Young people and Fun

It is generally accepted that young people today are far more knowledgeable about the world, and have much more information at their fingertips than did their parents at the same age. They are also, in many ways, more cosmopolitan and open minded than their parents, even though many of them may not have travelled out of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Their confidence and awareness have come through several avenues, with the main ones being higher levels of education and of course, television and Internet access, with the latter now seeming as essential for life as air and water.

We regularly celebrate their successes, as many of them continue to make the country and their parents proud on the regional and international academic scene.

But in the same way that our young people’s world view has been influenced by television, social media and the music they listen to, so too has what they consider to be fun.

The same social media that plays such an important role in how they are socialized, is what exposes to the world, the lapses in judgement some of them display from time to time.

The older generation also had moments when their behaviour was less than acceptable, but lucky for them, there were no cell phones equipped with video cameras to record every move they made, nor was there the Internet which makes it possible for inappropriate behaviour to be shared with the rest of the world within seconds.

Last Saturday, hundreds of young people were involved in a ‘road show’ event marketed to the under-30 crowd. The event has apparently been taking place annually for years, but it took an accident involving one of over 40 of the minibuses hired for the event to bring the event to national attention.

Thankfully, none of the people involved in the accident were seriously injured, but along with the reports of the crash have come other reports. The secondary reports are of the conduct of some of the participants in the road show, mostly female, and these reports are supported by video evidence.

The videos expose to the world, behaviour that makes one question how could some of our young people be so well informed on one hand, yet exhibit such poor judgement on the other.

What is seen on those videos cannot, by any stretch of the imagination be considered as young people just having ‘fun’. There is nothing ‘funny’ about young women gyrating their rear ends, while sticking them out of the windows of moving vehicles to the cheers of bystanders and other passengers in the vehicle. How could a driver give his full attention to taking his passengers safely to their destination while such a ruckus is taking place all around him?

Young people, by all means have your fun, but please keep your heads on while doing so. Don’t sacrifice a bright future for a few moments of ‘fun’.