Is the new generation falling into moral decay?

TimesLIVE

02-07-2025

When I'm in the presence of the elderly, conversations that spark are often about the disrespectful generation nowadays, the Gen-Zs. I researched their observations and discovered that gender socialisation and culture play a pivotal role in the production of this behaviour among the so-called 'Ama 2000'. Gender socialisation begins at home; in sociology, this is a primary institution of socialisation. It is important for the family and school to work together in teaching values to children.
When you walk through any township, village, suburb, street, in corridors or a schoolyard, you will notice something our elders could not have imagined could transpire under the sun. Teens hold hands and kiss in public, wear hats inside the house and won't give a seat to the elderly on public transport when it's fully loaded. Socrates would have said an unexamined behaviour is not worth giving blessings if he were of African descent. Moral degeneration is a global crisis that affects all societies in many ways. What has been a fundamental factor for me is that Gen-Zs are unwilling to follow values.
The big notion I want to delve into is gender socialisation that results in a value dilemma among the younger generation. Gender socialisation is a simple concept: it's when boys and girls are taught about how society expects them to behave based on their gender. For example, when a boy gets hurt, maybe by falling, they are encouraged to be tough; in the case of girls, they are told that it is OK to cry.
But boys and girls live up to these social expectations throughout their human lifespan, and when boys grow up, thinking that they must be cool, they learn how to make love by watching TikTok, Facebook or Instagram; that's where the twist of fate lies. There's a notion that art imitates life and vice versa. The youth are continually exposed to violence in the media. Secularisation also has an impact on the loss of a value system among the youth. Take my word for it; I've seen teens kissing in public as elders walk past. This way of behaving was not tolerated in the old days, 'so the elders say, and we listen to the wisdom of those ahead of us'.
The elders call it disrespect; Gen-Z call it 'true love'. I call it ill-mannered, not that I'm against kissing. Cultures, whether we are talking of non-material or material culture, are different; we need to be conscious of that as diverse people in different regions of the world.
What do we do when our children bring drugs, alcohol or weapons to school? Who do we blame when 14-year-old boys are stabbed to death in schools, like the one who died outside Tsolo High School in the Eastern Cape? In some African traditions, like the Thonga culture, kissing is taboo; it's seen as unhygienic and repulsive because of the saliva shared. But nowadays, the youths of tomorrow learn differently from what our elders learnt. The family no longer interrupts; values can be individually made or milked from friends.
For example, when a Gen-Z befriends a person who goes home late, they gradually inherit that behaviour. Instagram and Netflix have been an impetus in the creation of this behaviour among 'Ama-2000'. The shift in behaviour is not only about kissing; it is about the death of values. Back in the times when a child would not walk in a house with a hat on, now Gen-Zs must always be reminded when they visit homes that keep that culture. The burial culture is changing too. Back then, children buried their parents; now parents bury their children — an unpredicted reversal of events .
Respect is a two-way street. Today it's a one-way tunnel of assumptions. If you have been in a public transport, you must have noticed that Gen-Zs hardly offer a seat to elders unless the person is visibly disabled.
The poverty trap, particularly in education, doesn't just destroy values and the future of children, it also destroys standards. Education takes place at school and at home, and different values are instilled in children. The primary objective of education is to develop a certain number of physical, intellectual and moral states in a child.
The education system has produced pupils who are heartless, greedy, dishonest and disrespectful. The question is whether this is due to the poor formal training of South African educators, especially in the public sector. The issue of moral decay in education has its roots in apartheid; back then, violence erupted due to the poor education children were receiving.
Today's education system continues to breed violent youths, but the reasons for the moral decay are now a bit different to those of apartheid. Juvenile delinquency is at its highest peak in South African society as discipline and respect decrease due to the disintegration of the family and poor education. The way the youth behave shows the principles they will adhere to when they become adults.
If we want a society of well-mannered children, we should stop preaching values as adults and act ethically ourselves. If one of us stumbles along this journey, they should be held accountable for their responsibilities so that the upcoming ones can learn from us. The moral terrain should be unhampered territory. As people form families and families form societies, we must know the kind of society we are building.