Children's Writer John in the gardenPlaying goodies and baddies Janet in the bedroomPlaying mummies and daddies Mummy in the kitchenWashing and wiping Daddy in the studyStereotyping

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Cultural generations are cohorts of people who were born in the same date range and share similar cultural experience. The idea of a cultural generation, in the sense that it is used today gained currency in the 19th century. 

Source: Wikipedia

Ascribing universal attributes to a broad generation is difficult, and some observers believe that it is inherently impossible.

Write a short COMMENTARY on the following

To ascribe certain features to a whole

generation

– either positive or negative –

is a useless, even dangerous, exercise.

Introduction (state the topic in my own words)

Newspaper and TV headlines that comment on the young generations have become very common. More often than not young people are portrayed as rude, lazy and unreliable. This is simply not true, this is stereotyping. These reports may help to sell papers or attract advertising but, in my view, they are pointless and sometimes dangerous.

(55 words)

Paragraph 2 – Viewpoint 1

Why is stereotyping pointless? To begin with, young people, by definition, are growing! So, it is true that some teens have not found their way, yet; they may feel insecure, sometimes be outspoken, and even act arrogantly. ‘Calling them names’ is not the way to tackle the problem, and if we forget this we are denying young people the opportunity to grow.

(62 words)

Paragraph 3 – Viewpoint 2

Why is it dangerous? When we stereotype people, we do not see them as individuals and we address them for what we think they are, and not for what they really are. As a consequence, young people may start behaving according to that image we convey of them, as they do not understand what is expected of them.

(58 words)

Paragraph 4 – Opposing View

Some people claim stereotypes are harmless and they just make it easier for us to deal with reality. That might be true, but we should always be careful because stereotyping may lead to prejudice and prejudice is the basis of discrimination.

(41 words)

Conclusion– summary

All in all, I would say that by far the disadvantages of stereotyping outweigh the advantages. Therefore, the media should be extremely careful or simply avoid it altogether. Stereotyping may draw bigger audiences, but at what cost.

(37 words)

(Total: 253 words)