swallowed by the ground than tell your parents about it, or ever worse, your friends? Many people nowadays can`t even fathom such a world ever existed. At the present moment, the pressure comes from elsewhere; being highly perceived by your peers lies in the material possessions you flaunt and the level of recklessness you exhibit rather than your performance in school or your hobbies. The difference is striking and the bud of this brisk shift rests somewhere deeper.
Looking from the inside outward, this rapid change came from a desperate need of rebellion. If we were to rewind the clock 30 years prior to today we would discover a society where everyone worked towards the same goal, where being a straight-A student or getting into college were the number one priorities of a teenager, whereas now this concept is associated with suppression. Therefore, people felt that they needed a way out, a break from reality that soon became popular with the young, who perceive themselves as caged animals, forbidden of their freedom.
Just like Madonna sung in one of her best known songs, we live in a material world. This results in people placing more importance on the palpable things in life rather than on the quality of the soul. Consequently, this is the core factor that determined teenagers to become judgemental of others appearance or material belongings. Even the most casual observer can spot that the social repartition in a class is done abiding by the said criterion.
To put it simply Bob Dylan said it best: "The Times Are A Changin' ". What we call reality today was once an obscure, ambiguous idea. From the looks of it, the present isn`t as bright of a place as our parents hoped it would be but it is up to us, the rising youth, to decide. Where do your priorities lie?