Youth Optimism

In today’s youth, many do criticize us as being pessimistic. However, from statistics and from personal experience, I do believe that today’s youth is rather optimistic due to the change in post-secondary educational ideologies as well as the new open-mindfulness in mentality.

As a matter of fact, post-secondary education has became much more popular since 1960, mostly having to do with the immensely growing population. The younger generation soon realized that in order to achieve something greater than they parents or the older generation, they had to go out and venture into getting educated in a higher level of education.  Many soon realized that in order to achieve more than the older generation, they had to discover a higher level of education. Thus leading into a more educated youth with the potential to create and innovate many different things. John McKendrick of Glasgow Caledonian University of social sciences concluded in his survey that when taking approximately 300 secondary pupils and questioning them came to two-fifths wanting to go to college when they left school, and a quarter wanting to go to university. One-sixth out of these 300 or so students wanted a job and one-tenth wanted an internship while only one in 12 remained unsure. This goes to show that in 2014, youth are more willing to work harder in order to achieve greater results. Many young adults and teens have already made their mark, like Malala Yousafzai for example. Although Malala a young girl who came from a poorer country and being exposed to danger at such a young age, she was and is still able to see a brighter future for not only herself but also for her country and the youth who live in it she says: “Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow's reality.” 

Youth Poll

Going hand in hand with higher education, researches have shown that many children, teens as well as young adults, are more open-minded then past generations. For example, although many teens are exposed to ongoing wars,terrorism and an unstable economy they are still able to see a much brighter future for the world. In order to further affirm this, surveys like “Gallup Youth Survey” have concluded that “about 7 in 10 teens (69%) say they are more optimistic than pessimistic about the world their children will live in.” For many, the world is said to be a place that will only get better and many teens do believe that society has changed as a whole in order to improve the many things that are seeking improvement. 

The bottom line is that when talking about the future, youth tend to “see the  glass half full than as half empty”. However, we must keep in  mind that there are some people who are naturally more optimistic than others and that although youth being as a whole more optimistic there are still some youth that are pessimistic which hopefully will diminish in percentage in the near future.