Western Dreams In Youths

In today's world, it seems that a large number of youths are drawn towards the Western world. Western culture has influenced today's generation in many respects. They romanticise the Western world as the ideal place to sustain their lives. What actually does western society have? "Romanticism towards the Western world" generally means the idealised perception of the people towards the Western world, where the positive aspects are exaggerated more while the negative aspects are suppressed. Many young people, especially from countries like Nepal, tend to see the grass greener on the other side and are too quick to idealise the Western world. 

But is seeing the West through rose-coloured glasses really a good sign for a country like Nepal?

If you ask the students about their future, most of their answers would be to fly off to the West and start a new life there. It's like their coping mechanism to fly off to the West in order to escape the reality of their present condition. According to the Economic Survey 2022/23, above 15 per cent of Nepal's population is below the absolute poverty line, which means these populations live below $1.90 a day. So, for people like them, it is quite obvious to idealise the Western world to escape the predicament that they are struggling with. 

They tend to perceive the Western world in the form of new hopes for opportunities and freedom.

There are a number of reasons why Nepali youths are scrambling abroad. Number one is their exposure to the idealised portrayal of the Western world. Today, the social media generation tends to live their "online life" more than their real life. Many youngsters are being exposed to things that are inappropriate for them. They don't know how to differentiate between right and wrong. The media has portrayed western life as the "ideal lifestyle." 

It is shown that people in the West live in big mansions and lavish homes, drive expensive cars, have huge celebrations for the smallest things, wear trendy clothes, and much more. This has created a fake impression about the Western world among youths today. They have glamorised the West as being free from problems like poverty, crime, and social inequality.

It seems that people are building castles in the air. They are in delusion, levitating in unrealistic fantasy about the Western world, which exists nowhere but only in their imagination. While busy romanticising the West, they tend to forget the hardships the people living there have to face. The West is a diverse and complex region with its own share of problems and challenges. 

The media has neglected to show the harsh reality of the Western world. They have failed to paint the full picture of the Western world, where they have only portrayed the positive aspects and not the negative aspects like social divisions, racial discrimination, gun violence, economic disparities, and mental health challenges.

In order to put a full stop to this, we all need to work together to acknowledge and address this issue. This false idealisation has already done much damage to this generation, and it is in our hands to put an end to it. Introducing media literacy education at schools can be the ice-breaking step in this situation. 

Students are the building blocks of the future, and teaching young minds at school about this situation will help to combat it. It can give them knowledge on how one can critically analyse the things portrayed by the media and break the idealistic stereotypes of the Western world. 

We must also motivate today's generation to broaden their perspective on burning topics like these and promote other sources of information, like books, rather than the media alone. 

In this regard, the government must also acknowledge this problem and help the youngsters solve it. If we all collectively work together, then we can definitely empower people by breaking the unrealistic fantasy and romanticism of people towards the Western world and building a more realistic and original perspective about it among people.

Grade: XII 

St. Mary's Higher Secondary School 

Jawalakhel, Lalitpur