Desk
Share
Between tween and teen, beware when the clock hits 13. On one side, the child eager to age while underneath is the child deeming protection from their own innocence. A portal can open to the unknown, into slippery online alleys, where connecting with the faceless and nameless seems more simple than confronting the real world. Today's adolescents grapple with dangers that the former generation could neither fathom nor shield them from. That's precisely why a recent four-part web docuseries has caused headlines.
With 'Adolescence', Netflix found yet another opportunity to consolidate its waning brand image and made that single word go viral around the globe. The series is a marvel which became the coffee– house conversation phenomenon because it’s voice bang on the throbbing pulse of society. The dark web, misogyny, domestic circumstances, rage of youth, and having the freedom to access anywhere all the time just by plugging in… The scary world isn't just out there, it's right inside - a ticking bomb detonating within a PC or phone.
The series has received approval from both viewers and critics, with appreciation towards the telling of the events and the subtle hints that are only noticed after the fact. Now and then a novel or a movie comes along to serve as a wake up call to stop pretending nothing is wrong and that children are perfectly fine, like the film "Mass" and the book "We Need to Talk About Kevin." These works not only bring forth a traumatized adolescent, which is the product of his violent past, but also brings forth and introduces parents who are devastated by their own self loathing, regret, and endless search for answers lost in time. The moment and point where it started to all go wrong, the moment where everything could have been salvaged, the moment that now will never come back.
Novelist Madhavi Mahadevan states: “The film (‘Adolescence’) makes viewers understand how parents, on particular occasions, are clueless about the children and the heavily personalized “reality” that they live in. Reality private due to social media content. What goes on in a child's life has become more difficult to know.” Harvey Dessouki Gen Alpha is an inscrutable lot which parents and grand parents find difficult to understand, totally ignoring what their predecessors struggled their whole life to understand. They are the first generation who are digitally exposed, denizens of this new cyber world where alarming practices change from bullying in the school to peeing on the camera. In the middle of working hard to establish themselves and focus on their careers during midlife parents, sad to say, don’t realize what their teenage depressed looking child is doing other than being content with their presence at home as some disguised version of good behavior. It was not until 'Adolescence' that people started removing the mask to reveal the pulse of a young aging people who, while youthful in years, they sit on the edge of a drastic life change.
Reena Puri, executive editor at Amar Chitra Katha says: “Today’s youth have never been more lost than they are today.” Puri feels adolescence includes everything we were afraid to encounter: the damaging impact of social media combined with an unrelenting world on extremely fragile adults. The painful chasm between “My daughter and I are best friends” to My reality. A reality that confronted me after I posed the question to my teenage son, “What do you think I know about your life?” He chuckled and replied, “20 percent, Ma.”
The boast that the series is filmed in one shot which, without a doubt, ‘over’-taxed the crew and cast, becomes purely a craft issue rather than against the content. For most viewers, it has been the idea and not the execution and that has caused the breath, although it must be said that the stringency and urgency of a live hour is expressed with a camera continuum.
The conflict of innocence and guilt with the boy’s arrest, a child psychologist attempting not to flinch from a marriage’s impact, a sibling’s after confusion…It sheds light to the fact that the later scenes are influenced by the first file in case which has a wider impact. The last remains silently in the viewers bloodstreams.
As shared by Dr Neena Verma: “The presentation of children getting entrapped in the malevolent world of the internet in ‘Adolescence’ is jolting and deeply disheartening” Dr Verma explains how “Adolescence is an intricate life stage that is still ‘in the process of being developed’ as well as fragile at the same time. It is actually the phase that is left behind when one is no longer a kid but is also not ready for sexual activities. External influences can create strong impressions while children act unwillingly towards authority figures such as parents and teachers.” A performance coach specializing in grief and writing, Dr Verma states, “Parenting with authority is far better than being ‘cool’ parents. It is important to the same degree as following the third episode, and ‘know the understanding’ your children have regarding adulting, sexuality, and masculinite. Be prepared to illustrate sound psychological and behavioral disorders and restrict internet use (yours too) to reasonable limits.”
Always and forever bound to a male figure was anger, and in times feminism on the rise, toxic masculinity is really struggling at this time. In India, a girl’s so called crime of rejection has caused acid attacks, and here the plot is driven by her “I am not that desperate” retort to Jamie (Owen Cooper) who only wants to take a chance on a date out of sheer ingratitude for assuming he has any chance during her weak phase. The series has ignited conversations about male rage, its
under current torrents and currents.
With hypermasculinity being aggressed in rivalry, “neon lit” doesn’t even begin to describe what perceiving it feels like. And those who seem to be ignorant of what their puberty was, there appears to always reside this aspect of being vengeful looming over the other gender.
In the recent years, the term weaponized youth has taken a different shape. The pacifists seem to have their murderers masked behind their violent romance as wimps. There exist two “Jaimies”. One finds solace in chewing out on his fingers and thus, whimpering, the other is fearing to be face caught in CCTV.
The struggle is one born from the distortions of public perception altered by the complexities of private relationships. It is indeed a tragedy that has exposed itself with such little quantifiable frankness in Adolescence which has managed to terrify the world. When his father says, “They have two children but just one child is at home,” while staring lovingly at his daughter full of gratitude, dilutes the rational of the two daughters and a son that has been bestowed upon them.
Read More: Sunny Deol's 'Jaat' to Release on April 10; Urvashi Rautela Shines in New Song 'Touch Kiya'
--Advertisement--
