Youths will be youths despite the mischiefs
We don't need to be too worried about the increase in netizens' postings, says an article in Xiaoxiang Moring Post. Excerpt:
The online posting, "Jia Junpeng, your mother's calling you home for dinner", has created somewhat of controversy. It generated 8 million hits and 300,000 comments online within four days. People have tried to explain the phenomenon from different angles, with most of them believing that today's youths like Jia Junpeng are lonely and boring.
But others tend to believe that the habit of posting crazy comments is more tedious than "Jia Junpeng" itself, who is said to be so addicted to online games that he forgets to return home.
The recent news about the panty and breast scandals involving junior middle school students have been blown out of proportion by the Internet, leading some people to believe that it's time the authorities addressed the moral decline among the youth.
But in fact, the teenagers were just showing their rebellious side to prove they were young. People who are scolding these teenagers actually did similar lousy things when they were young in the 1960s or 1970s. Rebellion is just part of the growing-up process.
Hence, there is no need for us to cover up our loneliness and curse it, and even worse try to repress it. We should face up to it and accept the fact that we are lonely, tedious or lousy sometimes.
The middle school kids are not likely to commit a crime just because they have been involved in a silly scandal. Netizens will continue to work hard despite their active participation in any hype.
We should not stop them from doing some tedious things. Instead we should guide them toward doing more meaningful deeds.
(China Daily 07/24/2009 page9)
