Thursday, March 6, 2008
Article about Teenage Angst
"Angst or put-on?"
Section: Think
Publication: The Straits Times 25/03/2007
Page: 42
No. of words: 313
Content:
EVERYBODY has heard about teen angst, but what does it mean? Is it just a growing-up phase marked by copycat faddishness in choice of music, dress, speech and group behaviour? Parents needn't worry overmuch if this were the extent of it. More troublesome would be pre-pubescent sex. But one is being jostled awake to something called "emo fashion'' and rituals associated with it. In its extreme form, teenage adherents of emo hurt themselves with superficial cuts to their arms. They want to feel the psychic pain, whatever that means. They write notes to themselves exposing their tortured inner selves. Suicidal thoughts allegedly have found expression in the sillier missives. No-one has died, thankfully. But how seriously should one take the apparent frivolity? These are the same well-adjusted kids who make the most noise in front of the TV on Premiership night. Do they "emote'' darkly if they also are passionate about pursuits common among their sensible peers? Schools may want to relook their CCA and pastoral-care programmes to see if they could re-direct the energies of angst-filled children too young to understand that matters considered vaguely "tribal'' are not play-play.Parents certainly would want to take a keener interest in what their children are up to. But wasn't body-piercing a fetish among nutty Western kids until recently? There's comfort to be had in that Japan, the most well-behaved of Asian societies, has its tribal sub-culture of hikikomori. These are teenagers and young adults who withdraw from the threatening world by barricading themselves in their rooms for years, unseen for long periods even by their parents. Meals are left at their bedroom door. Emo would seem pale in comparison. It may be useful for schools here to blast emo kids' hearing with an hour each week of Shostakovich, the emo master in dead composers' music. A sure-fire cure for kiddie angst.
"Angst or put-on?"
Section: Think
Publication: The Straits Times 25/03/2007
Page: 42
No. of words: 313
Content:
EVERYBODY has heard about teen angst, but what does it mean? Is it just a growing-up phase marked by copycat faddishness in choice of music, dress, speech and group behaviour? Parents needn't worry overmuch if this were the extent of it. More troublesome would be pre-pubescent sex. But one is being jostled awake to something called "emo fashion'' and rituals associated with it. In its extreme form, teenage adherents of emo hurt themselves with superficial cuts to their arms. They want to feel the psychic pain, whatever that means. They write notes to themselves exposing their tortured inner selves. Suicidal thoughts allegedly have found expression in the sillier missives. No-one has died, thankfully. But how seriously should one take the apparent frivolity? These are the same well-adjusted kids who make the most noise in front of the TV on Premiership night. Do they "emote'' darkly if they also are passionate about pursuits common among their sensible peers? Schools may want to relook their CCA and pastoral-care programmes to see if they could re-direct the energies of angst-filled children too young to understand that matters considered vaguely "tribal'' are not play-play.Parents certainly would want to take a keener interest in what their children are up to. But wasn't body-piercing a fetish among nutty Western kids until recently? There's comfort to be had in that Japan, the most well-behaved of Asian societies, has its tribal sub-culture of hikikomori. These are teenagers and young adults who withdraw from the threatening world by barricading themselves in their rooms for years, unseen for long periods even by their parents. Meals are left at their bedroom door. Emo would seem pale in comparison. It may be useful for schools here to blast emo kids' hearing with an hour each week of Shostakovich, the emo master in dead composers' music. A sure-fire cure for kiddie angst.
posted by emokiddo at
5:08 AM
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