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23 JUNE 2010

NO 1593

Communication amongst youth

It is interesting to note that the communication is at both logical and emotional levels. In his logical discussion with his fellows, youth often likes to be in personal physical contact and so introduces an emotional component into the communication. Similarly in the dating habits of modern youth, there is often a significant logical, intellectual element in the communication as well as the emotional love-making.

The communication of youth differs from that of the older person in a number of ways
In the endless discussions of youth, with young people just lolling about, there is often an important testing out of ideas. The young person has thought up something, political, sociological, sexual, it does not matter what. He has the idea in his mind. He is not sure of it, so he wants to test out the reactions of his fellows to it. Thus these apparently time-wasting discussions fulfil a very useful purpose for youth. Parentsadvise their sons and daughters to spend less time in this way and more in their studies, but youth learns a great deal like this; it is one of the really educating features of campus life.

In these discussions there is the intellectual exchange and the sharpening up of one’s wits, but there is also the communication and exchange of emotion. There is a subtle testing out of feeling. These are not only vaguely disguised erotic feelings for members of the other sex who are there. This of course is a part of it. There is also a testing out of the feelings of those of one’s own sex – subtle offers and acceptances of friendship, never expressed in words, hardly perceived by the two individuals themselves. But this is learning, a very complicated kind of learning. And youth is better for the experience.

Youth in his discussions unconsciously establishes a hierarchical order of members
There is yet another aspect to these discussions which youth values so highly. There is a testing out of status, and the establishment of a kind of hierarchy. This is so in spite of the fact that the members of the group pride themselves on the freedom of it all. There is a testing for leadership. One, unconscious of what he is doing, offers himself; he is rejected, not by words, but by the non-verbal communication of the group. Another comesin his place. By this process of sifting, the human material becomes stratified; the individual comes to know where he stands, and a subtle form of hierarchy is established. And with it there comes greater individual security and a general reduction of anxiety.

AINSLIE MEARES

Meares, A. (1973). Dialogue with youth. London. Collins Fontana. pp. 154-155.

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