Where Have All the Children Gone? :: The American Critic

Where Have All the Children Gone?

by Sarah88
December 5th, 2007 at 6:31 PM
Filed under: Other Discursive Dialogue

Children in the United States are disappearing and are being replaced with teenagers. Toddlers are almost completely skipping their childhood and going directly to adolescence. Everything from clothing to toys is transforming to satisfy the wants of these little “teenagers.” Children are aware of their appearance and have the desire to be “cool” more than ever before. According to the Nickelodeon-Yankelovicht Youth Monitor, by age twelve children describe themselves as “flirtatious, sexy, trendy, athletic, and cool.” Alcohol, drugs, and sexual activity are even becoming a normal part of junior high school, all of which children believe will aid them in their quest to be cool. Childhood is a precious part of life that we should preserve for as long as possible, but the youth of today is giving it up in exchange for thong underwear and iPods.
Kids today have become increasingly obsessed with their appearance and fashion. The wardrobe of the average child has been substituted with the wardrobe of a teenager, particularly in girls. Overalls have been replaced with low-rise jeans, knee-length shorts have been replaced with mini-skirts, and tie-dye t-shirts have been replaced with lacy tank tops. Thongs are even available in kids’ stores. Girls are also starting to wear make-up at ridiculously young ages. There is even make-up that specifically targets young girls. It is disturbing enough to see junior high girls wearing clothes skimpier than my own, but even more disturbing is seeing five and six-year-old girls dressed in mini-skirts, tube tops, covered in make-up, and dancing like Britney Spears in front of a store at the mall that contributes to the thievery of childhood. Granted, I played dress-up as a child, but I wore princess dresses and only wore make-up to my dance recitals. In addition to the fixation of wearing fashionable clothes, girls are also concerned about their bodies and weights. According to therapists, there is an increase in eating disorders such as anorexia and dangerous dieting, even among girls as young as ten years old. Young girls’ concern with appearance is coming prematurely and is contributing to the disappearance of childhood.
Birthday lists of children today have gadgets such as cell phones, iPods, and video games, and kids are getting them. I cannot get used to the sight of ten and eleven year olds with cell phones attached to their heads. At such a young age, children should be outside playing with their friends and playing with Legos, dolls, and board games, but children today would rather play video games. Some of the best and most memorable times of my childhood were when I was using my imagination. I fear that the use of such technology will diminish a child’s want and need to imagine. Creators of video games do all the imagining for them. Even many of the dolls popular today are different from what was on the shelves in the past. For instance, the “Bratz” dolls wear clothing that exposes thigh, midriff, and cleavage, and they are wearing large amounts of make-up. These technological “toys” and scantily clad dolls are influencing children to grow up much faster than they should.
The scariest part of kids speeding through childhood too quickly is when they reach temptations that can be dangerous even for teenagers to engage in, such as alcohol and drugs. These “risk behaviors” were once hardly common in high school, but now we hear about these behaviors going on in junior high schools. According to my father, in the 1960’s, drinking alcohol in high school was much less common than it is today, and a person who smoked marijuana was considered to be deviant. Today, these activities are socially acceptable in high school and are becoming more common in junior high schools. In the past ten years, the number of eighth-graders who have tried marijuana and of those who do not see it as dangerous has doubled. Drinking alcohol and doing drugs is anything but a childhood pastime.
Sexual activity has also become more common among junior high school students. Between 1988 and 1995, the number of girls who admitted to have had sexual intercourse before the age of fifteen rose from eleven percent to nineteen percent. I was truly alarmed each year when a new class of freshman entered high school, and some of the girls already had bad reputations and the some of the boys were already known as “players.” Junior high school students do not have the emotional maturity to be sexually active, but various influences convince them that they are young adults, and that they can engage in adult activities. Because sexual activity can bring on major responsibility, youth and innocence disappear quickly.
Children are becoming adults faster than they should. From ages six and seven, kids skip ahead to sixteen and seventeen years old. They wear the clothing and play with the “toys” meant for teenagers. They also partake in adult behaviors such as drinking alcohol, doing drugs, and sexual activity. They have a yearning to be “cool” at a younger age than ever before. When children try to look and act older, they are throwing away their childhood. We should help kids hold on to their childhood, as those of us who are no longer children know just how valuable it is.

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Anonymous on March 4th, 2008 at 8:48 PM

brownjeffrey00 on December 31st, 2007 at 9:07 AM

Growth hormone injection in meat and digital signals on screens. In airwaves it is the microwave transmissions they bombard us everyday.

Sarah88 on December 6th, 2007 at 1:42 PM

That's true, but I was more focused on HOW kids are growing up too quickly, and I never really got into why. There are so many factors involved... it's another essay for another day. But, you're right since I mentioned one factor I should have acknowledged that there are more.