The most effective way to understand contemporary culture is to analyse the trends of its youth Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take In deve

I agree with the prompt’s inclination to include the youth in his attempt at understanding contemporary culture, but only to the extent that the youth is only one part of society. I propose that one studies the broadest demographic groups in a society to accurately capture the topography of contemporary culture, potentially leading to a deeper understanding and respect for societal norms, and thus providing predictive fodder for diagnosing and addressing various societal ills.

First of all, we have to ask what age groups are encapsulated in the term “youth” as used in this question. Are we talking preadolescents, teenagers, college students, or young working adults? Implicit in this need for clarification is the realization that society contains a continuous and varied spread of persons, and a measured approach ought be taken to properly represent her constituents, if any meaningful insight is to be gleaned. I propose that an enquirer study a society’s pre-collegiate children, college students, working adults, women of reproductive age, retired adults, and experiences of various racial groups for a coherent understanding of how differing elements in a society interplay in generating a national culture and consciousness.

For one, young people tend to be more reactionary, pay much attention to group belongingness, and so their experiences can be too shortsighted to draw the generalizations necessary for greater predictive possibilities. Because of a lack of sufficient experience base, they oftentimes look horizontally to their peers for validation, commendation, and recommendation. They want the newest gadgets because of their perceived popularity, so they can make more friends. But later as they graduate to more consequential matters, we notice their interests abruptly change—sometimes diametrically—when they realize only a handful of close and true friends is sufficient for social fulfillment. For this reason, we ought to be hesitant in prescribing youth trends as the primary source of contemporary culture.

Moreover, working adults bear the majority of a society’s income-generating responsibilities. Not only do they generate the tax payer funds necessary to develop and maintain civil infrastructure, they also provide the consumer trends that are already regularly invoked for predicting economical trends. These same consumer metrics also provide fodder for tech companies to predict markets for technological innovation. Since infrastructure, economics, and technology make up a large part of a society’s contemporary culture, just as well as they predict its future trends, we must take care we include the working adults in an analysis of societal trends.

Coming back to the adolescent experience, we could opine that the adolescent experience is better studied in the context of the family experience, rather than in an isolated way. In the family unit, we have persons of differing age groups and personal interests working cooperatively to provide an environment fit to develop and flourish life. Mothers take care of the young’s immediate survival, providing for immediate and transient needs, but also keeping an eye on the horizon for inimical obstacles to their children’s health and flourishing. Retired adults, having the benefit of broader life experience and having greater time availability, invest in their grandchildren, passing on cherished, resilient, and time-tested values. They teach them how to be proud of their themselves, family, and nation, as well as how to persevere through hardships. For these interplay of functions, the family appears a better microcosm of society, and thus a more holistic predictor of its direction.

It is admirable that the author cares for the future of society and aspires to impact it proactively. The youth is the future of the community, as far as human capital goes. However there are many factors impacting their developmental trends, and for any analysis of society to be complete, we must refrain from sweeping with too broad a brush and from alienating one group versus another. Instead, I recommend we take an inclusive and holistic approach, including the family and various social groups for the most effective and complete analysis.