There is an increasing number of adolescents and preteens whose both mental and physical health is dying. It seems as if today’s youth is slowly, but surely, disintegrating from the face of the earth. Some may consider our generation doomed. Those who are currently parents and grandparents did not experience problems such as: STD’s, fast food chains, and reality TV, damaging their minds and bodies, when they were growing up. Due to the dieting and lifestyle differences between the youth of today and the generation prior, today’s youth will not outlive their parents.
The prevailing issue of the death of our generation is television. Children spend more time in front of the television than living an active life. Presently, children are entering the world of television before entering school. The average child spends 900 hours in school and nearly 1,023 hours in front of a TV. It is very difficult to put this fact to shame because so many people are guilty of this. Many parents are too busy at work to monitor what their child’s life and daily activities consist of. It does not help that there is a new game system, with a vast amount of video games to go along with it, coming out every year. It seems as if kids are going to be in front of the television for a while.
Besides watching television, children love to eat. The only problem is that the fast food and the amount of sugar the children are consuming are critical factors in children’s health. The love of fast food comes from the quick, convenient, and inexpensiveness it supplies consumers with. The food that is distributed from the many fast food chains that exist today, also supplies buyers with high blood pressure and heart disease. Sure, there is no such thing as bad food but eating it habitually can definitely have a negative affect on the body. There has been conversation about the U.S. Department of Agriculture falsely labeling meat products. It is scary to think that the meat given at restaurants or even the meat purchased at the grocery store is contaminated. According to NewsTarget, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is seeking to lower the standard by which “organic” products are labeled by expanding the number of substances allowable in the treatment of livestock according to the National Organic Program. So if the USDA allows meat, tainted with numerous chemicals, such as fluxin, furosemide, and atropine, and still call it organic, there is no telling what lives in the inorganic foods.
Americans have a massive sugar intake active in their diets. The average American consumes 150 pounds of sugar per year. This is the highest count of sugar intake by a generation in history. One study showed that soft drink consumption has risen by 61 percent in adults from 1977 to 1997, while it has more than doubled in children and adolescents from 1977-1978 to 1994-1998. This fact is supported by the multiple vendor machines that are accessible to children everywhere. What is more alarming, however not surprising, is the fact that illnesses and disorders that are common in adults are becoming more common in children. Obesity is the leading health problem among the youth of today. While sitting in front of the television, children find comfort and convenience in snacking, giving obesity the top spot in health problems, surpassing smoking. Diabetes can also be developed in children who fail to eat healthy, exercise, and control their cholesterol level. A new British study shows that people who ate fast food regularly were more likely to gain 10 pounds than those who indulged less often. And it showed that eating fast food several times a week can make a person twice as likely to contract diabetes.
Another medical illness that goes along with overeating is Compulsive Overeating. Compulsive overeating is more of a psychological disorder that is followed by bulimia, the act of purging after eating. These are disorders found commonly in adolescences and involve medical treatment. With illnesses, comes medication, and with medication comes medical bills. It is possible that a child and their grandparent can share an equal amount of expenses in medical bills. It is said that a child’s health can be as handicapped as their grandparents.
Contributing to the downfall of this up and coming generation of children, is the lack of stay at home mothers. When our parent’s generation was coming up, the stay at home mom was more popular, while the father was away at work. Clearly, it was an advantage having a mother around regularly to shed light on the children. Those children actually got a chance to grow up before they began to develop health complications, while kids now are experiencing medical conditions of a 30 year old. Mothers at home with their children are able to cook meals rather than buying take out. Home-grown, home-cooked, and essentially nutritious foods are being replaced by processed, refined, and packaged food enhanced with chemicals. With the mother away from the home, as well as the father, children are allowed to run free when no one is around. They are expected to eat more unhealthy foods, watch inappropriate television shows, and do the unthinkable. The most important things to know in life is learned at home, and if no one is at home to instill those important life values in the children, just imagine where they get their values from. The past twenty years have brought about dramatic changes in the typical American family. There is an increasing number of single mother households, which is one of the main differences past in the generations. More stay at home mothers would allow there to be more father figures in the household. Value, is the issue contributing to this generation’s downfall. It is a spiraling effect of bad decision after bad decision. Parents should work harder in establishing a family that will stick together, to set a positive example for the next generation.
Another factor differing our generation from our parent’s generation is the rising crime rates. However parents refuse to let children wander outside because the fear of their child being kidnapped is overwhelming. The number of kidnappings rose about 6% last year, from a high of 1,690 in 1998 to 1,789 in 1999. With such an increase in kidnappings, so soon, there is no telling what the rate is now. Parents are not only scared to send their kids around the corner to play, but are petrified to send them to school. School shootings are on the rise as well. The mass murdering, killing spree, those few lonely kids indulge in, often leave innocent victims randomly targeted. To date, over 9,000 people have been killed in direct relation to a school shooting event, whether it be a multiple killings event or a single homicide. Most kids do not realize it, but alcohol is a drug that impairs your ability to think clearly. According to the Core Institute, an organization that surveys college drinking practices, 300,000 of today’s college students will eventually die of alcohol-related causes such as drunk driving accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, various cancers and heart disease.
Lastly, and what seems to be the deadliest of them all, and rapidly sweeping our generation away is SEX. Sex is more dangerous now than ever before. With the popularity of gay, lesbian, and down low sex has opened up a new world of death. AIDS is the number one sexually transmitted disease killing today’s youth. (Of the more than one million people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS, approximately 34% are estimated to have AIDS, 42%to be HIV positive but not yet progressed to AIDS, and the remainder is undiagnosed.) That leaves a big percentage out there roaming the streets, and if not safe one can become apart of the statistic. Just because someone is not HIV positive or free of AIDS, does not mean they are safe. There are a countless number of sexually transmitted diseases floating around that are more contagious than you think. For instance, Crabs, a STD, are bugs that live on the pubic hair in the genital area. Open contact, not necessarily sexual contact, with a person who has crabs, can put you at risk. The catch is many people don’t know they have a sexually transmitted disease when they pass it or become infected. The only way a person can be sure if they are not infected is to get tested. This epidemic of STD’s is rising and the only way to slow the number of infected individuals is if they began to practice monogamy. Having sex with one person consistently, to prevent your self from catching a deadly virus, was an issue in the generation prior to ours.
With the drastic change in the lifestyle of today’s generation, it is no wonder why the day of the lives of people growing up in today’s generation, is shortened. No one is eating right, and when they decide to eat right, they discover that what’s labeled healthy is actually injected and chemically imbalanced. When becoming active, by going on a daily stroll around the park, they are on edge because there was a shooting that took place at the school across the street. When they get home, They’ve concocted a meal of microwavable chicken wings, minute rice, and inorganic vegetables, and washes it down with a bottle of Figi water, as if that’s “really” healthy. So with the death this generation taking place right before our eyes, I wonder what to expect from the next generation to come.
Prarie View A&M
Tuesday, June 24, 2025