Behavior of adolescents in the era of globalization (soft-skill)

What is globalization?

Globalization is processes between individuals, groups, and between countries that are interacts with each other, dependent, related, and affects one another across the national boundaries.

In many ways, globalization has many similar characteristics with internationalization so that both of them are often interchangeable. Some parties use the term of globalization often associated with the reduced role of the state or national borders.

Behavior of adolescents in the era of globalization:

Adolescents experienced the change from childhood to adolescence right?

Those changes need adjustment to the adolescents with the social demands.

The adjustment adolescent needs challenges, especially in our era that has a lot of changes from information technology. With no limits of information the young age people will get different kinds of information that will shape their own characters and self-discovery.

Information technology also has a negative impact on the development of adolescents and for the young kids too. According to my research, and according to Marcia (1980), the development of our identity happens not just because we actively did some exploration, but there are huge deviations of behavior published by mass media. Those deviations came from the promiscuity, violence, loss of identity and also work stress at school, or maybe unemployment.

Lots of people work out of the city and leave their children at home. My question is, how can we, how can we all prepare to be able to stand out from the temptations of the era globalization?

What should teens and parents do to overcome this matter?

First, we need to be strong with values of spiritual religion.

We are strong and resistant of temptations because we believe in God’s rules right? Parents need to teach us with values of spiritual religion since childhood, we also need to be discipline in every situation. Manners and more. Teens that have religious values will have a strong characteristic in every situation, especially from friends and also the media. Teens need to filter the information that they received. I have one example of bad manners that some of people do. Like In my religion the girls needs to wear veil to protect them. Women in veil should carefully knows how to act in public, But sometimes women in veil still act stupid as in many ways, I have seen some women in veil smoking in public or maybe, do something stupid with their boyfriends out in public. These things are some of the examples of promiscuity from teens. Family is the smallest social unit that provides the foundation of children’s development, while the school environment helps to provide variation of children.  So that’s why Parents and teachers need to teach our intellectual with spirituality, social values and national culture.

Second, the physical appearance according to the values of tradition and culture.

The disappearance of values of the social and cultural will make teens don’t have a strong character. Promiscuity usually came from the television and the internet. The Information from the Internet is free from values. The shifting values local tradition changes into a global way of life from across the country. People could easily search the following trends and stuffs from the Internet or mobile phone. (Body experience) adolescent physical appearance such as men wearing earrings, pierced in the nose, and on the tongue and the lips, cropped or long and shaggy hair, this is the appearance to be recognized as their self-identity. Teens these days usually copy the western style. There’s also this new life-style where some people is different, for example like lesbian or homosexual and there are some teens are also trapped in prostitution.

Third, build a noble character.

Problems faced by teens are very complex. 40 million people grow every year. Young adults scramble to find jobs. The work is increasingly stressful. High work demands and fierce competition.  Managing stress is not only from our minds. Increasingly wide poverty, terrorism, stress at home and at work and more stressful things.

Villages outside java are more quite. Because people increasingly move to the center of town to find a job. Humans are now facing changes at any time. Climate changes causes the conflict of humanity and nature damage, traffic jam also led some people stress out. Poverty and population density led people to act rough to each other and between one another. Parents are busy with their work while the kids and teens are not well maintained physical and psychological growth. All parents want their children to grow well, and develop their children into a positive direction. This state will be in our hands for the future. What will happen if the average of teens, adults and young children are suffering from mental illness is getting bigger? We know our life-style makes us who we are right now, our place where we live, our friends, and our daily activities. This could be a serious problem. Many teens are in pain, which is associated with psychological pain. Sometimes parents and the public seems not to care about this problem such as fear, anxiety, stress and trauma and others associated with the soul of the children. Everyone should be concern about this serious problem. Bad behavior from children, or crime, or a delinquency of younger children, is one a symptom illness called pathological in socially from the adolescents caused by a form of social neglect.

Fourth, Raising Teens conscience.

Generating conscience starts from small things like home. For example, starting to cultivate our character inside the house. Teens should eat at home. Not eating at the stalls. Because the food at the stalls are often not well consumed. The children could also be wasteful if the eat too much at the stalls. The problem is when they’re bored with the house menu parents need to provide a varied menu at home, so that their children could eat a healthy consumed food.

It’s a good thing when parents communicate about their school and life experiences, or friends with their children while eating meals. Parents need to listen to them and help them in difficulties. If both of them are connected to each other it would be way easier with parents to give advice for the children. Child will be difficult to accept advice when parents neglect them. Children will be more comfortable to ask others or the internet to solve their problems instead of asking their parents.

Teens can able to choose activities that are positive for their life style that could be useful and good for themselves and their future. Teens also need to learn to choose positive activities for their lives.

How to keep teens amid the changing times of globalization?

In our minds, more teens stay and spend their time at school and at house. In schools teens should learn morality, the noble values of the nation. School should be able to fortify the teens from negatives influences of globalization. Teens need to be assisted to grow in a healthy manner. But in reality, according to Suyata in educational seminar on UNESA that the school system needs to be examined to become an effective school.  School these days has loss the sense of community, loss the sense of identity. Exemplary attitude and character becoming harder to be seen by the children, philosophy of Pancasila as the nation is rarely practiced in the daily values. The values of divinity, humanity, unity, deliberation and justice are hard to find in reality. For example, people tend not to care about other people. Individualistic, segregation between rich and poor people. Housing elite guarded by security guards and high fences with no interaction between each other. Private luxurious cars. As for the poor, access to go everywhere is a public transportation.

Teens only get information about characteristic in school but did not occur in their daily activities. It is necessary to restore the function of the school teachers as a place to educate students with good values, noble values, cultural and social. The role of parents and teachers is to accompany to be their friends when teens are facing an identity crisis. Teens also need to be assisted to achieve their developmental tasks such as, responsibility in making decisions that are benefit for their future. Counseling in schools should be designed to build a strong character for the adolescent. Teens need to practice discipline, hard work, and of course have a healthy lifestyle to be able to achieve strong character.


Nabiya Rizki Meida
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