3. What are some of the problems that today’s teenagers have to deal with? Discuss.

Being a teenager nowadays is not all fun and laughter. In fact, it is getting tougher to fulfill
the expectations of being a teenager. One of the biggest problem today, is the obvious one –
studying. Most teenagers today do not like studying and face a huge stress while studying in school.
This should not be the case, as teenagers should be enjoying their carefree young lives as they learn
along the way. However, the world is getting more advanced and challenging each day and every
teenager has to work hard in order to be able to survive in the future competitive world. Due to this,
many teenagers are not spending their moments of youth on joyfully, but are instead pressured into
accepting adulthood at a younger age than they need to. They need to be able to be mature enough
to plan their future well and study hard to have a bright path ahead of them. In addition, parents
add on to their stress by holding out high expectations form these teenagers. Because of this,
teenagers have in fact became more dull and seemed to have lost the glimmer of youth in them, the
playfulness and the free spirit to be able to spend their youth doing the things they want to. Of
course, studying is not all that bad as it can be interesting, however, heavy competition makes it
hard for these teenagers to be stressed as they aim to go to a good school to get the best education.

Another common problem in today’s teenagers’ world is relationship problems. As these

teenagers grow up, they start to take note of the people around them and become interested in
establishing relations with one another, whether it is love or friendship relations. As they are
becoming attracted to the opposite sex, some of them might get involved in love relationships.
Thereafter, they might get hurt emotionally and heartbroken, this would cause them sadness and
despair. Also, because of this, they might not be able to concentrate on their studies well and
furthermore, if their parents reprimand them because of their inability to do well, they might feel
even worse. Some of them feel they cannot confide in their own parents as they do not understand.
Hence they keep their feelings to themselves and end up being emotionally stressed. Also, they
might have friendship problems which would also affect their life very much. But life still does not
stop for them, to have a break from this demanding world, it is possible to imagine how much they
have to take in and endure in order to persevere in their studies and life.

Teenagers also face the problems of learning the wrong things and becoming addicted to
inappropriate behaviours. One example is smoking. Some teenagers may pick up the wrong habits in
this time of their life as they learn from the wrong friends. They might start to drink alcohol and do
drugs, walking in the wrong direction of life. As teenagers grow, they also become more concerned
about their body image. They might have weight struggles and some might even resort to taking
slimming pills to make themselves feel better while harming their own body.

The teenage world is not so simple and carefree after all. The problems are never ending,
and most of them put on a strong front to face this world, when deep down inside, they are actually
fragile little souls who have yet to learn much but have to handle this world with mature thoughts.

Jerlin Huang (16) 4E2