Youth and Societal Norms

Deviance: in my own words
deviance is the deviation from the norm.
It is to do what others may not, and this can
be done for a variety of reasons.
In the class, deviance was shown and
explained in a variety of different ways.

Colin Kaepernick is an American Civil Rights Activist,
who knelt during the National Anthem in protest of
police brutality to POC. He knelt down in an act of deviance
to show that he should -- or others -- not be proud to stand
for an anthem or flag where injustice lies under. So, this
act of deviance is a show of how deviance can and will be used
to spread awareness, but it goes against the regular social
norm to stand for the anthem and the flag, as well as in american culture, take a pledge of allegiance to the country.

Deviance does not always have to be negative; in class, we discussed how deviance is straying away from the norm in a variety of ways, such as for positive acts of deviance. These positive acts of deviance really are just the students changing their behaviour away from the regular norm. One act of positive deviance that I did was make coffee for my Dad very late at night, so he wouldn't have to wake up very early the next day to make it. This, is a stray from the conform or the norm due to the fact that regularly, I do not make coffee for my father the night before. This was an act of positive deviance, to firstly see if anyone would notice the change in behaviour exhibited, and as well see how they would react. This form of deviance is a stray away from the norm, but is also just as accepted. So therefore, it was an act of positive deviance.

Deviance from the norm can be caused by a variety of things, such as but limited to, homelessness, mental illness, and or disabilities. These, all are considered outside of the norm, because of a stigma. In Out of Mind Out of Sight we saw how these people who are considered outside of the norm, and how they are treated. As if just them existing as a person is an act of deviance in itself. This act of deviance is less on the person themselves and more on society in my opinion and is alienation. This act of deviance is a very extreme example, which is alienation.

A theory that could be related to deviance could be the Functionalism theory. The Functionalism theory can then be expanded on into the strain theory, which for the purpose of deviance as a whole, will be focused on. The idea of the strain theory is that if there is a denial to certain things some people will seek this out using deviant means. This form of deviance, I think, can be directly linked to the story of Colin Kaepernick. Using a deviant way, he acted out to raise awareness of the fact that POC rights were being stripped of them, or of the mistreatment of many POC when it comes to the American police force. This act of deviance can definitely be explained though the strain theory, so it can be seen that through deviant means, he attempted to raise awareness to stop this form of mistreatment to an entire group of people.

One large challenge that this topic can face is the entire idea of punishment. Instead of listening to the fact that others may have different views than another person, some may muffle their voices, or restrict them for speaking in the first place. As Kristen had said with her topic of censorship, it is one way to restrict deviance, especially in a population. Those, stand to be some of the toughest challenges for the topic at hand.

Deviance has made large amounts of changes from generation to generation. Before it may have been more small, but as media had been created, the idea of a large, deviant gathering has exploded. In which that if you act out more, you would be recognized as more as well.

Conformity: in my own words conformity
is the contrast to deviance. It is to follow the
rules that are given down to a point for a variety
of reasons but most importantly to conform to the
standard set by supposedly someone who is in
power.

The Third Wave was an experiment that was conducted
on students without them knowing to prove how easy
it is to conform to the standard set by an authority
figure. They turned the 1960's classroom into an
authoritarian environment in which they followed regimes
and rules. However, in the end, they found out that the teacher had actually been reusing Nazi techniques that Hitler had used on his subjects and on Germany. This directly shows the entire idea of conformity and what it details. How easy it is to just fall in line with everyone else. To avoid punishment, and follow guidelines set.

It's the It's The No. 1 Country For Women In Politics — But Not In Daily Life is an article and podcast that details behind the Rwandan genocide as well as how women adapted to fit the role that men had left due to the carnage. It follows a debate team whilst also explaining the difficulties to be a woman even in a woman-ruling country. In one part of the podcast it interviews woman who have so much power who are apart of the senate, and if they would go to a woman's domestic abuse protest -- even though some of them face domestic violence at home, they would not attend one. Because even thought they now have that power, they are conforming to a standard that had been set many years ago as a traditionalist point of view.

The Milgram Experiment was an experiment that was conducted on college students. It was to see if they would conform to an authority figure, even though they would be pressing a switch when told to do so by the instructor, which would supposedly shock the person in the room next to them (however it was an actor not someone in pain) which may go against the collage students morals. The test was to see which was a more powerful motivator, authority, or your own righteousness. Most of the time the experiment was conducted, the college student would end up changing the electrical level to one that would be able to kill someone.

One very large theory that can be applied to the idea of conformity could be the Differential Association theory. That the more time you spend around people, that they influence your behavioural patterns and mindset. This, I believe could be one of the tightest links to conformity though a theory. The idea of going along with something immediately becomes more appealing if everyone around you seems to be doing it, even if what they are doing seems like it may go against your morals. In the Third Wave, by the end of the experiment, kids who were not even in the same school decided to join in on this, probably because those who they knew from that were all also going to do it; so therefore the others who joined in the end were influenced. This could be an example of differential association in conformity.

One of the greatest challenges that seems to arise when conforming to the norm is that the fact that when simply abiding by what others are telling you and never straying from that can create a tough environment. One where mistakes and certain rules may be unfair, but due to the massive fear to conform, the problem only festers and festers...

Conformity has transitioned from perspectives on things to only doing things this way and this way only. It had changed from questioning everything and working ways though a society to obeying without a second glance. The idea of an authority figure has become that much more dangerous as well as powerful.

Youth: in my own words the term Youth can be taken
in many different ways and interpreted in much more.
This could be a person who has not completely developed
their prefrontal cortex, or it could be just someone who is too
young for a variety of things, such as things that may be classified as adult.

NEET Youth are a subtopic that can come up when talking about Youth. NEET, which stands for "Not in Education, Employment, or Training". This makes up a certain portion of the Youth population and especially in Canada. Making up to close to 11.1% of Canada's Youth population. Now, Youth can go NEET for a variety of reasons, such as but not limited to: poor mental health, taking care of children/parents/grandparents, they may be looking for paid work. Not to mention that those who are NEET have a higher chance to develop a mood or anxiety disorder. So, NEET Youth are apart of the Youth regardless and should be taken into account.

There are many things that can be considered a rite of passage, for youth, many consider a drivers license a rite of passage. However, for a girl named Laura Dekker she fought for a different rite of passage: to travel around the world on a boat. So much so that she went up against her own government to fight on it. She had been raised on a boat, from her very early ages. This sparked a lot of discussion of what should and shouldn't be restricted to someone who would be considered a part of the youth.

There are certain rites of adolescents called developmental tasks. There are about 5 different rites of passage that youth and developmental life is linked together. They are:
1) accepting one’s sexual/gender identity
2) developing relationships with peers of both sexes
3) establishing independence (emotional/economic)
4) career exploration
5) developing intimate relationships outside of one’s family
These rites of passage are known as something that everyone goes through as they transition between being an adolescent and an adult. But however not everyone does, and it is up for debate whether or not it is even realistic to what really happens as maturity goes from childlike to very responsible.

Many theories can be applied to Youth populations: but one of the most prominent about the population of the youth is the conflict theory in my opinion. This can be applied to the population of the youth as a sort of repetitive nature. To me, it can be commonly seen that the younger generation does something that could be considered "out of the norm" due to the fact that the older generation at the time may have more power than the younger one. For example, for a long time parents would sometimes have children so they could take care of the parents later in life, but nowadays that isn't necessarily the case anymore. The power the older generation has over the new one is challenged constantly: e.g. Gen Z vs Gen X & Boomers. NEET Youth can be an example of this, they are possibly not abiding or actively rebelling due to a rough relationship to the older generation.

A great problem the youth are facing right now has a lot of relation to the economy as well as the environment. Because of the prices of everything, Gen Z have developed a very rough idea of work. The end goal is no longer to own a house, just to have some sort of roof over their heads. Then in relation, the youth also have to clean up the Earth. Which only adds more of a workload on the Z generation.

One of the biggest changes that the youth have seen is something that we cannot even see. It is the changes of our rights and just what we have to deal with as problems. Before, the youth rebelled for freedom: sex before marriage, being able to choose their own career paths, but now it asks for more control: taking care of prices in stores, being able to work our jobs as well as meet the minimum amount of money to survive. To me, the youth had changed with what exactly it was asking for.

The way to solve all three cannot be an easy task. For there will always be a certain deviance and conformity to humanity.
But the general idea could be changing society itself. If we changed how we did things, there may be less deviance on certain things, there would be more freedom to conform to whatever that certain person wanted to; all the while freeing up the youth from the crushing amount of responsibilities.

Deviace could be less so if people introduced maybe; the optional for children to be able to drink or drive with the parent's responsibility etc..

Conformity could be less restrictive if the entire idea that to conform is the norm was abolished, in which people decided what they want to do based on what they want and how they want to do it.

And with these less restrictive ideals the youth of this age could thrive in a much more free environment than that of what they may have to endure. It could possibly open up more options outside of just making money to survive.