Issues Affecting Society's Perceptions Of Young People

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Throughout this essay issues that affect how a society perceives young people will be discussed and described. Such issues include the media. The worlds perceptions of other people comes predominantly from the media and so a lot of trust is placed on them. This means that despite biases coming through of ideas of young people being lazy and threatening, they will still be believed. Another issue is the beliefs older people have of younger people. These are a great influencing power because despite what is the truth, it is hard to overcome prejudices and stereotypes people may hold. This leads to the issue of the young people believing what older people think and acting on it. These interchange and reflect how it can affect how society perceives …show more content…

125 participants, aged 18-76. The result of this is the neighbourhoods felt threatened and disturbed by the young people who gathered in groups. This idea that the young people ‘appear’ intimidating or lurking is highly subjective. The fact that their presence is threatening says more about the older people than it does about the young people. The idea that older people’s ideas of young people is the issues that affects perception can, however, be supported. This is because the experiment also showed that there was vandalism and criminal damage committed by the young …show more content…

This is the case for the way people perceive young people. Biased stereotypes have the power to greatly affect how a society will view young people. Perceptions of young people are engendered by ‘social anxieties and insecurities’ rather than objective measures – Mackenzie et al (2010 p15). This leads to the concluding point that the way you view a young person based on your own perceptions affects how everyone around you will view them. This is a clear issue that affects how society perceives young people. Finn and Checkoway (1998) – ‘the dominant view of youths in any society will affect the beliefs and behaviours of adults and youths themselves’ (p335). Finn, J. L. and Checkoway, B., 1998. Young people as competent community builders: a challenge to social work. Social work, 43 (4), 335-345. It suggests that enforcing a certain view point of someone will eventually stick with them, e.g. call someone a failure enough times then they will become one. The stigmatisation of young people is arguably one of the most damaging forms of discrimination that affects the whole of

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