Is it right to suggest that young people's identities these days are far more 'Individualised' than in earlier generations?

How men and women define themselves in relationship to society is an ongoing concern of sociology. This essay examines the question of regardless of whether young people’s identities are more individualised these days than they were in earlier generations. The question itself is an useful 1 since it indicates that identity is discrete and unique. That thought is in itself modern, so it becomes axiomatic to say that identities are additional “individualised” because by the framing on the question it's already presumed that identity is individual. However, as all persons operate within the framework of society it's reasonable to check how and to what extent the relationship has changed among earlier generations and now. To this end this essay will verify the facets of people’s lives such as work, leisure, education, and entertainment, that are associated with producing identity and discuss the methods they bring about higher individualisation, and also the methods in which individuals create community.

Sociologists and historians are aware from the powerful trends that have changed culture simply because the industrial revolution, and specially due to the fact Globe War II, as conventional divisions of class and solidarity have broken down (Chisholm, 1990, p. 134). This took place in the industrial revolution because it caused a mass movement towards the urbanisation, which resulted inside the breakdown of older community structures. Following World War II improved communications and transport bring about globalisation and individualisation as youth were removed additional from national or class-based identification (Livingstone & Bovill, 2001, p. 329). As well as this it is clear to determine the lack of religious identification in modern-day culture, as well as increasing mobility, each of which disrupt older social organisations. Johnson, et al argues that youth culture expanded inside post-war world, for the factor of excluding the aged (2005). The main concern of his argument is for your marginalising with the aged, but there's a reverse effect too: the alienation of youth in the aid of conventional structures. The freedom to be individuals, and defining youth in opposition to older generations, approaches that young men and women cannot rely as much on a assist and wisdom of older adults.

The term generation gap is applied to discuss this break in between older and younger. Generations form a kind of social organisation, and Johnson notes they are the organising force behind relationships involving: “children, economic resources, political power, and cultural hegemony… generations are a uncomplicated unit of social reproduction and social change” (2005, p. 518). Nevertheless the influence of generational divides is changing in modern-day culture as “the individual has turn into important and influential each in politics and working life” (Leccardi & Ruspini, 2006, p. 63). Whereas before relationships fit into a lot more traditional patterns – parents, children, grandparents – now of the loss of community as well as the long family, and with the greater emphasis on individual development rather than fitting in within a group, the result is enhanced individualisation. Young individuals no longer necessarily see themselves first as children, or members of a clan, but as individuals. This perception can have each positive and damaging effects. Warner Weil et al note the importance of “social capital” (2005, p. 206) that may be to say, a sense of belonging to a group, that helps people cope on the insecurities of daily life. As culture becomes more individualised young persons may think cut off within the help they need. However, other sociologists note that anti-social behaviour can also be transmitted from 1 generation towards the next, through association and environment (Lerner & Steinberg, 2009, p. 700). Consequently individualism can be beneficial if it helps youth break out of bad group behaviour patterns, and overcome difficulties inside their family members or community.

Part on the transform is that individualism is breaking down old class differences, and leading to a much more consumer/market orientated economy. While the sure effect is noted in reducing class prejudice, the danger of extreme individualism is that social inequality is re-envisioned not as the result of pre-existing social divisions but as “a consequence of individual failure in coping with societal conditions” (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 25). Individualism raises the notion that young individuals who fail to thrive are to blame for not adapting to society, which can lead to feelings of failure and low self-esteem. That is not productive, and does not encourage very own growth. The other challenge of integrating individualism and society is that in order to preserve cohesion society may openly or subtly influence persons (Leccardi & Ruspini, 2006, p. 65). That is harmless, but it can also be coercive, for example utilizing promoting to promote particular lifestyles as social norms, which can leave some young individuals feeling left out. For example, our culture is very heterosexual, and also the majority of media and advertising and marketing focuses on romantic love as in between a man plus a woman. This excludes gays and lesbians, and anybody who does not identify as totally hoterosexual. Because of individualism these persons are able to live as they choose, and create option communities, however there is still a strong message that they're not “normal”. This really is a single way that through advertising consumption is used to build a social order (Warner Weil, 2005, p. 151).

Since jobs isn't a complete, or always satisfactory, source of identity, most young people focus on leisure activities such as music being a way to demonstrate power and form a discrete social identity (Jones, 2009, p. 46). Jones notes there's a dual role towards the dynamic of individualisation via leisure, though. Young people’s increased leisure opportunities can truly maintain them in their parents’ property since they spend their dollars on entertainment, rather than setting up an independent home (2009, p. 107). This really is a situation that has only been feasible mainly because the end of Globe War II, with changes in technology and increased opportunities for leisure. The creation of pop culture – music, movies, fashion, television – was feasible as a result of mass communication, and it gives young people a way to create individual identities and have a social life in accordance with leisure and consumption that relates to their sub-cultural identities (Leccardi & Ruspini, 2006, p. 57). That is easy to determine in any school, or group of young people, where they identify themselves by their clothing and accessories, as being into hip hop, or indie rock, or skateboarding, or sport.

It is a dry run for adulthood, only rather than work, leisure may be the focus. Adults identify based on their jobs, but for quite a few young people who they are is what they do for fun. Therefore entertainment is extremely significant in allowing individualisation. Chisholm notes that thanks to technology and housing arrangements much more youth can choose their unique entertainment, e.g. TVs, games consoles, DVD players, and enjoy them separately within the sleep from the family members (1990). Johnson argues that youth culture started “to invest in a history with the inauguration with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” (Johnson, et al, 2005, p. 158). Entertainment allows individualisation outside from the conventional class, family or generational groupings. It also encourages social identification in between people to type new forms of groups. Livingstone and Bovill note that young individuals pursue their interests across numerous media, generating global subcultures (2001, p. 329), which has the effect of enhancing individualisation within their immediate community but opens the possibility of wider networks. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, as well as the hundreds of thousands of sites devoted to every imaginable interest from sport, to music, to fashion, to hobbies, show that there is a exact impulse to form communities, even if the basis is individualism. Due to this entertainment plays a “key role in young people’s identity formation” (Livingstone & Bovill, 2001, p. 8).

This association among entertainment, leisure and individualism is promoted by capitalism, and applied to encourage individualism through consumption. Person image becomes important, as witnessed by the large celebrity culture during the UK, and bodies and seems grow to be component of young people’s identity and how they present themselves (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 23). The value of not only becoming an individual but searching like an individual has made persons additional aware of, and dependent on how they look (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 25). This reasons a paradox case though, since it is individualism according to able-bodiedness. As noted previously society uses strong images to aid keep coherence in spite of individualism, as well as the emphasis on certain bodies and behaviours as normal raises the danger of alienating and excluding young people. Inside the past, within conventional communities, disabled young individuals would have almost certainly been cared for by family members and integrated to the community, but it is much harder to integrate into an individualised society. Despite this risk of exclusion, as well as the loss of group support, people want a lot more manage more than their lives – not a smaller amount – and education and work are increasingly focused on competition and person achievement (Chisholm, 1990, p. 135). There is no doubt, examining these facets of modern-day society, that young men and women have a lot more “individual” identities than they did during the past.

Politically, this can be recognized as freedom, and Western culture defines freedom as “individual selection and responsibility” (Johnson et al, 2005, p. 159). The drive towards higher individualism is observed over the past few decades, in particular with Margaret Thatcher inside 1980s, wherever welfare institutions had been broken down and also the message was that everybody needs to be self-sufficient. Today, it is usually accepted that youngsters are “born as people with person rights” and they're entitled being treated as such from birth (Leccardi & Ruspini, 2006, p. 65). This lays the groundwork for individualisation from a extremely early age. Balancing this, however, will be the fact that people aren't free during the influence of their families or social groups. This can be pretty benign, as with young individuals identifying through music or taste in movies, or it really is negative, as noted by Lerner & Steinberg who say the risk of developing depression or other pathologies is related to parenting, and environment (2009, p. 562).

The conclusion is that it's clear young people’s lives are far more individualised than in previous generations, thanks in large part to mass communication and developments in technology. The primary force for alter has been education, leading to work like a focus for doing identity. However, young people also identify heavily in accordance with entertainment and leisure activities. Despite all the opportunities for individualism there is still a fundamental require for social cohesion and inclusion. Unfortunately some of the ways society tries to promote cohesion, just like via messages in advertising and defining regular behaviour, genuinely serve to exclude those who don't fit the stereotype. Against this trend, however, the self-selection into groups by young persons with well-known interests, or needs, is feasible from the internet, which creates a new form of social grouping based on – instead of opposed to – individualisation. It looks specific that as humanity and technology evolve there will continue to become enhancements in individualism, along with new kinds of social organisation to compensate for your loss of traditional social structures in accordance with class identity, geographical location or extended family.

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