Youth and Attitude
The lingo at colleges has become snazzier, that is in fashion. All the latest trends are followed by the students in the name of keeping up with their tag style. Attitude has been termed as the way one dresses, behaves, the type of music he or she listens. If someone around us loves hip-hop style of music, or dresses like one we prejudice upon his or her attitude to be Gangsta or Carefree types. Similarly, if someone wears lots of black colour in makeup or clothing we conclude him or her to be a rebel or an introvert.
They say to think out of the box and to widen our approach towards life. But the mindset of youth has not changed since time immemorial. The tagging of crowd and classification of people according to common tastes in music, food or fashion statements is a common trend observed these days. A very big confusion rules the scene – What is an Attitude?
A survey conducted across various genres of youth (including the Gothic introverts, the college prom queens, the nerds etc), the results obtained are very clear: Misconception about ATTITUDE is present everywhere.
According to the dictionary meaning of attitude it refers to “Opinion or way of thinking”. But as one of the student; Nikhil Bakshi from 3rd year B Tech says, “Attitude is the poise with which you carry yourself around in public. Be it the way one communicates or dresses”. This is the definition, which suits closely to the one expected by the world outside our college life.
Youth Style. Credit: Dynamic Warrior
Unlike these, which turned out hilarious and funny at one stage. Sai, a class 12th student said, “Attitude means the way he talks with his parents when he is angry”, where actually he implied saying the attitude he throws at his parents when angry with them. For Praveen attitude was giving a damn to the lecturers at college, who constantly bug many students like him to attend college regularly and he says, “It’s my attitude not to care about anything that goes around me and do what I want.”
“Opinions differ and personalities too, but what sets one apart from the crowd is the right attitude”. We have heard this statement number of times, but one thing still remains unclear i.e. “What is the Right Attitude?”
We were amazed to find out that mostly the HR managers of firms involving the recruitment of freshers, make it a point to ask this question, “Define attitude” or may be “What attitude means to you”. Speaking to one of the senior HR manager, this is what she had to say. Anu: “The right answer, which we look for when we ask the question about defining attitude is – It’s a mental frame of mind, which a person develops to adapt to his surroundings.”
Guess all our problems are solved then, now that we know what right attitude is, but then again another question comes into picture – How to attain the right attitude?
Well, the answer to this question cannot be a pin point one. But a psychologist from the city says, youth these days develop a state of mind from what they observe around them, what company they keep and above all the situation, which exists at their homes and the rapport they share with their parents and siblings.
Care free Relaxed and Tension free. Credit: Dynamic Warrior
Now one can happily blame parents when questioned about the wrong attitude, this leads to another way to lead one’s life – the Blame Game scenario, where one loves to blame one’s mistakes or errors onto others and get rid of tensions from one’s conscience.
Madhvi, a final year student tells us, “If I do something wrong, I find an excuse or a scapegoat to blame it on; it not only helps me get out of the situation unharmed but also it eases me and helps me think I wasn’t wrong, though deep down inside I know it was me, who was at fault.”
“Such instances add up a lot to the Attitude of a person and affect them in later stages of life”, says Dr. N.C. Gupte, a students’ counselor. He tells us that the increase in cases of Depression among the students of the age group 15-21 is on a all time high and this new age illness of depression is nothing but a case of wrong attitude and in this particular context being the outlook towards life.
Bottom line for everyone could be: Positive thinking is the best attitude.
