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Marta Gili
Adolescence has always been considered one of the most complex stages of human development. Overwhelmed by constant contradictions, the adolescent tests the patience of adults. One the one hand, he yearns for their undivided attention and on the other, he rejects it; at times he is inhibited by the outside world and other times he rebels against it; sometimes he is conciliatory and other times he is uncompromising. Definitively, this is a period of profound misgivings with oneself and with others, and an individual's more or less successful resolution of this period determines the nature of his experiences in adulthood. A dark phase feared by parents and teachers, the typical "teenage crisis" are borne with stoicism, like a "necessary misfortune", like something that arrives inevitably and that "only time will heal". Typical are the friendly chats wherein parents console each other by telling of the "deeds" of some teenage son or daughter, their bad moods, their eccentricities or their silence. Schools organize "guidance" colloquies designed for demoralized parents and psychologists advise flexibility and understanding. But, nowadays, what does the generation gap consist of? Currently, does a real gap exist between adult and teenage interests, or between their behavioral norms? Adolescence is all the rage
Adolescence is all the rage because never before have the limits between adolescence and adulthood been so difficult to discern. The path separating the child from the adult is no longer unidirectional. The adult in the society of the XXI century has laid out a return route that permits him to settle in and remain in the paradise of whim and imposture. Adolescence is all the rage because the adult of the age of space, information and terror has taken a step backward. Our adolescents know this and play with an advantage up against adults who do not hide their frenzy to resemble them: from their dress to their bodies, from their slang to their poses, from advertisements to entertaining second rate TV programs and series featuring childish lawyers and automatic laughter, from the tacit complicity of their parents to the desperate fragility of their teachers. Today's teenagers live moments of glory in a model of society built after their own image and likeness. Born in front of the television set and growing up in front of the computer and the videogame, the enigma of the information and communication society of adults is no secret to them; the adult world has always been within their reach, even before they could cross the street alone. For the teenager, adult reality and childish fantasy blend into the same format and are configured without conflict or discord. Before this panorama, many of the precepts of canon developmental psychology, which lay the foundation of maturity on the bases of the submission to reality and the contention of fantasy, become totally obsolete. Everything is important and banal at the same time, since reality itself lacks identity. Seduced by the temptation to live life with this ease, relieved of commitment and responsibility, the adult finds, in that simpering and individualistic sphere of adolescence, the paradise of decaffeinated imposture. These truths are well known to fashion designers who have no qualms creating garments for the rich in "poor" styles, tour business agents who offer "organized" adventures, film directors who "reveal" the romantic diary of "a 35-year-old adolescent" and politicians who shamelessly reduce their discourse to a tale of "good guys and bad guys". (…)
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