youth today vs youth 50 years ago

When I first saw a Malay film created by the late Tan Sri P.Ramlee entitled Pendekar Bujang Lapok. There are some scenes that shown how the youth in 30 to 5o years past led their life. Some of them really did not get a proper education and even did not know how to write. I remembered about what my father had said to me one year ago. He said to me that today’s youths are very different from his youths generation of 50 years ago. When he was a child, he and his friends went to paddy field to catch fish and played with the mud that really made them got dirty all over their bodies. They got so many fish and they decided to sell them all at the market. After that, my father and his friends went to the river for the refreshment and enjoyed swimming. They felt very happy and excited. That was my father’s sweet memory. He was born 50 years ago. My father’s stories made me realized how different today’s youth life compared to 50 years ago of youth generation. Paddy fields as playground, rivers, and caught fish with friends during free time and playing with mud are not valid anymore for today’s youth. Looking back at the older citizens’ life stories of 50 years before when they were young, it made me realized how different today’s youth life regarding their life style, surrounding and way of life.
Youths today are very lucky because they are able to continue their study at the high level such as pursuing their degrees, master or even completing their PHD (doctor of philosophy). This is due to the government policy that prioritized education as the most important aspect in order to produce good quality citizens and boost the development of our country in all aspects including economic, education and also political matters. To compare with youths of 50 years ago, they were getting low education level. Majority of them just studied at primary school only because they did not have enough money to support their study at secondary schools, colleges or university. After finished their study at primary schools, some of them started to search for a job to help their families. Furthermore, our government also provides more facilities and infrastructures for education better than 50 years ago. Before, usually small and simple schools were built especially in the village to give children proper education and had only one university which is University of Malaya with less facilities and teachers. Today, with the proper planning made by government, more infrastructures for education fields such laboratory, computer labs, and internet connection are being provided at mostly every schools and higher level institutions. Not only that, private colleges and universities are also available as the alternative ways to obtain educations. So, youth usually have many choices to pursue their studies in any fields that they are interested with.

Today, youths are searching for a higher qualification in their education level due to the competitive demand to get a good job. Unfortunately, some of them become unemployed as they need to compete to get jobs and fill the vacancy. Youths today must be able to use computers or become computer literate, know about technologies, able to speak English and others international language fluently for better communication, have more working experiences and more others add values for suitability to get jobs. Compared to youths 50 years ago, some of them had a low qualification but they get a high salary and easier to get jobs due to less competition to get jobs as not many of them are eligible for certain position in certain work fields. For examples, who wanted to be a teacher 50 years ago, after finished their primary school, they were eligible to start their work as a teacher and get a high salary. Today, those who want to be a teacher, they must continue their study at the university and get a degree in education and then they are eligible to be a teacher. It is very difficult and need a very long procedure. So, youths 50 years ago had more employment opportunities and easier to get jobs than youths today. However, with the helps and initiative from the government and also certain non-governmental organization (NGO), some resolution were made to help the youth to be more active and join business sector as a way to reduce unemployment among them. Thus, more young entrepreneurs in many sectors of business were born to help to boost the economic sector and enhance human resources development.

Moreover, social lives of today’s youth are quite different compared to youths of 50 years ago. Youths today are not really concerned and take care with everybody around them. They do not know whom are their neighbor and some of them even have just small number of friends. They like to stay in their room or house, playing computer games, watch a movie and others. In other words, they live they life in their own world. It is different with youths 50 years ago where they are concerned and take care with peoples around them. They joined the social activities such as “gotong-royong”, helping during wedding ceremonies and others occasions that were held in their places. In addition, youths 50 years ago always respect their parents, friendly and act politely when they talked or do something. They are very concern about their behavior and reflect good impression towards peoples who are older than their age. Sometimes, these situations are quite different for certain youths nowadays. Some of them did not show their respect or even did not try to seek and listen for pieces of advices from their parents. Some of them choose to be extreme, rebellious and hot tempered that only think about their own self.

As a conclusion, today’s youth are more lucky and lead a more better life if we are comparing them with the life of youth of 50 years ago in almost every aspect of live such as education, job opportunity, technology, proper development of country and also monetary aspect. These situation prove that as time pass by, our country development become stronger and thus can open a lot of opportunities for improvement in our citizens way of life to be better. This is the importance for our new generation to continue keeping the development and achievement of our country at this level for greater future. However, today’s youth should appreciate more what they have now and learn to use all the things and specialties they have wisely.