Need for more voices against damaging behaviours camouflaged as lifestyles

Shimbo Pastory

This article was published in The Citizen Newspaper, Tanzania on 9th January, 2024

The reason why the word ‘lifestyle’ is used to cover a whole lot of rejected behaviours is its perceived neutrality. When one says, ‘it’s just a lifestyle’ it suggests harmlessness and absence of need for interference as it is ‘just’ a lifestyle; Akin to saying, doing the same thing in a little bit of a different way.

However, this needs to be keenly looked upon as it poses a great danger to the youth. Lifestyle appears to be something other people should not be concerned with, and should accept just as it comes. Though respect for autonomy, as sociologists would attest, is one of the fundamental principles of society, this autonomy has to be within the margins of what the society accepts.

The margin young people can focus on is that of what the society accepts, not that of what the society tolerates. In general, most problems facing young people today are associated with lifestyles.

Think of mental health crises across the world, malnutrition and obesity, stress, violence, substance abuse, reproductive health challenges, relationships volatility, suicides, etc. All these are often found to be connected to one’s lifestyle.

With the help of the media today, there are many unusual behaviours which have been normalized in other societies, which are being transported across the globe. Our society is not excluded.

Our young people eventually get the ‘I never knew that’ surprise when they see things done differently in other places. They then desire to try.

This is where we need more voices. By voices here we mean both spoken words against such damaging behaviours, but also clearly spelt policies to guide our collective approach to such behaviours.

We also need active taskforces that teach the right things among our young people, answering their questions and satisfying their curiosity.

Many fall into such traps if they are not guided because they are told that such behaviours are ‘just’ lifestyles; as if they are an options for everyone to choose if they want to.

With the many problems we already have as a society, we need collaborative effort to motivate young people to look at the future with purpose and good intent for both themselves and the society at large.

If one chooses a lifestyle that eventually make the person less productive in adding value to the society, that lifestyle needs to be keenly examined.

Obviously, we have people who have failed in life all over the world. As such, our attempt is not to make a society that is exclusively pure, full of only successful people. It would be nice like that, but it is idealistic, as actual life does not play out that way.

Our advocacy, however, is to help reduce the number of young people who fall into troubles that could be avoided if they are rightly guided. We intend to rescue young people from becoming failures full of trends.

Nonetheless, regardless of whether one begins from the scratch, battles unemployment, etc. the need for right state of mind and a healthy worldview cannot be overemphasized. How we look at the world determines how life works for us as well.

With the media, it gets popular by the day how young people tend to look at life with its ‘old’ stringent rules as backward. Many young people today, especially in Western countries desire life without strict rules and demands on them. Researchers have equally established an increase in teenage fragility over the years.

In African countries, despite the socioeconomic problems, in the past most children transitioned to taking up adult responsibilities earlier. As such, a primary school child would know how to cook, to take care of young ones, and a few other responsibilities. But this is waning, with so many university students appearing to have skipped such basic home training.

Lifestyles that make children lose focus in building their future should be condemned as they are working against the progress of our society. We live beyond the pleasures of the present moment. This is why our freedom should be used responsibly. Many modern lifestyles are pursued at the cost of the productive prime of one’s youthfulness and oftentimes, one’s dignity.

Young people are not at the service of lifestyles without a damage to their own very person. Lifestyles should be put under control such that they do not hinder or manipulate one’s entire life and prospects. Lifestyles that damage the young people morally, physically or behaviourally should be avoided and spoken against.