Our teens are in a value crisis
Our teens are in a value crisis.
They are constantly inundated with external affirmations or refutations of their value—their test grades, the number of likes on their latest instagram post, the number of followers they just got, the amount of money they can be paid to post on social media.
Our teens have been raised in a world that tells them that anyone can be famous and have a following, and that if they don’t have thousands of followers, they should question the value they are adding to the world.
This notion that our value is derived externally, from our output, our production, the number of likes, the number of followers, how many people like us, how many friends we have, how many good ratings we get, our abs, our blemish-free skin is hurting our teens.
It's easy to get caught up in what we don’t have—the ways our minds don’t work. How we don’t look. The extra ripple on our stomachs. The pimple on our foreheads. What we don’t know. The things we don’t have. The work we haven't done. The dream we haven't achieved. The money we don't have. The list is endless, really.
But it’s hurting all of us.
Our definition of success, the value we add, is slowly being constructed by what we do rather than by who we are to ourselves.
We’re here to remind you that your contribution in the world goes beyond your follower count. Everything you have to give this world is already in you. It's sourced from within, and when we start comparing ourselves to others, we miss out on our innate gifts. Everyone’s gifts are different.
It’s critical to remind our teens, and ourselves, that our social media following aren’t what make us whole, fulfilled, and complete human beings.
Our value is sourced from within. And when we arrive there, we find true success.
How we can remind teens of the value they bring by just being themselves:
Remind them of the things and people they value.
Prompt them to remember one of the last accomplishments that they are proud of.
Prompt them to think of what they are working to achieve - whether they want to be a doctor or an artist - and remind them that those things don’t happen over night like followers and social media “likes.”
Talk about ways they may be comparing themselves to their peers. Emphasize the power of being different and having unique gifts.
Get them to revisit the hobbies that they enjoy.
Help them pinpoint the negative thoughts they keep having and why those thoughts aren’t necessarily true.
Bring their attention to the progression they’ve made in the past year. Get them to remember where they were 1,2,5 years ago and observe how far they’ve come to be where they are today.