Ill Effects of Global Media-Driven Youth Subculture - Essay Example

The Ill Effects of the Global Media-Driven Youth Subculture This paper seeks to address the query, "what considerations should be foremost in our analyses of youth in the twenty-first century How do these differ from past research" In doing so, a brief overview of the presumptions on which this paper is based would be presented, followed by a recounting of relevant sociological theories of the past regarding youth culture. In such recounting, differences between this paper and past studies will be presented. What follows this presentation of differences is a presentation of similarities between the two and an analysis as to what specific areas in the field of youth (sub)-cultural studies need more attention and understanding, given the status quo. In attempting to pinpoint these areas, I focus on the altering power that the communication medium, which is that of the internet, along with its accoutering entailments (i.e. blogging, podcasting, engaging in online discussions, video chatting, plain surfing). I then argue that there is a continuously forming youth internet culture, which is more perverse than theorists, who would highlight the empowering function of the internet for the youth, would like to believe. This paper's focus on the internet is novel in the sense that it argues that activities borne by the medium have great socialising power and are responsible for dramatically changing youth identities and youth culture itself for the worse. On one level, the status of being rather nameless and faceless, or the anonymity that the internet lends to a youth, tends to give the same a feeling of being licensed to act in anyway he/she desires. On a more collective level, a multitude of youths subsequently feeling this way forms a new youth subculture of irresponsibility in the internet. On another level, there also exists a problem with giving too much personal information in the web. As by-products of this liberated and unrestrained use of the internet, new menaces such as sexual exploitation of the youth, consensual sex between a minor and an adult, cyber-bullying, and identity fraud, to name just a few, are formed. Unlike scholars and experts who highlight the benefits, whether for the individual youth or the collective, that the internet brings, this paper veers toward alarming the readers of the condensing culture of irresponsibility and unaccountability among the youth which, as aforementioned, is brought about by the quite impenetrable anonymity that the internet affords them. Presumptions This essay proceeds with certain presumptions in mind. First, there is never a specific and fixed definition of culture, youth culture or otherwise. There will always be nuances and distinctiveness among the different cultures among countries, among regions, within countries, and even within localities. Hence, there is a need to specify which subculture one is probing into, otherwise analysis would be flawed by the logical fallacy of hasty generalisation. For this paper, what is being studied is a youth subculture which is not necessarily tied down in one specific geographic location, but rather is existing in cyber space, a place wherein distance is banished by such things as real-time conversations and video conferences. With this said, the second presumption then would be that this paper's 'youth' are the young users of the aforementioned internet features, who as a result have formed convenient mediated relations with people outside their own regions, countries, and localities. These are the youths who have access to the internet whether in their own homes or outside (i.e. in internet cafs, at peer's homes, etc.) and who do any, a combination, or all of the following: blogging, podcasting, engaging in online discussions, video chatting, and/or simply surfing the World Wide Web. Differentiated from previous studies What sets this paper apart from prior sociological standpoints on the issue of youth is its argument that although, on the one hand, the youth often use the internet to be able to form new 'communities', 'affiliations', and/or 'relationships' or to strengthen already existing ones, there, nevertheless, forms an ironical new subculture of detachment and irresponsibility which is rather highly influenced by hedonistic desires usually attributed to the youth of the twenty-first century. For contrast, here is an overview of previous literature on subject of youth culture. In them the usual sub-cultural styles include: Those grounded on music and taking drugs and on the freedom to set off on adventurous journeys (i.e. techno music and ecstasy, clubbing, traveling around the world). Those probing into young people's usual diurnal experiences, such as, sibling rivalry, landing paid employment, and street life. Those focused on such topics as the demonisation by gangs, the stereotyping of the youth by various media, and the power possessed by the youth to resist adult control of their lives. Moreover, while others concentrated on the day-time ethos of production and argued that the same is not necessarily undermined by the youth culture subterranean values (i.e. the search for excitement and risk), the classical American delinquency tradition, on the other hand, described how the youth react to thoughts and feelings of alienation and marginalisation by affiliating with groups of similarly situated others and forming an alternative [or deviant] value system. And still, while others focused on the aforementioned, other sociologists see more to the youth than delinquency and non-delinquency. For instance, in the 1970s, researchers at the University of Birmingham (at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies - the CCCS) forecasted a proactive and reactive youth, a youth who assertively expressed their dissatisfaction with the dominant system through symbolic rituals and outlandish/shocking styles.1 And finally, more recently, late twentieth century youth subculture theorists focus on the rave subculture. They have argued that members of this supposedly postmodern youth group are less overtly political and confrontational than those of past sub-cultural generations.2 Similarly, classical social movement theorist Alberto Mellucci (1996) has called attention to the apparent banishment of political action among the youth of 1990s and twenty-first century, as compared to previous decades. Despite the distinctiveness, still, this paper borrows from such authorities in the field of sociology such as Dick Hebdige, specifically as regards his dual treatment of the youth as 'youth as trouble', on the one hand, and 'youth-as-fun', on the other hand. (Hebdige 1988) Moreover, this paper also takes into consideration theorists' focus on the "liminial positioning of youth" (James 1986) which focuses only on the boundaries which define the teenage years --- "boundaries of exclusion which define what young people are not, cannot do or cannot be." (James 1986) Legal classifications are included in such boundaries, for instance, "the age at which young people can drink alcohol, earn money, join the armed forces or consent to sexual intercourse." (James 1986) And yet, the term 'youth' is also used as referring to individuals aged 16-25 which bears no correlation with any of the diverse legal classifications of childhood or adulthood. Thus this paper agrees with James when she said that "the age of the physical body is used to define, control and order the actions of the social body [but] such precise accounting is relatively ineffective, representing merely unsuccessful attempts to tame time by chopping it up into manageable slices." (James 1986). Descriptive from previous studies Hence, without necessarily concentrating on the nomenclatorial function of years to categorise people (by age), the following question is asked: What now should be given primary focus when studying youth culture As can be seen above, different aspects of youth culture have been focused into by different theorists during different eras. What then should be given import when looking at the youth culture of the twenty-first century I opine that such factor which should be given primacy in sociological studies is the medium of the internet because the same is a very strong socialisation tool in today's times. As aforementioned in this paper's introduction, the internet continuously condenses a culture among the youth which is marked by irresponsibility and unaccountability which, again, is brought about by the quite impenetrable anonymity that the internet affords them. These lead to the creation of an ironical new subculture whereby, on the one hand, the youth utilise the internet to the end of forming new 'communities', 'affiliations', and/or 'relationships' or of strengthening already existing ones and, on the other hand detachment and irresponsibility which is grounded on the hedonistic desires usually attributed to the youth of the twenty-first century ensue, are nevertheless formed. Just what describe these young users of the internet What are the underlying motives for their engaging into this medium Community-forming One function of the internet for the youth is to make for them communities or peer groups with which they share the same interests and with whom they communicate through the interface systems of, say web blogs such as MySpace, Xanga, and Friendster. In Chris Abbott's "Making Connections: Young People and the Internet" (1998), he argued that "publishing on the Web for young people is motivated by the desire to participate in, or create, some kind of 'community'" (Abbott 1998) To substantiate his position, Abbott cites McLaughlin, Osborne and Smith (1995) who "justify their description of Usenet authors (early Internet chat groups) as a virtual community along these lines." (Abbott 1998) They identify the key principles of 'discourse processes' and 'social structures' (McLaughlin, Osborne and Smith (1995) found within these early forms of computer mediated communication (CMC) and make the case that finding such data constitutes defining CMC as evidence of a kind of community, 'discourse processes generate social structures, which in turn affect discourse processes' (McLaughlin, Osborne and Smith 1995). Although at face value, this community-forming function of blogs seem to be harmless, it is not completely so. This is because even though most of these sites are open only to individuals aged 18 or older, most sites do not utilise age verification tools. As a result, younger blog users can fake or lie about their date of births when creating their own personal blogs. The implication of this is two-fold. First, it underlines the problem of twisted anonymity and even, identity alteration, whether innocent or fraudulent, that plagues cyberspace, and second, it places the youth in a venue where he is not supposed to be in, for good reasons --- among others, pornographic pictures that somehow circumvented the checks of the website and lewd writings. In such a place, the youth is very much vulnerable to exploitation. Leaving childhood too soon Speaking about the implications of this relative ease in accessing adult material, many have the opinion that in increasing numbers, the children today leave their childhood behind more quickly than those of previous generations. This translates, also, to the youth entering the psychological sphere of the adults earlier on. However, note that this does not necessarily equate to people being matured at a faster pace, even though this may be the case for some people. Rather, it is the opposite of maturity and a sense of responsibility that this paper looks at. Mr. David Buckingham, Director for the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media of the Institute of Education, in the University of London, notes that the media construct youth in their own way, and the internet, being one of the most potent medium today, tends to end childhood quicker and to protract the period of youth. In intervening with the socialisation of children, the internet is "disrupting what used to be a more staid process, by offering children a chance at youth earlier on." (Buckingham 2004) This departure from childhood may be quite abstract and far-fetched if one is not to take into consideration the content of the medium. To appreciate Buckingham's argument, the reader should take into account the unrestricted creation of cyber worlds. Pictures, writings, music, videos, and the like are uploaded at will, without stringent censure. And even if there was some form of screening who may view, listen or read these things, again, the ease of faking one's identity and personal information makes access to this throve of data which are targeted for 'consumption' by the youth and young adults (with these groups relatively mature state in mind), very easy for minors who are expressly prohibited from viewing, listening, and reading the same. Moreover, the youth can easily access dating websites wherein meeting people, with age ranging from teens to those well over 65, online is only the tip of the iceberg - - - the rest of the iceberg being any of the following: recruitment for white slavery, 'live' sex shows through PC cameras, 'eyeballing' which often includes sexual solicitation, online sexual solicitation, cyber-bullying, exposure to sexual material online, among many other ill happenstances. A survey, Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later reveals the developments in these areas of youth interaction in the internet by comparing their Youth Internet Safety Survey (YISS-1) of 1999-200 to that of their Youth Internet Safety Survey (YISS-2) of 2005. In brief, the findings are as follows: Compared to YISS-1, YISS-2 reveals an increase in the proportions of youth Internet users who were coming across exposures to sexual material which they did not seek. There was also an increase in online harassment. In a more positive note, however, there was a decrease in the proportion of youth receiving unwanted sexual solicitations. In YISS-2 more than a third (34%) of youth Internet users "saw sexual material online they did not want to see." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) Also, despite the increased use of blocking, monitoring and filtering software in the households of youth Internet users, still, there was an increase in exposure to unwanted sexual material. Furthermore, online harassment similarly increased. From 6% in YISS-1 to 9% YISS- Also, 4% "of all youth Internet users in YISS-2 said online solicitors asked them for nude or sexually explicit photographs of themselves." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) Among these solicitors, 75% asked to meet in person, 34% called on the telephone, 18% went to youths' homes, 12% gave gifts, money, or other items, 9% sent snail mail, and 3% bought tickets for youth's travel. Most, importantly, YISS-2 reveals that "acquaintances played a growing role in many of the unwanted solicitation incidents. In YISS-2, 14% of solicitations were from offline friends and acquaintances compared to only 3% in YISS-1. The same was true of harassers." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) In terms of creating a new youth subculture, the implications of these are far-reaching and many. The phenomena change the views and feelings of the youth toward engaging in sex and establishing family lives. As Kenneth Minogue, author of the article the New Epicureans succinctly elucidated on the culture of detachment embracing the youth of the twenty-first century, "If we apply the calculus of "rational choice" family life might well be seen as the solution to a problem whose time has gone. Sex and companionship are easily available without the trouble and expense of setting up one's own dedicated facilities. This release from practical necessity is another aspect of our liberation from biology as destiny. And along with that liberation has come a significant change in how we construe a human life. The traditional recognition that, organically speaking, we go through the stages of youth, maturity, and senescence, corresponding to innocent youthful dreaming, to purposive achievement, and ultimately to serene wisdom, has been lost. In the past, these were the inescapable modes of human experience." In his poetic style, Minogue further argues that, "today human development is curiously flatter; modalities have disappeared. Children unwrap the gifts of life at a tender age and are already launched on a parody of adulthood by their early teens." (Minogue 2001) Importance of focusing on the new youth internet culture More extensive and comprehensive studies are called for in understanding the strengthening new youth internet culture, if we are to effectively curb the ill accouterments that this culture carries. As earlier mentioned, the evils of white slavery, 'live' sex shows, sexual solicitation, cyber-bullying, and exposure to sexual material online, which are closely entwined with the anonymity and irresponsibility that surround the youth's internet experiences, are as real and in existence as the evils of other prevalent problematic youth cultures drug use and gang membership. For instance, there is an urgent need to "address the group dynamics of Internet use". (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) It should be acknowledged, that a good number of cases of sexual solicitations, exposure, and harassment happen when young people use the Internet in groups. Surveys show that "a lot of youth were not alone when they engaged in risky sexual behavior and rudeness and harassment of others." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) Hence, there is a need to know more about the interplay of these instances and tailor prevention messages to include events where young people use the Internet together with their peers. Also, learning how exposure to sexual material could deleteriously impact the youth's sexual development, should be looked into for the sake of highlighting the evils of doing so. Recommendations Nobody wishes for the degradation of society's youth. And while the phenomenon of youth internet culture is still a rather gray area of which no comparatively comprehensive study has been undertaken, an enumeration of measures to prevent the evil of this new youth culture, is essential in order to curb the worsening of the same. The following recommendations are addressed both to the youth and parties responsible for creating websites and these websites' safety features. Cease giving personal information or over-information Usually, youth victims of the aforementioned internet evils, have experienced harassment which extends to their real physical locations due to their posting or telling too much personal information on the world wide web or when communicating with strangers through instant messaging. Although, "it is not clear what kinds of information are particularly problematic, or exactly what the risks are with respect to the different situations in which youth disclose personal information online." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006)the general warning that should be followed is to not post personal details to the public at-large at all. Increase solicitation prevention messages "While prevention should be aimed at youth of all ages, it should particularly focus on preteens and teensThe concentration of risk among older youth, [as found in YISS-2], means online protection requires an approach tailored to adolescents because, when we talk about online sexual solicitations of youth we are mainly talking about youth in middle and high school." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006)These prevention measures, however, should be customised as not suppress the youth's "independence and developmental interests including their natural curiosity about and interest in sex and romance." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) Supplying love, companionship and romance Moreover, in paying attention to the youth who are vulnerable to sexual solicitations, to simply emphasise the dangers of rape, assault, and abduction, is insufficient. "Internet exploiters know many teens are susceptible to romantic fantasies, illusions of love, and desires for companionship. Prevention messages about sexual solicitation need to address this vulnerability." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) Messages are needed to forewarn and remind the youth regarding how some adults who utilise the Internet to interact and establish sexual relationships with them are usually committing crimes and have high tendencies to putting themselves, as well as their partners in trouble. Telling reality as it is There is also a necessity for prevention messages to be straightforward and honest with teens regarding "the potential risks of sexual activities on the Internet including going to X-rated web sites, talking online about sex with people they do not know in person, and engaging in cybersex." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) Knowledge regarding what is against the law is important for the youth to acquire. Underline reporting options People need to acquaint themselves with whom to turn to in to report suspicious or outright ill incidents. It is important for them to know "where to find law enforcement online, and where to find other administrative authorities who may take action." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) Develop internet accountability Finally, "incentives for enhancing community and prosocial behavior and establishing positive norms [should be increased]. A good example of a norm-promoting and offense-discouraging system is the one eBay uses. It promotes feedback about sellers and allows buyers and sellers to see the reputation of the person with whom they are dealing. eBay knows they have to create confidence and trust in their territory or people will not use it." (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2006) Conclusion In this paper, it has been shown that one of the most dominant youth cultures of the twenty-first century is that of the youth Internet culture. It was shown that because of the relative anonymity that the medium provides for the youth, they go online feeling at liberty to do just about whatever their liking dictates. This produces a youth Internet culture that is characterised by irresponsibility. Aside from anonymity and the ripples of irresponsibility it creates, the point about the partial demise of traditional notions of relationships has also been discussed. It has been argued that the new Epicureans of the twenty-first century come in the form of the youth whose internet experience is comprised of non-committal relationships, which at best blossom to friendships, and at worse, to exploitation and harassment. All these despite the proposed initial purpose of the youth in entering the cyberspace and engaging with other people, in the first place --- that of creating communities, affiliations, and relationships. This purpose in turn, has been impliedly described as caused by the youth's need for love, romance, and companionship. Closing this paper was a call for action seeking for a more detailed and comprehensive study of the new youth internet culture. This was coupled with a list of preventive measures. This list is yet to be further developed, and is still awaiting a more substantial study of the said youth internet culture in order to lend accuracy and comprehensiveness to it. BIBLIOGRAPHY Abbott, C. 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Cybersociety, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 138-163. McRobbie, A. (1993). 'Shut up and dance: youth culture and changing modes of femininity.' Cultural Studies 7, 406-26. Melucci, A. (1996). Challenging codes: Collective action in the age of information. New York: Cambridge University Press. Minogue, K. (2001). 'The New Epicureans.' New Criterion. 20:1, 6. Wolak, J., Mitchell, K., and Finkelhor, D. (c2006) Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later [Online]. University of Hampshire: Crimes Against Children Research Center. Available from: http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf [Accessed 11 May 2007] Read More