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Young people 'feel they have nothing to live for' study claims.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25559089

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Reply 1
Avatar for Xabier
Xabier
14
so?
Original post by KingKumar
so?


Contribute or don't post please :smile:

~~

I think people need some feeling of challenge that they can overcome, our lives are so cushioned these days that it's just about working, a small amount of recreation and sleep. Simon Pegg's movies make this stuff a consistent theme, how people aren't even living as humans anyway, before they become zombies/aliens etc
(edited 10 years ago)
Well people can say that there's always been unemployment but it can't help young people to be told that they're lazy and aren't willing. For most people that's a total lie. We're given few options by the government and then beaten over the head with a stick. Pressure for everyone to go to university yet told we lack real life experience, no guarantee of jobs, little chance of independence due to lack of money, etc.
Reply 4
Avatar for Movember
Movember
10
Original post by KingKumar
so?
why does the first page of every thread on this website have to have a sarcastic remark which contributes nothing to the discussion?

there are young people out there who get firsts, have lots of work experience, good ECs, good people skills and are unemployed. if they cant get a job, it isnt a surprise that many young people who have much less feel like they have nothing to live for.
Reply 5
Avatar for Plainview
Plainview
2
Can this be the fault of anything other than bad parenting?
Original post by Plainview
Can this be the fault of anything other than bad parenting?


I love how many people from older generations readily criticise the younger as worse than anything before. If this generation is so useless and depressed what does that say about their parenting skills? :rolleyes:
Reply 7
Avatar for 455409
455409
17
It doesnt help that if yiu do manage to come out of this economy with a job youre then just reminded how boring the next 50 years of doing work nine till five will be once the novelty of your career wears off.
Reply 8
Avatar for Capn cas
Capn cas
11
Rent and housing prices are rising aswell for us soon-to be first time buyers or renters. It just gets tougher and tougher.
I actually understand how people can feel like this. It often seems that there are two choices, neither of which makes you a winner. I know each example is just that; an example, and there will be examples of other people who have managed to break the trend, but these people are few and far between.

Education V Job

1 = Debt, hard work, no future job security anyway. 2 = Possibly won't even exist, and if it does it will be doing something menial with very little chance of training for higher roles.

Benefits V Job

1 = Treated like a leper of society, not enough money to do anything, made to jump through hoops like a performing dog. 2 = No time to do anything, bills take up most of the wage, and it can feel like you'd be better off on benefits.

Career V Family

Can we do both really? Do women have to work in dead end jobs so it's easier to take time off to have children? Will people get round to having children if they want to have a high flying career?

Rent V Buy

It's ridiculously hard to buy a house at the moment. I find that renting has very little security, yet buying would have an added pressure of a bill to pay (and yes, you have to pay to rent, but at least you don't own the property and aren't responsible for it).

It's a difficult world to be born into, especially because there's even more added pressure thanks to social networking to live an amazing life that you can document, and also the pressure of commercialism to own EVERYTHING.

If you look back a few decades, lives would have been simpler, but I'm almost certain that people would have been happier.
'Study claims'?? Like that isn't definite?
Of course there is nothing to live for. We're all performing dogs, trapped in this repetitive life of expectations and pressures and exhaustion and humiliation. We're just cogs in a machine. We have to sign our lives away to society, and then we die at the end of it.
No wonder every particle in my body is screaming and fighting against it!
Original post by Maid Marian
'Study claims'?? Like that isn't definite?
Of course there is nothing to live for. We're all performing dogs, trapped in this repetitive life of expectations and pressures and exhaustion and humiliation. We're just cogs in a machine. We have to sign our lives away to society, and then we die at the end of it.
No wonder every particle in my body is screaming and fighting against it!


Well there's nothing you can do to change the bolded haha :biggrin:
Reply 12
Avatar for Drewski
Drewski
19
Original post by Ladyliesel
Well people can say that there's always been unemployment but it can't help young people to be told that they're lazy and aren't willing. For most people that's a total lie. We're given few options by the government and then beaten over the head with a stick. Pressure for everyone to go to university yet told we lack real life experience, no guarantee of jobs, little chance of independence due to lack of money, etc.


Therein lies, to me, at least part of the problem. People expect things to be given to them. Either just because they've got x from university or y experience. They suffer from having been spoonfed information and results and the next step for far too long, removing the need to find anything out for themselves.

There are loads of opportunities out there. Sure, some are sideways, some are abstract and some might not lead directly to anything but can open doors in other ways. But you've got to put yourself out there to find them and use them. Too many people don't know how to/are unwilling to. And then they suffer.
Reply 13
Avatar for 455409
455409
17
Original post by Drewski
Therein lies, to me, at least part of the problem. People expect things to be given to them. Either just because they've got x from university or y experience. They suffer from having been spoonfed information and results and the next step for far too long, removing the need to find anything out for themselves.

There are loads of opportunities out there. Sure, some are sideways, some are abstract and some might not lead directly to anything but can open doors in other ways. But you've got to put yourself out there to find them and use them. Too many people don't know how to/are unwilling to. And then they suffer.

People say this a lot but it can be extremely stressful for some people to take a leap into the unknown not knowing if it'll work. In some cases you can come out worse afterwards.
Original post by Maid Marian
'Study claims'?? Like that isn't definite?
Of course there is nothing to live for. We're all performing dogs, trapped in this repetitive life of expectations and pressures and exhaustion and humiliation. We're just cogs in a machine. We have to sign our lives away to society, and then we die at the end of it.
No wonder every particle in my body is screaming and fighting against it!


Otherwise known as the social contract theory of government!
Reply 15
Avatar for miser
miser
20
I can well imagine what it must feel like to be unemployed with no discernible direction in life. I'm lucky to have it, and contemplating it always brings into stark focus the question of what on earth I'd be doing if not this.

If I didn't have direction I'd feel totally lost.
Original post by TurboCretin
Otherwise known as the social contract theory of government!


What's that? :redface:
Original post by Maid Marian
What's that? :redface:


Suffering Poe's Law here, but I'll elaborate...

Social contract theory is essentially the idea that in taking ourselves out of the state of nature (hunter-gatherer) we have signed social contracts with the State to provide more labour (i.e. tax monies) in exchange for the protection of our remaining freedoms. So in a sense we really have signed away our lives to society.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by Architecture-er
Contribute or don't post please :smile:

~~

I think people need some feeling of challenge that they can overcome, our lives are so cushioned these days that it's just about working, a small amount of recreation and sleep. Simon Pegg's movies make this stuff a consistent theme, how people aren't even living as humans anyway, before they become zombies/aliens etc


On average we work less than previous generations. We can only work 48 hours tops. A lot less than previous generations.


I think fir many its a lack of purpose and a mismatch between expectations and reality.
Reply 19
Avatar for Drewski
Drewski
19
Original post by james1211
People say this a lot but it can be extremely stressful for some people to take a leap into the unknown not knowing if it'll work. In some cases you can come out worse afterwards.


You can. But that's life. Some things work and some things don't. Too many are afraid of that because they've been too sheltered. They don't like/want risk. You can't -and shouldn't- avoid that part of human life.

Trying to protect yourself from hard decisions by making no decisions is just plain moronic, though.
(edited 10 years ago)

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