Challenges of being a teenager in the 21st century

Challenges of being a teenager in the 21st century, Teenagers have to face many problems during the age of 13 years to 18 years due to many reasons, such as social, economic, educational, and physical structure change. During this age period, teenagers have to face many hormonal changes in their bodies. Their parents direct them on what to do or what not to do.

There are some common issues which are being faced by teenagers in 21st century.

• Teenagers suffer from negative body image.

• They feel stress and difficulty in managing their time.

• They remain anxious to be supportive and accepting communities beyond their family.

• They feel lots of pressure from colleagues, parents,  and society to conform to conflicting expectations.

• They are at risk of mental and physical health issues.

• They feel that they do not have good mentors, role models, and heroes.

• They remain anxious to intake drugs or alcohol.

• They are stressed due to on-screen violence and unhealthy social media.

• They are teased online or offline.

• Due to a bad society, they started to remain to indulge in sexual activities and behavior.

Challenges of being a teenager in the 21st century and how to deal

1. Change in body image

During the entry from childhood to adulthood,  their body changes their shapes and sizes, teens struggle to come to terms with their bodies to get comfortable. The child has gone and they are looking like a stranger who has a hairy face and is unfamiliar in the mirror. In the same way body image of the female also get changes. They have to face a struggle when their menstrual cycle starts and accordingly changes in the shape of their body.

Eating disorder: During this period more than 90 % of children suffer from an eating disorder, which affects their health, mood, behavior, and daily function, and increases obesity. To reduce weight they start the excess exercise or make themself sick.  They start thinking that their body is not right and start negative thinking.

2. Want to find a place in society

Some teenagers started to struggle to obtain a place in society. They try to impress their colleagues with their work, idea, and desire that they must accept him. They do this as a most important task and faced a lot of anxiety to fulfill their desire. When such a teenager fails to obtain status in society, it can lead to isolation, disconnect, and depression. 

The television show makes this age group do the bullying, premarital sex, aggressive and violent behavior,  and rule-breaking. And this type of teenager does not find a group of friends.

3. Time management stress

Stress increases in teenagers in school, homework to be done, a project to be prepared,  prepare for terminal tests, take play sports,  and many other activities. Thus he always remains under stress to managing time.

On the other hand, on the social front, they have to work more, party with friends, dating with someone. They have to manage above under a lot of stress.

The teen is suddenly expected to act like an adult such as to manage their work themselves, make decisions like what to do or not do and manage their finance. Suddenly they cant do it.  This may increase their tension, anxiety, and stress.

4. Social and parental pressire

Parents expect that their kids may achieve everything that they wanted but due to any reason they failed to achieve. Parents expect that their kids get good grades, take part in extracurricular activities, have good friends, remain responsible for themself and their younger siblings. Their children become popular among schoolmates. These types of expectations makes kids under pressure.  Parents, teachers, siblings, friends, schoolmates all play a part to push teenagers in different directions.

5. Change in  food habit, Mental and physical health of teenager

Above expectations of parents, teachers, siblings, schoolmates, etc affect teenager’s health as below, It makes the unmonitored and poor eating habits. Teenagers start to eat unhealthy, fatty, junk foods such as burgers, chow mien, idli dosa, Maggi and so many other such foods, which and get many gut diseases.

lack of sleeping time: Teenagers require approximately nine hours of sleep but they sleep approximately 7  hours daily. Thus they do not take complete rest during the night, which affects their health badly.

Hormonal change and depression: During the period of teenage some hormonal changes occur in their body, the strain of scheduling, prioritizing, obtaining, fulfilling expectations may place the teenagers under emotional pressure. Which causes mood swings, anxiety, depression,  and sometimes complete breakdown.

6. Lack of positive role models and heroes

Due to lack of proper guidance, bad behavior in movies, sports, and music, bullying contact teenagers move towards the bad society.

7. Use of drugs and intoxicants

Due to bad society and lack of proper guidance, teenagers started to consume drugs and alcohol which stop the development of the brain. It is the duty of parents and teachers to educate teenagers about the bad effect of these intoxicants.

8. On Screen violence and unhealthy social media

Teenagers started to use Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, and many other electronic platforms to connect with the world or society. These media platforms play an important role in the development of teenagers. When teenagers saw a bad character,  unhealthy images, porn, violence, and sexual contact. It gives a bad effect on the character of teenagers. It is the duty of the media platform not to launch such type of program.  Start such a program that contains a good character.  It is also the duty of teachers and parents to know what teenagers are going online and teach them how to interact with the internet safely.

9. Bullying

Sometimes teenagers are affected by bullying in school or it happens online. Many teenagers even do not know what is cyberbullying. It also affects their brain badly. It is the duty of teachers and parents both to educate teenagers about the bad effect of bullying.

10. Risky sexual activity and behavior

Due to hormonal changes in teenagers, and the bad effects of social media sometimes teenagers indulge in bad sexual activities in school or outside, which causes an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. It is the duty of parents to talk to their children about sex and educate them properly.

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