Youngism is a relatively new term to us, but it is surely not new in our society. Youngism is a counterpart term for ageism which pertains to discrimination against older people, except youngism propagates the belief of being against younger people. Although the term is not as widely used or online, when we take an in-depth look at our society, youngism can be found in all of its parts, giving a limit on what youths can do despite their constant efforts to prove that they are more than their age.
Youngism occurs almost every day and everywhere. Old people are always regarded as those who have the most experience while the opposite goes for young people. Although this is true to some extent, youths are not entirely inexperienced. For instance, youths often get discriminated against in the workplace for being young. People have this perception that if you are young, you have few to no experiences hence, you do not know what it’s like to work. In some families, if you try to express your opinions, they will be disregarded just because “you are young.” There was this one instance when I tried to speak up and share my opinions to my family about a certain issue, and they rebutted me by saying “Wala ka namang alam d’yan, bata ka pa.” I realized here that nowadays, young people are prominent when it comes to speaking up about issues concerning not just themselves but our society collectively. However, their opinions are not always given importance. The argument against our opinions will always be “Baka ka pa, wala kang alam.” This should not be the case because in this day and age, the youth has more knowledge about societal issues than most adults do. Youths nowadays, compared to adults, have eyes that are wide-opened to the issues that all kinds of people face in our society. This might be due to the paradigms that adults have. They tend to stick to what they already know, or what they are experiencing. This results in close-mindedness among adults. Though it might be accurate to rely on someone’s age in gauging their knowledge and experience, however, it does not justify the negligence of youth’s opinions because “we’re too young to know anything”. Not all older people know so much, and not all young people know too little.
It’s ironic how we put a certain limitation on what youths can and should do, yet youths have become pioneers of some of the programs and organizations that have drastically changed our society. Over the years, there have been various youth-led organizations that sprung out of the youths’ dedication and passion to effect a change and contribute to the betterment of our society. For example, the Butterfly Effect PH is a youth-led organization that is committed towards alleviating poverty and developing the community, while also advocating for social change, justice and awareness. Just last year, the organization launched a fundraiser called “LIPAD: Para sa Sandaang San Roque” which aimed to provide holiday meals to 100 families in Sitio San Roque, a Quezon City-based urban poor community, on Christmas eve. Through this fundraiser, they have raised a total of P173,600.84 which was used to provide noche buena meals for 100 families in Sitio San Roque.. Another youth-led organization, The Initiative PH, in collaboration with The Scarecrow PH spearheaded Project Pagsibol — a project that aims to work hand-in-hand with farmer communities to strengthen the agri-food system and connect more farmers to the market. It initially began as a COVID-19 response to urgently bring relief aid to affected farmer communities during the pandemic. Despite the stigma surrounding their age, evident in these organizations and programs are the youth’s passion and determination to contribute to the betterment of the society and to rise above that stigma.
How can we stay true to the saying “kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan” if we are putting the youth in a cage, limiting what they can do? They may be young, but that did not and should not stop them from doing something significant to our society. For years, youngism has neglected what the youth contribute to the society. It is now time to give importance to them and treat them the way we would treat adults.
Sources:
Grillo, I. (2019). Youngism: Do we discriminate against young people?. Retrieved from:
Nellas, A. (2021). 5 Youth-Led Organizations Share How They’re Championing Their Advocacies. Retrieved from: https://www.candymag.com/features/5-youth-led-organizations-philippines-a1655-20210228-lfrm
The Initiative PH. Retrieved from: https://theinitiativeph.org/home
The Butterfly Effect PH. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/thebutterflyeffectph/posts/213252180427398
The Butterfly Effect PH. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/thebutterflyeffectph/posts/178702950548988
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