While ageism, and thus discrimination due to older age, is simply a frequent subject in public debate, so much the subject of adultism, and thus discrimination due to the fact that individual is young, is inactive a marginalized issue. The opinion of those aged 15-19 is regularly challenged and ignored by the elders. There is simply a belief that teenagers know small and cannot have a valuable perspective.
The image of young people is prejudiced by the fact that teenagers cannot take care of themselves, are overly delicate and have no opinions or beliefs. More and more often, there is simply a fierce discussion in mainstream media, going towards the question, "Why are young people so low?" In response, there are many statements, most of which are harmful and consolidating harmful stereotypes. They usually begin with common sayings, but yet they pierce outwards and make a reasonably mediocre horizon of the perception of youth as a group full of extremes and radicalism, frequently due to ignorance.
As an 18-year-old, I observe adultism mainly in the way young people and young people are spoken of.
It is frequently seen that youths' actions are underestimated, and their presence is more accepted as a symbol than a real voice in conversation or decision-making.
Often the importance of young people ends in a image that looks good in the media or reports, but does not have any real impact. This is accompanied by the belief that youth automatically means incompetence, regardless of cognition or commitment
Politicians and scientists ambitiously indicate that the mistake lies in the programming basis. The standard became a belief that the education strategy does not supply adequate space to get soft competences specified as stress resistance, creativity, communication skills, including clarification of its problems. As a result, the introduction of fresh schools has been discussed for a long time lessons or changing the curriculum with a focus on acquiring fresh skills, more involving extracurricular activities and a mass of ineffective concepts regarding education, which entails expanding the burden of material carried out in educational institutions. The proposed schemes in the form of additional activities that would actually prevent this problem prove to be missed. The increased amount of requirements and material through the introduction of a fresh lesson hour, which will not necessarily be attractive, but will, on the contrary, have an impression of force, will be met with a different result. An example of an object that is met with rejection from students may be wellness education, most of which, however, sign out.
This shows that another surplus of the program will not be a solution to these problems.
In this article, I would like to give a fresh look at this problem. I would like to delve into what adultism results from and what the average discussion about what youths are like looks like. I would besides like to criticise the attempts to set young people up in the function of small known rebels. Finally, “the young are, the planet do not know” ...
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What's adultism?
Integrity is simply a way of being overlooked, treated as little crucial or without real influence, regardless of competence or commitment.
Adultism, on the another hand, is simply a systemic prejudice towards younger people, which is manifested by marginalizing their voice, reducing their origin and symbolic inclusion in the discussion without real influence.
This phenomenon is seldom seen, although many young people experience its effects in everyday life. It shows, among another things, the treatment of younger opinions as little crucial and the perception of their actions as apparent. Language and lost phrases specified as “children and fish have no voice”, perpetuate age hierarchy and normalize exclusion. Youth can automatically be identified with incompetence, regardless of cognition or commitment. The symptoms of adultism can be seen in schools, workplaces and public spaces where the voice of young people is ignored. Data show that this phenomenon is not accident, but a crucial part of society. So is that the problem we're talking about?
Building an image on young people
I frequently hear from politicians and people of power that young people are "no longer a person", that is, without a sentence, without an opinion, without a character, incapable to express themselves, which makes them alleged radical. On the 1 hand, young people are to be incapable to find themselves among the standards, to communicate the problem, to show these soft competences, and on the another hand, erstwhile action is taken, they are easy confronted with negative comments about the deficiency of cognition of the subject.
The causes of the problem I would look for in “cover” cooperation with activists of this age, which is an expression of pure populism. Any politician, local government, etc. can show how much he cooperates with young people, how he supports them.
However, these – frequently successful – image treatments on words and pictures end.
Currently, there is no mechanics in Polish law that effectively implements and allows to influence decisions taken by a group that is under the age of 18.
The area of appearance of the youngest is the youth councils of cities and municipalities. In the statutes, these structures are always defined as advisory bodies. This means that young people can consolidate in a circumstantial case and issue an appropriate document, but it will not be binding. That opinion does not even should be considered. The effects of these councils are mostly underestimated by full municipal councils and politicians. They can be taken as the voice of young people but have no effect on reality. It would be worth considering introducing authoritative readings of proposals for legislative solutions for specified structures and mandatory voting on them in the bodies above. possibly if, for example, local authorities had an work (often unpleasant) to mention negatively or positively to the views of youth councils, the efficiency and efficiency of these structures would be greater. It is not surprising, then, that there is simply a message of insignificance, but is it yet the responsibility of the young or the strategy that trivializes their voice? Youth must halt being marginalised, and this can be achieved both alone and with help, through protests and frequently extremist actions that are uncomfortable to the authorities and force them to mention to publically expressed opposition.
It will so be crucial to make a fresh discourse in which young people will have a chance to talk and their opinion, although frequently very progressive and extreme, can bring fresh perspectives and make a real contribution to social change. It will so be fundamental to break down the barriers built by prejudice and to emphasise that the "young" voice is distorted by stereotypes that have rooted in society and damaged respect.
Research at European Union level has consistently shown that a large proportion of young people do not feel listened to by decision-makers. In the study EU Youth dialog 8th cycle 2020–2021 Young Europeans, erstwhile asked how much their voice was heard in matters relating to the future of Europe, pointed to the deficiency of real impact in the majority, as more than 60 percent of respondents estimated that their opinions were weak or not heard at all. This is 1 of the most clear confirmations that the phenomenon of adultism is seen by young people themselves as a real problem.
Results Flash Eurobarometer Youth and Democracy, 2024 They besides show that young people in the European Union anticipate greater impact on decision-making processes. all 3rd individual surveyed indicated that the precedence should be that decision-makers perceive more to young people. This signals that the sense of marginalisation of the voice of young people is not an individual phenomenon, but a broadly present experience. The compilation of data from respective independent EU studies clearly shows that young people actually feel impractical, and their voice is sometimes overlooked, which confirms that adultism is simply a real and serious social challenge.
It is interesting that the same survey notes that the percent of young people who feel discriminated against by age is higher in east European countries. The study sets out an authoritative position which underlines the existence of discrimination in both access to work and in the area of proceeding and consideration.
Where else do you see adultism?
Adultism does not only appear in formal and authoritative situations, but besides in the attitude of the “older” to the “younger”.
Older people frequently treat issues in a way that is infantizing with younger ones.
Language plays a major function here, due to the fact that the lost phrases and sayings perpetuate the hierarchy of the century as something natural and indisputable. Statements specified as "children and fish have no voice" are inactive in circulation, normalising the exclusion of younger people from discussions. To belittled in this context means to bring young people to something momentary, insignificant or by definition immature, even erstwhile it concerns matters that straight concern them. This is seen in treating their opinion as something "for the future", not as a real voice here and now, frequently in a patronising speech or form of lenient comments.
It is not only the way in which we communicate, but above all that the requests, suggestions and opinions of young people are regularly ignored or ignored. In Polish phraseology, the saying “What is free of the voivode is not you, stink”. It does not take much care to realize that specified sayings are hurtful. A strong focus, on the another hand, must be shown to announcement that they affect the psyche of a young man. This not only instills in the belief that his opinion does not matter, it is incorrect how much he blocks in future teenagers and young adults self-esteem and ability to talk on his behalf.
This attitude besides undermines the value of future public debate.
The boundary between youth and adulthood is fluid, and empirically it is hard to specify clearly the minute erstwhile individual becomes an adult and his voice should be taken seriously, and erstwhile he is inactive marginalized.
Examples of Youth Strikes
In practice, young people frequently gotta fight for real influence and being taken seriously.
Such a fight is seen in global initiatives specified as the Fridays for Future movement, launched by Greta Thunberg, where youth around the planet organise climate strikes and effectively influence public debate. likewise in the United States, students initiated March for Our Lives after a shooting in Parkland in 2018, mobilising hundreds of thousands of people and drawing attention to the media and politicians' request to tighten up the rules on weapons.
Such examples show that young people can break down the limitations imposed by adultism and transform their initiative into a real social impact.
However, the assessment of specified actions is frequently critical, and these movements are frequently considered besides radical, and the image of domineering young people described as immature.
Effects of not listening
The downgrading of young people's opinions and views leads to further extremes and a deficiency of understanding. An unheard sentence, being ridiculed frequently leads to extremist attempts to attract attention.
In a tiny child, misunderstandings, frustrations or discontent are expressed primarily by crying, screaming or hysteria. This is simply a full natural form of emotional communication, as the kid does not yet have the tools or experience to effectively negociate or influence the environment. For teenagers, the situation is different. Their emotions, although inactive intense, can take the form of conscious, organized social activities. The youth strike is simply a perfect example of specified an uproar, due to the fact that it is not only a sign of frustration, but besides an effort to influence the reality in which increasing young people feel ignored or marginalized. During specified a protest, emotions are transformed into concrete action, young people make demands, organize demonstrations, conduct information campaigns and effort to influence public opinion and decision-makers.
In this way, crying children becomes an active voice of youth.
It expresses not only individual emotions, but besides aspirations, values and a desire for origin in the social and political sphere. Youth strikers are thus a manifestation of a mature form of protest in which individual discontent is transformed into a collective, constructive effort to change reality.
Data CBOS for 2024 Almost half of teenagers have left-wing progressive views. This is what youths are now associated with. I am not going to argue about rightfulness, but to look at the fact that these frequently very utmost opinions have been criticized by older generations. An example may be the comment of Donald Trump, current U.S. President, December 2019, after Greta Thunberg was announced as individual of the Year by Time, Donald Trump tweeted:
‘So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” (self-translation: Ridiculous. Greta needs to work on his anger control and his problems, and then go to any cult movie with a friend. Relax, Greta!
The function of language in discrimination
Explanations of the type: “Now is specified a fashion”, “they will get over it”, “the young are, the planet do not know” make further prejudices and stereotypes, thus causing the problems mentioned earlier.
Frustrated, tense people get the patch again, this time a description of fools that harms not only those involved, but besides those who are now quiet and afraid to pay attention to their problems due to the fact that they will hear that they are intellectual mediocrity. They're alleged novice youths, unrepentant, no opinion, no opinion.
The language not only describes reality but besides shapes our beliefs, which we frequently consider obvious.
Repeated words and thought patterns can perpetuate the image of young people as little competent, impulsive or irresponsible before they get a chance to express their opinion. Over time, specified linguistic simplifications turn into patterns of attitudes that affect decisions and treatment of younger people in public institutions and in social debate. As a result, language becomes a tool for marginalisation, making discrimination against young people seem natural and justified.
Words not only convey prejudice, but besides strengthen it.
Persistent narratives lead to practices specified as omitting young people in consultation, symbolic inclusion in actions or questioning their competences.
As a result, there is simply a social mechanics in which discrimination becomes more than just a substance of attitude. It is so worth considering the function of language to start the process of change and let young people to participate full in society. circumstantial solutions are needed.
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The problem of youth is not that young people are frequently utmost or simply in a silent world. It's a problem with the way they are perceived and presented. This cannot be repaired by a top-down strategy that abruptly requires young people to conduct previously banned and severely punished at home and at school. Coming out of adultism, affecting many areas of life, including intellectual health, requires long-term work at the base and changing everyday practices.
Until we start talking and creating intergenerational dialogue, we will not scope any consensus.
If we do not want polarisation to increase, and the intellectual condition and perpetuity of young people do not suffer, then we have no choice. The “Young” cannot be re-signed by Mickiewicz's message that youth is governed by its rights, without avoiding the counterfactual form of “old age is governed by its rights, prejudice and conceit”. As Poles, we request to start talking, due to the fact that together we are creating a democratic society, and its basis is debate and dialogue, which should take place regardless of the environment with which it should be conducted. No one's besides young to be right, as no one's besides old to be right any more.
