Everyone knows there are problems with the American culture. Among these, there has arisen a derisive attitude in which youth are considered a blight to society and must be written off until they are of a reasonable age. They are seen as an irresponsible generation of listless phone-addicts and social media gurus. While youth certainly have their flaws, just as humans of any age or generation do, the dismissive attitude that they perceive from their superiors triggers their apathetic dispositions.

Now, millennials definitely don’t get off free simply because the governing authorities in their lives write them off. No one can deny that youth are turning to substance abuse, gangs, unstable romantic relationships, and alternative realities such as video games and social media platforms. But why? While this generation may have been born with the skillset to program an entire computer system without an instruction manual, they are not instinctively antisocial punks and capricious hoodlums. That being said, there must be some other cause for their arbitrary ways. Their shortcomings are, in fact, indicative of a lack of meaning in life. And where did that come from? Circumstance and mental instability aside, the grownups in their life are the instigators.

Adults naturally respond to the innate callous behavior of the youth by withholding respect and denying responsibility, resulting in an overall resentment. This fosters a rebellious stance from millennials, because instead of receiving the guidance and counseling that is so crucial at this time in their lives, they sense that they are unwanted and therefore unnecessary. A vicious cycle begins to form, as the youth instead seek out an environment where they are respected, in control, or at the very least, accepted. The aforementioned vices take the place of supportive family members and role models, and lo and behold, the youth become the thriving rambunctious lot they were presumed to be. Had the grownups in their lives accepted that youth are not inherently lame, but rather lack natural maturity, the youth would never have lived up to the thought.

Instead of allowing the younger generations to get away with apathetic attitudes, grownups should assume their actual intelligence and build on it. While a teenager sitting in a basement all day playing video games isn’t exactly a threat to the community in the present moment, it may become so when they grow up and are expected to be a contributing member of society. Young people are not a plague on humanity, but they will never learn to be good citizens if they are never shown how. However immature and irresponsible a person may seem, they will never prove themselves one way or the other if they are never given the chance.

Humans are not immortal beings. We live, we grow old, we die. Another generation will fill the earth, they will steer society, and they will govern the land. Who is going to take responsibility for the maturity of that generation?