Ever since humans are born, the civilization’s great power—the youth—are always worrying about development. Development varies from the one of now and the one of the future, and such variety shows us how the focus on development evolves through time to time.
First, date back to our ancestors’ time, the top worry hanged over sapiens’ head was whether the crops were to lead to a good harvest. In order not to get starved, every single man was forced to consider about his own living—in another word, development, and sometimes his families’. They were yet to have a sense of time and did not know what the future is. They worried about the development of crops, thus they refused to live without handy tools like animals. They created useful tools, beginning to worry about how to fix and preserve them. They created tribe to achieve more and accelerate development, worrying whether someone is to steal the food from them. Worries produce worries. Civilization evolves alongside the tiny yet big anxiety within almost every youths’ mind. The men work harder and harder, feeling the procession is never enough, then they began to worry about the future.
Thanks for the appearance of time, men could leap ahead of themselves and plan for the future, an invisible ghost. They tended to worry what to eat the next weekend rather than focusing on the now and enjoy the meal. Another thanks to the creation of watch, people could sense time wherever they went and were somehow tied to the work, external world, development. They did not have much time to sit back and rejoice or even to think about their inner world. Since there were no time left for one to be alone, mental problems emerge. Back to the ancient time, there were few antiques indicating humans’ mental illnesses. However, in the 19th century, industrialization and population growth led to a massive expansion of the number and size of insane asylums in every Western country. It is not a wonder for such illnesses to emerge due to the high stress people were dealing with in the competitive society. What are they competing for? Self-development for sure. They want to get higher levels, more money, abundant resources. All these branches of worry could be listed under one huge trunk: Development of future.
Now, bring the topic back to the contemporary society, we could easily find out that the problem is not eased. We seem to be more worrying about development even for the development has been made, we seem to have more mental problems as the evolution of society proceeds. Feeling compelled to work harder since there are much more people who are working much harder than him, one has to keep the fast pace in order not to be left behind in this life-long game. He always thinks that it is not enough, his knowledge is not enough to be competitive, his abilities are not appealing to companies, he is afraid of the future and much afraid that there is no future for him… As these things keep adding up, one becomes miserable and anxious. These things contribute to building the present social atmosphere, and social atmosphere contributes to mental health thus create new lifestyles.
A lifestyle called Buddhism is popular among post-90s recently. The Buddhism lifestyle claims that one shall neither worry about his future nor his development because everything will be in place at the right time, we should all follow the Great Flow of life. The ones who believe in the lifestyle tend to be less energetic and would not strive for his own life. Some may say that it is the very indication that youths are not worrying about their future, but I would say that it is not that they do not worry, it is that they are over-stressed and the Buddhism is merely an alternative way out. They over-focused on the Development, hence problems occur.
As the technology advances quickly, youths are facing even more severe development problem than ever. Since artificial Intelligence is threatening labor force, people now have another powerful competitor. Yet, big companies like Baidu have already made announcements that they will not recruit fresh graduates. With background of such things set in the society, I believe that youths are to continuously worry about how to strive valiantly, about, about how to make great development.