Does material bring happiness or division?

Ashley Poleon

Materialism

Is being materialistic affecting the youth today? Is being materialistic the best way to strive for success? Does material define our happiness and who we are? We should ask the youth of today that question. The youth of today can be viewed as one word, and that word would be materialistic. Material has been the only interest in the youth today, things aren't how they used to be. Material defines who you are as a person nowadays. Everybody is striving to keep up with the latest of things that other people have. In the New York Times they viewed materialism as the road to slavery, Father O'Toole the general of the congregation of the holy cross spoke about the teaching of materialism,  he said "education for slavery, not freedom and is one of the reasons why communism, latterly, has made such serious inroads amongst our youth". O'Toole is saying that the key to education before used to be about having knowledge, having knowledge always brought freedom. Nowadays having knowledge from the school system is only to gain power, and having power brings money for material. Many studies have shown that youth today are very lazy, and materialistic. In an article posted May 3rd 2013, psychology professor Tim Kasser did a study on youth culture on the youth of 1970 and onwards, and found that teens are more materialistic and less interested in hard wok than baby boomers were. He found also that self entitlement and money hungriness hit a peak with Generation X, the sons and daughters of the baby boomers. The need for money got higher around the end of the 1980's and grew as the years went by, children followed by examples of their parents.

 

The youth of the 1960's were much more different than the generation of today. In the 1960's it was the time of music, strict parenting, fashion, peace and love, hippies, civil rights movement, baby boom. They weren't focused on materialistic things. The peace and love movement was about everybody coming together, and being happy. Hippies didn't believe in materialism, their goal was to get everybody to come together as one, and vibe to musicThe youth culture in the 1960's weren't about having material items to define your happiness. It was about coming together as a youth and going against anything your parents said, and finding your inner happiness through other people and music. In the book called Just Kids by Patti Smith, which is based on her life in the early 60's speaking about her life, and the youth culture of the 60's. In the book you can see in the early 60's the youth were very carefree and did anything to get by. You can see Patti, and her boyfriend, Robert struggling in New York and using money on perfecting their craft in art. Throughout the book, Patti talks a lot about being short on money, and when having a few extra change using it on a stale doughnut or art to improve hers and Roberts goal.You can view the 60's as a time where people came together, and found happiness together as a group rather than defining their happiness on wealth and material.