The Lost Generation

You wake up in a drunken stupor, the taste of last night’s alcohol still on your breath. Frantically you scan the room, trying to get a bearing of where you are. Eventually you accept defeated: not even Google maps can save you. Moments later, flashes from the previous night begin to appear in your memory: God, I drank too much. How much money did I spend? I can’t believe I got kicked out that club. That was an interesting threesome I had with those two Europeans I only just met last night. Man, I better go home and sleep this off. Thank God I don’t have a job – working with this hangover would be brutal.

Despite their lack of jobs, most Scottish youngsters still find funds to go out on a bender every weekend. They stroll down the street with their flashy smart phones, trendy attire and 50 pound haircuts - being broke never looked so good. All they have to do to finance next Friday’s binge is go into the Job Centre, make-up a few job searches, attend a five minute interview and sign a bit of paper. Why the hell would you want to work? This seems pretty peachy.

“I see a lot of 18 to 24-year-olds come in here and blatantly lie about searching for jobs. Half the time they don’t even go on our website and copy down jobs that are actually there; I think they just make them up.” Fiona is an advisor at a Job Centre in Dundee, “Part of my job is conducting a short interview with the person claiming Job Seekers, then I search jobs with them and check that they’ve been looking.” She believes that there are youths out there who really do want jobs, but the large majority simply can’t be bothered working. “I think a lot of it is family dependent. If you have an older brother or sister, or maybe a parent, who has been unemployed for a long time, then that can quite often have a negative effect. ‘They aren’t working, why should I?’ attitude. Quite frankly I find it frustrating. Having a job gives you a sense of purpose and helps you pay your way. Young people don’t think the jobs being offered are good enough for them, they want to start at the top.”

It won’t be news to anybody that we’re currently nursing a fragile economy; there aren’t enough jobs at the moment as no-one can afford to take on more staff but sometimes a lack of job comes from a lack of trying – either that or Argos have adopted a military style recruitment training programme and none of us are meeting their requirements.

However, it isn’t just the lack of employment that is worrying about today’s youth; it’s their behaviour. It’s not that they embark on riotous rampages - smashing shop windows, setting fire to cars, sticking cats up trees and so forth – but over the last decade, Scotland’s youth culture has become a lot more drink orientated. It’s not the alcohol itself that’s the problem more the amount of it consumed. You can try telling them off, but they’ll just look at their shoes and snort because you’re old and dull and they hate you.

Any Friday, you’re guaranteed to see swarms of drunken folk zigzagging all over the place. Young folk are out to have a good time which, by popular definition, means getting absurdly drunk – the NHS calls this binge drinking, they call it fun.  On a typical day, the recommended amount of alcohol for a man to drink is 3-4 units (equivalent to a pint and a half of beer) and for woman it’s 2-3 units (equivalent to a 175 ml glass of wine). The problem isn’t that they exceed this limit, but rather that they do it on such a regular basis.

Around 40% of patients under the age of 25 are admitted because of alcohol-related incidents. This ‘loads or none, never have one’ attitude affects other areas too. Binge drinking commonly leads to violent, aggressive and anti-social behaviour. 50% of street crimes are drink induced, as well as 30% of sexual offences and 33% of burglaries, most of which are committed by persons aged between 16 to 24.

Another issue, albeit less serious and slightly amusing, with youth is the way they dress, especially girls. The majority of shops have a vast selection of skimpy attire on sale – some more than others – and many girls buy into this as it helps their self-esteem (highlights their ‘assets’, if you will.) The reason for this behaviour, they also believe it makes them appear older. If you dress promiscuously and pile on the war paint, then you have more chance of looking over 18 which means, shockingly, they can get into pubs and clubs.

Guys aren’t much different, the majority of male youths are vain, self-obsessed and sex driven. Looking good will get you the girl – sad, but true. In the grand scheme of things though, what they wear isn’t really hurting anybody. It’s more a means to an end.

So, is that all the youth have to offer? A bunch of unemployed, binge drinking, sex-craving, lazy (except when trying to get lucky, of course) good-for-nothings? No. Not all of them anyway. There is a mass of untapped potential out there, yet the fact is a lot of them won’t get their chance to shine as the opportunity isn’t available to them. The Scottish government has announced its plans to tackle youth unemployment by working with some of Scotland’s largest employers. The government plan to create 25,000 modern apprenticeships for youths, which is definitely a step in the right direction.

However, the drinking and the lack of motivation is an issue and sadly it isn’t one that will fix itself. Our generation isn’t lost –just misguided.