— Ms. Kirti Keswani
(Member, Brainy Bunch)

We are living in 21st Century today. The people of generations who have been brought up before us believe that life is somewhat easier for us because of the luxuries we have now, as our country has made progress in different sectors today. They are not completely right but they are not completely wrong either. Of course, we cannot deny the fact that our parents and our grandparents have lived a tough life, and compared to them we have more power and resources which make our life easier but as we all know, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Now the question is, are we fulfilling our responsibilities? Are we even aware of the powers or we can say the privileges we have? As the youth of our country, are we channelizing our energy in the right direction?

The answer is NO (not for everyone but a majority of people). I know this is disheartening but this is the truth. Most of us don’t even realize and see the opportunities we have, and this is because as we have progressed, the problems we as youth of the country are facing are different than those that our parents might have faced. We are going to discuss some of them in the article today.

1. Peer Pressure-

This is the issue which all of us have experienced or are still experiencing in our life. Many a times we do things just to fit in among a group of people. I am all for trying and exploring new things in our life, because it is a known fact that we can grow only when we step out of our comfort zone but doing things which you know are wrong and doing things only to appear “cool” is a mistake most of us make in our teenage years or our early twenties.

Remember, you don’t need friends who force you into doing the things you know you shouldn’t be doing. You need friends who push you to be a better version of yourself every day. So choose your friends very wisely. Our teenage years is the foundation we lay for becoming the person we aspire to be and you don’t want your foundation to be weak by choosing wrong people for life.

2. Mental Health Problems-

According to the statistics of World Health Organization, India is the most depressed country in the world. One in seven Indians suffers from poor mental health. And we know the majority of the population of our country is young, so a large number of youngsters are dealing with mental health issues and are not even aware of that, because discussing about mental health issues is still considered a taboo in our country. The reasons for this poor mental health are many like peer pressure, fearing the judgments of society, perfect body issues, dysfunctional family etc.

I believe that we, as the youth of country should take the lead and fight against it so that the people around us dealing with these issues can come forward and talk about it without the fear of being judged by the society.

3. Social Media-

Social Media is a boon as well as a curse to our society, especially if we talk for the youth of the nation. The reason Social Media was invented was to connect people. But I feel, a majority of youngsters have misunderstood the reason behind it and are using it just as a medium to compare their social media life with others (which isn’t even real most of the times) and making pseudo connections that don’t even last longer than a few months. We have lost ourselves in the process of painting a “Perfect Life” in front of others or beating ourselves down about the life of others being so perfect (which doesn’t exist).

So instead of staring at the screen all the day, we should look for some connections in real life because those will be the ones that are really going to stay with you for life.

4. Stress and Time Management-

Managing the pressure to succeed in every area of life and finding time to do it all seems to be one of the biggest challenges youngsters face today. Most of us have a lot on our plates and we are not able to manage it, and end up being stressed.

To avoid it, the first and foremost thing you need to learn is time management which if you adapt will give you an edge in this competitive world because, believe me, majority around you is struggling with it and don’t know how to do it. So plan your schedule, start setting small goals for yourselves but plan it in a way which is actually doable.

Remember we are responsible for the future of the country, so let’s act like responsible adults and give our parents, friends and nation a chance to be proud of us.

Hope this was worth your time. Stay tuned for more.