Obviously the younger generation gets changed every day and the older generation looks at the changes skeptically. My idea here is not to look at the new generation in an indifferent perspective. My findings in the post are not the conclusions I came after a scientific survey but what I feel by looking at the youth today.
The biggest difference I see is that in the music field there are no more deep voices as in our time. The male voices are more or less close to female voices and this not only in the local music scene but a global phenomenon. I am surprised by the choice of the youth today as I preferred Kishore Kumar, Sunil Edirisinghe, Sunil Perera and Shaggy who had deep, strong voices. When it comes to female singers, I don’t see much of a difference but the popularity of the likes of Ashanthi is notable as during our time it was high-pitched female voices of the likes of Latha Walpola and Sujatha Aththanayaka were the choice and the only exceptions would have been Mariaselle Gunatilake and Indrani Perera.
I see less youth today wear wristwatches. This may be due to the inbuilt watches in mobile phones. It was during my time that the cheap digital watches became popular and almost every youth had one. Expensive watches have not disappeared but they are being used less and less.
I find the new youth, specially the boys, don’t comb their hair much. We had our combs in our pockets in our days but the present generation just put some hair gel and uses their fingers to control their hair. Besides they don’t grow longer hair anymore like in our days, except for girls.
Many young boys grow strange beards. The styles are different from each other and look ridiculous but we have to respect their choices. During our times most boys were cleanly shaven but towards the early 90’s boys imitated small stubbles George Michael and Anil Kapoor grew.
Less wear shoes today and many wear sandals except for the working men.
Girls wear more imitation jewelry than real gold and real gold is used only for events like weddings. We can’t say that the girls’ clothes are undisciplined today. Some do wear shorts but only for homes, picnics, etc. and not in the roads. I don’t say that wearing shorts is bad. If a girl has nice legs, there is no harm in showing them as it happens in the West.
During our generation going to movies became less due to various reasons but today the youth seem watching more movies in DVDs and computers. They mostly download them through torrent software illegally. There is a considerable number of youth who go to cinemas once a good movie comes.
Mine was a time that the cellular phone was not heard of till the late 90’s and a fixed phone was a luxury. I had used roadside payphones with 5 rupee and 2 rupee coins but today majority of the youth possesses a mobile phone. Most of the mobile phones they use are with double SIMs and they use them to talk and SMS.
Many youth are engrossed with FM radio stations that broadcast youth-oriented programs and mainly songs. There is less interest in documentaries and discussions on serious topics.
Most of the youth watch TV and their favorite programs are tele serials called “mega teledramas” and musical programs where young bands and singers play.
Smoking has become less among the new youth while addiction to beer and hard liquor is on the increase. Even girls don’t mind sipping a glass of beer these days.
More youth follow computer courses after OL and AL which is a good trend and as a result, the internet usage is on the increase. Some have started very productive blogs and websites while the majority are addicted to just Facebook for fun. I’m not too sure how the computer games have affected the youth.
Most of the youth who know IT and use internet are on Facebook. But I see many girls using celebrities’ pictures as profile image instead of their own photo. I cannot understand the logic behind it. There is no harm putting a stamp-sized picture of a girl on a Facebook account.
Few youths are into blogging. Some are amazingly creative while some just stick to technology related blogging. You can see the young bloggers blogs in blog syndicates.
There is a tendency among the youth to be involved in sports and some even go to fitness centers to keep fit. Cycling is less seen though. Since many can afford motorbikes these days, no one cares about cycling as a sport anymore.
I see new youth wearing trousers that are not fit to the waist but fits just below the waist. When they bend or sit, one can see their underwear from behind. Girls too wear the same type of trousers and jeans and allowing their underwear to be seen doesn’t seem to embarrass them.
I can stand all the new fashions the new young ladies follow but what I cannot stand is that maternity- blouse-like blouses non-pregnant young women wear these days.
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Nanda Wanninayaka 