Young icons inspire Generation Now
Thanks to a bunch of young achievers, today’s teenagers have replaced the faces which until recently, used to be their must-have pin-ups. Whether it’s 16-year-old Arjun Vajpai (the youngest Indian to scale the Mount Everest), 13-year-old IIT JEE topper Sahal Kaushik, 9-year-old guitarist Yuto Miyazawa or 13-year-old singing prodigy Gerson Michael Chance, teenagers are looking up to achievers of their age as role models hoping to achieve success at a young age too.
For 19-year-old aspiring guitarist Anshuman L. Bhuyan, Ozzy Obsourne was his ultimate demigod, until he saw nine-year-old Japanese guitarist, Yuto Miyazawa belting out crazy licks in Crazy Train alongside his God and Zack Wilde. “It changed my way of looking at guitar playing. He is just nine years old and he can trigger a riot with the six strings. It’s inspiring,” opines Anshuman, who has made it a point to watch his favourite star at least once everyday on YouTube.
Mountaineer Arjun Vajpai, 16, inspired 13-year-old Myra P. Goswami so much that she joined mountaineering courses, and now wants to scale the Mount Everest. “She used to be a girl, who loved teddies and Barbie dolls. But now she wants to go mountaineering. The 16-year-old’s achievement has motivated my child so much that it’s surprising. Today, with so many wonder kids it has become easy for parents to give children their examples,” opines her mother Rohini P. Goswami.
Experts, however, feel that following child prodigies as role models at times can have dangerous repercussions on a child’s psyche. Especially, if one succumbs to the pressure to achieve “unrealistic” goals at a young age, the child might suffer from psychological challenges in the long run.
Clinical psychologist, Bristi Borkakoty says that failing to achieve goals at an early age can lead to serious psychological disorders. “It’s dangerous when the desire to achieve a certain goal takes the shape of an addiction for a child. It’s a simple human psyche that failure to achieve goals can lead to loss of confidence. A child might lose his identity among peers if he is not being able to live up to the expectations. And this might lead to psychological disorders in the long run,” she adds.
“Parents too need to understand that forcefully one cannot make a prodigy out of a child. It’s good to give them examples of achievers of their age and inspire them. Unlike today’s reality shows, a child should not be exposed to unnecessary pressure,” adds Rohini.
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