The masses of the youths today have little regard for moral values. As society is under the more ‘open-minded’ western influence, many teens are just blindly following trends, placing peer pressure and the desire to fit in over their own moral values. One example is the fact that promiscuity is on the rise. Many youngsters are even engaging in pre-marital sex, against their moral values. One reason for this is that many teenagers lack the self-discipline to resist the temptation, and their raging hormones overpower their ethics. This lack in self-control in resisting their impulses leads to pre-marital sex. Another reason is that many teenagers lack the courage or self-discipline to stop themselves from breaking under peer pressure. Thus, when lead on, they are unable to say ‘no’ to their boyfriends of girlfriends. Under western influence, subjects such as sex are no longer considered taboo. Therefore, youths feel that it is thus okay for them to be promiscuous, which is a clear lack of principles.
Another lack of propriety can be seen in the fact that the multitude of juveniles today are turning to less ethical forms of activities. Some such examples are drugs, smoking, drinking and shoplifting. As the younger generation is becoming more and more materialistic, numerous teenagers are slowly putting aside their morality to make way for their desires. Thus, actions such as shoplifting are not uncommon anymore. These young adults have strong desires for material objects, which drive them lose control of their impulses to get what they want. The apparent lack of morality and self-discipline leads to teens failing to stop themselves from committing crimes. Furthermore, drugs, smoking and drinking are unethical activities that can prove to be harmful to oneself, as well as to others. However, these activities are addictive, which youths cannot restrain from. Despite knowing the harmful effects that these activities have, the pubescent adults still choose to ignore the fact that they are debauched simply because they do not have the self-discipline required to control themselves.
Therefore, unlike in the past, where moral values and self-discipline were the norm, they are scarce in today’s younger generation. Teens today generally lack morality, and do not realize the severity of their debauch actions. Instead, they display extremely bad ethics and treat their immoral actions lightly. Thus, something must be done to prevent the already worsening situation from getting any further out of hand.
Reflections
The introduction to the first and second draft are somewhat similar as they are of similar content, with draft 2 slightly improved. I improved on the body of the essay, by reorganizing the points, and adding in more relevant information. The conclusion was thus changed to suit the body of the essay.
Firstly, I learnt to change my assumptions. I made a lot of false assumptions in the first draft. However, I learnt to change my assumptions, especially general implications. Instead of sentences like ‘morals have slowly faded away’, I used ‘MAJORITY of the morals are slowly fading away’. This prevents the essay from being overly assumptuous.
Secondly, I learnt to use a wider vocabulary. Instead of the constant use of ‘teenagers’ so often, I learnt to use synonyms to replace those words to increase the sophistication of the essay.
Lastly, I learnt how to constructively criticize my essays by picking out the pros and cons of each essay, and using them to my advantage.
