Why are teenagers materialistic?

Not all teenagers are materialistic, to begin with, but the majority seem to be, and there are some easy answers to this.

Youth is an age of experiment and exploration. It is through experimenting with life in all its forms, and exploring the wonders of everything around them that they gradually get to know their world, to build their confidence, to acquire the knowledge that eventually turns them into adults and the experience to make the right decisions for their future, especially relating to their career and partners.

Youth is a time of low self-esteem because they are usually starting out with virtually nothing, just themselves. They find themselves in a world which is already established and, in the human hierarchy, they are almost at the bottom, just above babes and infants. That does not empower them too much because they have to now work very hard to take their individual places in that hierarchy. They have no money, no knowledge and no experience - the usual things associated with adults. They can only build their confidence and esteem through one major thing: their possessions - their clothes, toys and friends. So whom they align with at this time says a lot about them and is also crucial to how they wish to portray themselves. Hence why they experiment a lot to identify what suits them most, what adds the most kudos to their daily lives and what makes them most significant.

Fashion, in particular, becomes important at this stage because they can control and manipulate it to best effect. It is a major statement about who they are, how they see themselves and whom they wish to be. Hence why a lot of their money goes on fashion and cosmetics. In this kind of seemingly materialistic way, they dictate the terms of how they are perceived, they can boost their esteem, their confidence and their ability to be valued, admired and desired. They actually have the power to present themselves in desirable ways which are appreciated by their peers and so a subtle competition develops.

Being a teenager is mainly about the 'ME' culture because it is an important learning age. Being an experimental age too, the focus will be on the self to learn as much as possible in order to compete with peers, to be regarded as someone included and valued and to lay the foundations for future achievements in life. Money becomes paramount because that is the only marker of success that a youth can actually deliver in his/her own way, hence the focus on getting as much of it as quickly as possible (aiming to be a millionaire at 30, for instance).

In a nutshell, youth is a time for big hopes, big dreams and big aspirations and exploring the means to fulfil them. These will mainly be centred around money and possessions to boost the individual's competitive edge. It is a materialistic time because possessions are all they have to demarcate them from each other. Knowledge and experience in the ways of the world are still to come for them.

Elaine Sihera (Ms CYPRAH)
Emotional Health Adviser
"Respect and love begin with the self. If we have none, how can we give away any?"

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