The Role of Globalization in the Social Construction of Youth Cultures - Essay Example

Name: xxxxx Tutor: xxxxx Title: The Role of Globalization in the Social Construction of Youth Cultures Institution: xxxxx Date: xxxxx Introduction Globalization of culture is highly practiced within the changing nature of the connection between youths in the world and their various sense of identity. Eckersley (2008) argues that due to globalization, world’s youth are considered as part of a community group who are perceived to be receptive and susceptible to the foreign cultural practices. According to Nayak and Kehily (2008) argue that if childhood suggests acceptance, while adulthood reflects conservatism, it is apparent that youth means rebelliousness. The impacts of globalization on the culture of youths are not uniform. Globalization is defined as ‘the intensification of wide-reaching social relations that links distant localities in a manner that the local happenings are entirely shaped by the various events that occur many miles away. The study focuses on the effect of globalization and identity of the young people in a society. This is through understanding what globalization means and its effects on youths based on the cultural and technological changes within societies (Held & McGrew 2003). However Nayak et al. (2008) observes that globalization must be primarily regarded as the interdependence of societies on a large or global scale with a concern on the existing associations as well as those that can be easily built up globally among individuals, communities, states and organizations. As a result, youths are the most directly affected group of people by globalization, and thus turned out to be central to the current debates on self- identity. This is simply because youp people are experiencing globalization on their daily basis through the various employment patterns, their developed friendship groups, how they use the internet mainly for their social networking and the broader cultural influences on their respective lifestyles (Kenway & Bullen 2008). Most young people are surrounded by various ‘dizzying array of signals and symbolic resources that are dislodged from their traditional moorings as the core targets of the global consumer cultures. Such cultures are gradually more targeted with various messages about the global social problems that affects the youths in societies (Dolby & Rizvi 2008).  The response of young people to the increased challenges of living within a global society Youth display various responses to globalization. Based on the issue of youths living and growing up within a world dominated with risks and uncertainties, for instance, most of the workplaces are no longer considered permanent places with both bonds of identity and loyalty as well as the sense of purpose. Such uncertainties varies in accordance to the cultural and social contexts, and thus leading to the need to establish whether a number of young people own the cultural and financial resources that can enable them to offset the various risks associated with such changes that cause stability within the workplaces. In addition, globalization has resulted into the expansion of the available choices to the young people. However, the question remains to be the need to discover on what criteria as well as what kind of skills, knowledge and values support the youths make their. Bullen (2009) argues that there exists a tendency normally re-enforced through the opinion surveys which involve young people that perceive the effects of globalization to be uncontrollable. Therefore, globalization is considered as a process through which young people react to rather than involving in active negotiation. This implies that youths are purely the passive vulnerable victims of the global change. As a result, they cannot control the pace or the direction of their social change, but can only have a say on the effect of such changes on their lives. This suggests that though the youths seem not to be powerless in relation to the global change, it is apparent that their economic status provides an understanding that majority of them are vulnerable in comparison to the other social group to uncertainties and risks that are associated with both economic and cultural globalization. Most of the youths make use of the wide span global media in order to express themselves (Miles 2000). Young people largely participate in the social relations, make use of and invent technologies, comprise the target markets as they produce their own original media as well as formulate modes of citizenship from the various ideologies they develop, sustain and disrupt. As a result, the use of the notion youthscape within the epistemological spirit of globalization framework, conceive the youths as a changing group of people presented as a simultaneously and deeply ideological category. Various studies on consumer investigations have addressed the young people’s application of commercial culture in their everyday lives. For instance, teenagers’ utilization of advertising is the most notably where youths have demonstrated how ads become the key topics for global playground discussions as well as become part of developing and maintaining their social relations, and thus removing such ads from their respective commercial environment into their everyday lives. Furthermore, creativity which indicates that the young audience is noticeable in the manner in which they relate to their varied inter-textual commercials in addition to the production of new meanings through relating to different texts from diverse fields of popular culture to each another. The existing commercial symbols are continuously being transformed as they are applied in the new situations are attached to the latest and multiple referents (Bourn 2003). Citizenship and Consumption As globalization creates an explosion of both products and images from which the young consumers can choose and as the modernist identity programs of unity and development break down, the emerging questions are how the young consumers construct significant identities as well as how strategies of identity can be evoked as both lifestyles and subcultures fragment (Mayo 2005). Therefore, the construction of young people as the transitional category of citizenship provides an understanding of the role of a state in defining youth and reflects the importance of age in the political management of various social relations by a state. The perception of "youth-as-transition" has not only been culturally constructed, but also considered necessary in the division of both labor and the hierarchical material relations that are specific to different forms of capitalist states. Through the combination of worldwide consumptionscapes and instant incorporation of various styles by the global market, identifies the young as distinctive consumers that are faced with a wide range of styles from which the youths can easily choose in the construction of their interested lifestyles (Harris, 2004). Young people and their identity Globalization greatly impacts youths in complex ways, and as a result forces them to continuously re-think and revise their own sense of identity as well as place within the society they stay in. This indicates that the lives of young people are increasingly being influenced by the new trends such as social, cultural and technological. According to Nayak and Kehily (2008) identities are not only related to the cultural heritage, but also to workplaces, people’s leisure activities as well as consumption behavior. For instance, young people’s consumer behavior is very much related to their respective self-perception. Therefore, through globalization process youths are adapt and recreate within their own images together with their peers as well as other cultural and location influences as they develop identities that reflect such complexities. The increased use of the internet and other new technologies has been identified as the key factors that enable the youths to involve in the recreation of their own identities in a society (Bullen, 2009). In India, youth culture has been undergoing through dramatic changes caused by the phenomenal impact of the communication technology. This has significantly led to the creation of broad as well as open values among the young people coupled with diverse socio-cultural and the educational background in the rural-urban divide. For example, the urban youth has practically come to associate the self-identity with either his or her possession and application of the modern means of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Due to the high influence of technology in their day to day lives, most youths are increasingly faced with the problem of self-identification. A number of adolescents consider gadgets such as cell phones as their most effective tools that aid them in the development of their behavior and personality (Aakhus & Katz 2002). In this case, mobile phones not only provide a statement about the identity of youths based on class, but also shows how the young people expects to be viewed in an external environment. Therefore, on the basis of both inner and outer identity, technology is highly being used in the youth culture in order to project a desirable image to some other people, provide visible personal traits so as to create their identity and to express their social status. Today, most young people irrespective of their various classes or the purchasing power, have the tendency of acquiring the latest and most fashionable consumer products. As a result, business-oriented organizations put such consumer behavior into consideration as they market their new communication technologies (Ryanet al., 2005). The impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on Indian youth is less expected to produce both positive and healthy outcomes in their holistic development of personality. This is because Indian youth are totally exposed to the newly developed patterns of lifestyles based on dressing code, behavior as well as attitudes toward their families, societies that do not match to the intensely entrenched cultural practices and values of India. Therefore, it becomes excruciatingly difficult to make a balance between great traditional values and modern values that flow from the global culture as well as worldwide internet services. This suggests that Indian youth should be cautiously optimistic on how to imbibe the new values without necessarily losing the flexibility and power of old cultural potency of Indian culture. In addition, increased propagation of Information Communication Technology is expected to open up more and new opportunities for the youths of India to effectively compete within the global market in view of the fact that ICT tools would result into greater awareness among the young people to excel in any field of their chosen career (Alvermann 2004) The impact of various communication technologies on the youth has entirely been phenomenal since it has resulted into the creation of broad as well as open values, varied perceptions and attitudes to life, career, new aspirations and expectations. The new generation of youths is duped into the thinking that mobile phones provide them with the feelings of pleasure, entertainment as well as personality enhancement. Additionally, leisure is going digital as it can be identified that computers enable in the de-materialization of music, either through the legal or peer-to-peer networks or in the conversion of empty CDs into some compressed audio files that most youths listen to. This makes the young people to continuously believe that by them possessing some ICT gadgets, they are able to preserve, express as well as confirm the pre-existing social connections, become more culturally broad-minded with extensive education that make them very knowledgeable based on the exchange of updated information in the daily domain of life and experiences (Robson & Feinstein 2007). Young people have the opportunity to access wider choices on how to effectively make use of the latest Information Communication Technologies not only obtain the required information, but also establish other avenues for expanding their socio-cultural relationship globally, at their national and local levels. The Internet is emerging as the easiest and most effective tool of accessing the world wide fashion designs, products of individual physical fitness and the associated beauty and the latest trends within musicology to include the jazz and pop cultures that are highly enjoyed by the youths. This becomes very helpful to the young people who opt for fashion and entertainment as their career fields (Alvermann 2004). Conclusion The impacts of globalization on the culture of youths are not uniform. Globalization should be primarily regarded as the interdependence of societies on a large or global scale with a concern on the existing associations and those that can be easily and globally built up among individuals, communities, states and organizations. Based on both inner and outer identity, technology is highly being used in the youth culture in order to project a desirable image to some other people, provide visible personal traits so as to create their identity and to express their social status. Today, most young people irrespective of their various classes or the purchasing power, have the tendency of acquiring the latest and most fashionable consumer products. Youth display various responses to globalization. A number of adolescents consider gadgets such as cell phones as their most effective tools that aid them in the development of their behavior and personality. The new generation of youths is duped into the thinking that mobile phones provide them with the feelings of pleasure, entertainment as well as personality enhancement. Most of the youths make use of the wide span global media in order to express themselves. Young people largely participate in the social relations, make use of and invent technologies, comprise the target markets as they produce their own original media as well as formulate modes of citizenship from the various ideologies they develop, sustain and disrupt. The impact of various communication technologies on the young people has entirely been phenomenal due to its ability to contribute to the creation of broad and open values, varied perceptions and attitudes to life, career, new aspirations and expectations. Bibliography Eckersley, R. (2008) Values and visions: Youth and the failure of modern wester culture, youth studies Australia, 27(3) pp.10-19 Nayak, A. & Kehily, M, J (2008) Gender Youth Culture: Young Masculinities and Femininities, New York Palgrave chapter 4. Harris, A. (2004). Futur girl: younf women in the 21st century, New York , Routledge, chapter 1 Nayak, A. et al. (2008). Gender, Youth Culture, New York, Palgrave, chapter 4. Ryan, L. et al. (2005). 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