Juvenoia - "fear of youth": how to live with it

The term "juvenile" literally means "fear of youth." You know for sure this feeling when it seems that young people do not understand anything in life, and indeed “it was better before”. The life hacker figured out whether it is necessary to get rid of this feeling and how to learn to live with it.

What is this strange word - "juvenoia"?

Juvenoia is the fear experienced by the older generation of young people.

The term “juvenile” was coined in 2010 by sociologist David Finkelhor. Many have never heard this word, but they definitely know this feeling.

When you look at a teenager and think that you have behaved much better, and in general, teenagers now have the wrong idea - this is juvenile.

How is “fear of youth” manifested?

Differently. For example, one might think that today's youth are less well educated than the previous generation. Many believe that young people today are violent. There is also a perception that teens are conceited and spend too much time trying to succeed in online communities rather than in “real” life.

But the older generations are unanimous in the manifestations of juvenility. The symptoms are many, but some of them are more common. For example, young people are accused of:

listens to "wrong" music,
wears "strange" clothes,
makes “wrong” life decisions.

However, the behavior of most adolescents is not defiant, dangerous, or unreliable. And the trends that frighten the older generation today are consonant with the changes that took place in their time and frightened their grandparents.

Maybe juvenile doesn't exist at all?

Science believes that the "fear of youth" still exists. We are always afraid of what we do not understand. Adults can be wary of young people. We, of course, try to fight this fear, and we still accept some differences between ourselves and the younger generation. Despite this, juvenile life forces adults to perceive adolescents as hedonistic zombies, unable to resist the slightest impulses.

And yet, where does this fear come from?

Fear does not arise from scratch. Young people of today are too keen on smartphones, too politically correct, too tolerant.

It seems that sometimes she is too close to embodying all the worst in society.

Teens are selfish and ambitious: they are going to finish their first novel today, go to a secret party tomorrow, and take the position of CEO of a new startup on Saturday. So the emergence of juvenile is quite understandable.

Why is it useless to fight juvenile?

Juvenoia has always existed: it is almost impossible to overcome it.

If you just keep a close eye on what happens to the younger generation, including your children, you can overcome the negative thoughts that juvenile causes. Among them there may be such doubts:

I don’t know if my child gets into bad company;
I do not understand what my child is "breathing";
I do not understand modern youth;
I can’t help my child because I don’t know him.

Fighting juvenile is not worth it, you need to learn how to cope with its individual manifestations.

The older generation needs to make friends with this peculiar paranoia. But why?

Juvenoia is normal. The older generation and adolescents are practically incompatible, because they are separated by history, technology and trends.

In our time, the older generation's fear of millennials is only gaining momentum, which is completely wrong. No one can constantly be under a flurry of criticism. Young people do not deserve to be blamed by their elders.

According to statistics, young people today are much smarter, more organized and more conscious than their parents. The younger generations are focused on building a family, career and self-development.

Youth is the future. What evokes the feeling of juvenileness today moves society forward. So adults should get rid of their resentment and take a closer look at the younger generation.