3. Are Today’s Teenagers the Most Stressed
Generation?
Our documentary will be exploring the pressures that teenagers face today, in comparison to
the pressures that older generations faced when they were teenagers (e.g. parents)
The pressures we are focusing on are parental pressures, social media pressures, the
pressure to look good, and pressures from colleges to achieve high grades, complete work,
meet deadlines and go to university to start a career.
Through our topic research, we have found that the number of university applicants were
much lower when our parents were starting their careers, so this increase in university rates
show us that the pressure to actually go to university through schools, colleges and families
has increased. In our documentary, we will be exploring how these university expectations
have changes through the generation. Also, social media didn’t exist when our parents were
teenagers, and therefore there was a lot less pressure to look good in pictures posted online
and to ‘fit in’ as there was less access to the internet and less exposure to peer pressure or
social media groups that teenagers today may feel pressured to join.
