What youth wants: MONEY
Sunday, June 3, 2012 @ 6:47 PM
Hello readers :D
I spent
almost a week trying to figure out my needs as a youth. I’ve never thought of
it until I came across a question which gave me a food for thought. I realized
that throughout my life as a teenager, I do have unlimited desires. Mind you, I
even have 3 B5-sized pages of my wish
list and truthfully, only about 30% of the wishes have been struck through by me,
indicating that it has been fulfilled as the time passes. 70% is still to come,
and I predict that it will all going to be crossed through when I am no longer
a youth.
You may
think that the reason why I am unable to fulfill my own desires is because I
asked too much.
WRONG!
I don’t think
it is sinful for me to have wishes, dreams and desires at this age.
So after doing
some thinking, I have finally figured out what my primary need is, which is MONEY, the mother
of all my other needs.
Unless you’re
born with a silver spoon in your mouth, money is the primary need for youths.
It is the most common thing that every youth wants. Why do we need money? Why
do I need money?
First and
foremost, youths need money for ENTERTAINMENT.
As a
teenager, the place where I can get entertainment for free would be at home. I would
switch on the television and enjoy watching Korean drama series and all. I
would also switch on my laptop and download other series and sometimes would
watch my favorite series online. THAT is where I can get free entertainment,
but sometimes being a couch potato and getting free entertainment constantly
would be boring. I prefer hanging out with my friends and do shopping, eating,
having karaoke together and do other stuffs together. That sounds more fun, don’t
you think?
This is
just me, not to say the others. Just see how much youths react to live concerts
and fan meetings from celebrities abroad eg. Justin Bieber, Westlife, Tokio
Hotel, Ne-Yo, Adam Lambert, Jason Derulo, Greyson Chance, Avenged Sevenfold and
not forgetting Korean pop artists such as Wondergirls, Beast, U-KISS and Super
Junior. If we have a more titanic space than what we already have for the live
concerts I bet it would be fully filled as well. My point here is that youths would not mind spending money for these live events. To be honest, I am a spend-thrift so if I were given enough money for me to go to this kind of event, I would go! Now, can you see how inseparable is youth and entertainment?
Malaysia has emerged as the top 10 media consuming nation out of 52 countries surveyed by the Nielsen Company to unearth entertainment technology ownership and usage habits of global citizens. Nielsen Malaysia’s Consumer Group managing director, Paul Richmond said Malaysians were real entertainment and technology junkies as they consume copious amount of home entertainment, music, video games and digital media. According to the Nielsen report, 89 per cent of Malaysian own at least a TV set while 87 percent had at least one personal computer. -The Sabah Times, January 2009.
Another research was conducted by American Savings Education Council in 1999 and it was reported that 82% of teenagers spend their own money on entertainment. In 2010, AGP Institute of São Paulo conducted a survey and results showed that68% of youths go out every week for entertainment. The research also found that the major factors that prevent the residents of Sao Paulo from going out are money.
Secondly, youths need money for FASHION AND CLOTHING
Yes, all
girls would love that! I shall agree to the statement that young people are
fashion victims. Even though I am not a fashion freak but I’d love to have nice
outfits to wear. I even dreamt of having a small closet room where it is filled
with my clothing stuffs, sandals, high heels (as if I have one hahah), handbags, and other accessories
just like what you would always see in Korean drama series. Heh.
For guys,
they may need money for TECHNOLOGY: ELECTRONIC STUFFS AND GADGETS.
Not only
the guys, the greedy part of me want those new gadgets too! iPhone, Blackberry, DSLR
camera, Nokia Lumia, Sony Xperia, Samsung Galaxy, iPad, iMac, Macbook and other
notebook computers, those stuffs are to die for!
And I shall
repeat it again, to have those stuffs in your possession you HAVE to HAVE
MONEY.
Thirdly,
youth needs money for EDUCATIONAL NEEDS.
Like I
said, unless you have a wealthy background, I personally think that most of the
youths would apply for academic loans or scholarships in order to pay for their
studies. As for me, I honestly think that my parent’s monthly income would not
be enough to support my whole education added with my siblings’ educations if I
was not given allowances every semester during my foundation and now, while
waiting to further my Degrees, I am applying for available loans and
scholarships.
Where do
youths usually get their money?
A research
done by the Teenage Research Unlimited report that 53% youth get their money
from their parents as a needed basis. 46% of them get money through odd jobs,
46% from gifts, 32% from part time jobs, 26% from regular allowances and 13%
from full-time jobs.
What youths
do to get money:
Sometimes
when you have uncontrollable desires you would decide to work; that is the
solution of every financial problems. An article review done by Lynne Bryla
states that people work because they feel that jobs can provide financial
independence. You don’t want to give your parents any more burdens and trouble
so you work to earn your own income.
So that’s
it. This is only my view, I don’t know about the others. However, I am aware that
money isn’t everything for youth. We (the youths) realized our responsibilities towards the country
as we are the future generations who will run our own country one day. I find
it funny and weird by just looking at how eager and concerned our youths have
been with our politic and economy. Truth be told, youths nowadays are aware of
the political and economic development going around in this country. Thus, the
government should establish a proper, better and stabilized economy as well as conduct a paradigm shift (berhijrah ke arah kebaikan) in our political system so that Malaysia
can be a better place for the youths.
And to make those dreams a
reality, join Sarawak Bloggers and ouryouth.my now because "Sarawak Bloggers and ouryouth.my are catalyst of the future of Sarawak
and Malaysia."
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